Center Parcs Park De Haan

“A great holiday all round”

We are currently staying at de haan and I wanted to write my review now after reading some of the more recent negative reviews. We arrived on Monday lunchtime after a very easy drive from the ferry at Dunkirk. The staff were very welcoming and gave us all the info we needed to start our stay. We h… more

We are currently staying at de haan and I wanted to write my review now after reading some of the more recent negative reviews. We arrived on Monday lunchtime after a very easy drive from the ferry at Dunkirk. The staff were very welcoming and gave us all the info we needed to start our stay. We have an electric car so found the chargers quickly and very easy to use. We are a family of 6 4 generations, great grandparents, grandparents, mummy and daddy plus our little 2 year old grandson. We have a premium cottage no 625, a super quick 5 min walk from the dome. Cosy, clean and everything we need. One very slight negative the upstairs rooms do get warm and the windows (for safety reason) don’t open to far. This is a smaller centre parcs compared to others in holland and uk we have visited but still loads to do, alpaca walking today, small animal farm (baby pigmy goats !) and amazing huge indoor soft play plus all the usual stuff. Pool is smaller but couple fun slides and great rapids. Changing areas clean and all staff really helpful. Main dome has various places to eat frikadellen and frites with mayo took me back to my youth when my parents were in the RAF. We chose to cook in our chalet, de Haan has a couple small supermarkets Aldi and Ok very close to the parc. Overall I would highly recommend de haan. Far far better value than uk, Monday to Saturday with ferry travel 2 cars £1300 !

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“Centre Parcs - De Haan”

De Haan is an ideal location, for the beach, to Wendiune, Neumunster, Oostende and other places of interest; Bruges being 30 minute car drive away. The atmosphere of De Haan camp is lively - in certain areas can be relaxingly quiet, like the farm at certain times, while others not so - like the p… more

De Haan is an ideal location, for the beach, to Wendiune, Neumunster, Oostende and other places of interest; Bruges being 30 minute car drive away. The atmosphere of De Haan camp is lively - in certain areas can be relaxingly quiet, like the farm at certain times, while others not so - like the pool areas. Since they relocated the family entertainment night, it appears to have made the restaurants and bar areas deadly quiet. Whereas in the past, it use to have a lively, vibrant atmosphere most nights it is like sitting in an undertakers lounge. Be aware that when participating within the quizzes, English is the 3rd / 4th language used. Good luck to winning. Villa rooms / accommodation what passes for budget / comfort / premium in the UK, may mean something else at Centre Parc De Haan. Where furnishing could be assisted by a deep clean to remove some of the greasy worn marks, and other stains. Billy basic accommodation, good for at least four / five days holiday stay before your body highlights otherwise; it's uncomfortable... Public bathrooms are regularly cleaned and maintained. Value for money - yes and no. On site shop pricey, restaurant(s) over priced for what is available. lf going for a meal, take your own bottle(s) of water - it will significantly reduce your bill. Crazy golf, crazy football, children's jeep safari, e-bikes, bikes, scooter, 4 / 2 - person bikes are an extra cost, (similar to golf-buggies) buggy. Though these can pre-book online, however.... lf working from a budget, you CANNOT pre-order bike helmets, bike baskets (for not e-bikes users), battery chargers (often staff cannot tell you if you have a fully charged battery or not for your e-bike... Hence, you MIGHT need to HIRE a charger; good little money earner there - as you MAY not need to use the charger that you have paid extra for during your stay!!!). Which, when working from a budget is an ADDITIONAL cost, that is greeted by slopping shoulders from the bike hire staff at the point of collection... Oh, RE: Buggies, they are usually all hired out before hand... So, be quick. Wristbands provide independence, though every member of your group has access to the account. You do not have individual sub accounts, all members share the same account and can see the available balance of account. You can upload these wristbands and use them on-site shop / restaurants / café / activities / open access to your villa / swimming / other. Cleanliness, onsite bathrooms in public areas are well maintained though not enough of them located throughout the main facility. Restaurants are clean and tidy, you do not often see littered tables, or discarded food on lying on the floor. Though this does not deter the flies. There are communal bin areas throughout the camp, for various selection of rubbish items. Villa(s), like previously highlighted could do with deep clean. Surrounding shrubs could be better maintained for accessibility, and to let more light into the villa(s). Otherwise, OK-ish. l mean this as over the years at many of these European holiday parks, standards can and do vary quite a lot... Noise level passable. However, you do at times have inconsiderate dog owners on holiday /neighbouring villa(s) that feel it is acceptable to leave their dog alone, for the majority of the day in their villa barking for their owner's return. lt is not the dogs fault, owner's should recognise the impact of their inconsideration towards other holiday makers trying to have a relaxing / peaceful time; but due to the noise pollution from their villa, this is not always possible. Centre Parc do have a WatsAp help number, that can be used for issues. Though sometimes, you feel the staff are also on holiday with the pace at which issues similar to this are managed. Customer service can be approached for most things / questions / assistance, and some are attentive, polite and approachable. Mobility parking is available, though they are limited throughout the camp. Enjoy your stay.

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“Good value for center parcs but you get what you pay for”

We had a premium cottage which was decent but let down by the stair case (which is very unsafe for toddlers), the inability to open windows (due to restrictive child locks), and a lack of very basic amenities (no hand soap, bath mat, oil, or salt and pepper). Bedrooms were fine, but did not have en… more

We had a premium cottage which was decent but let down by the stair case (which is very unsafe for toddlers), the inability to open windows (due to restrictive child locks), and a lack of very basic amenities (no hand soap, bath mat, oil, or salt and pepper). Bedrooms were fine, but did not have enough wardrobe space. Also there was not enough cupboard space downstairs to store food, very small freezer space, and a lack of utensils (eg. wooden spoons, tongs etc). The floor of the bathroom also wasn’t on a slant so once it got wet, it remained so for the rest of the week. The cottages also weren’t the cleanest (lots of spider webs and dead flies) and are definitely pretty dated. The garden space is good and we enjoyed having the bbq. Swimming pool - good facilities, lots of options for children, including younger ones. Individual changing cubicles are very small but the one large family changing room was a useful addition. We found it strange that none of the food/coffee places round the pools opened until 12pm - it would’ve been nice to get a drink earlier than that. It’s also a personal gripe that they don’t refill water bottles and make you buy them - not only is this not environmentally friendly but is just a pain (though this does seem to be a Belgian thing!) Activities - children enjoyed the swimming and seeing the animals in the farm, and also loved the soft play area which is enormous. The mini jeep racing cars and carousel were a firm favourite (though these had to be paid for separately using a “play card” which costs extra money depending on how many credits you choose to buy). Our group also really enjoyed a bowling session in the only air conditioned bar in the whole complex! None of the cottages or communal areas (swimming pools or soft play) are air conditioned which was unfortunate especially given the week we were there it was 35 degrees C most of the week. The windows in the cottages had child-locks on them which meant they could only be cracked open which quite frankly led to unsafe sleeping temperatures as the top floor of the cottages was insanely hot. I wouldn’t recommend going during a heatwave if you can help it. The customer services were pretty good, we had an issue with the baby stair gate on Day 1 and it was sorted within 2 hrs of reporting it and the reception staff were also very good at settling down a nearby cottage who were being extremely loud into the early hours of the morning. We spent one day in Bruges, a morning on the beach, and also went into de haan for a couple of dinners so it was lovely having the ability to do all of that whilst also having the center parcs activities available to us. Overall, we had a very enjoyable week at center parcs de haan, mainly due to the swimming facilities and the ease of being able to go off site for other things, but the cottages did have some glaring omissions and they definitely need to consider installing air con asap! We would likely go back as the price is attractive and we would have more knowledge about what to bring next time but we would probably go even further out of summer so as not to risk hitting those temperatures.

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