This was our second stay in Elveden, this time we stayed at the Lakeview Hotel. Unlike other locations, Elveden does not offer self-catering apartments, hence, if there are only two of you travelling your only option are the hotel rooms, which only have a small fridge (with ice compartment) and tea and coffee facilities. Don't be automatically put off by this, as there is ample space to store your dry goods, as well as at least an extra power point. Also Sainsburys and Lidl are less than 5 minutes away by car (about 20 minutes by bike) on the A11 towards Thetford, and Tesco Extra is about 15 minutes away in the same direction. The Parc Market is not excessively priced either and can offer some real gems. This means that you will still be able to self-cater instead of having to use the expensive eateries within the grounds. The rooms are spacious and very comfortable, however they could benefit from a deep clean, as unfortunately this is the usual weak point of all of the Center Parcs we have visited, hence we always bring along cleaning supplies and clean up worktops, crockery and the bathroom as soon as we arrive (the cleaning staff are very friendly and helpful, we can only conclude that they are not given enough time between customers to clean the rooms thoroughly). We loved the all-glass window and patio doors opening into the spacious balcony which overlooks the hotel grounds and the lake - it is very peaceful and there is a lot of wildlife right there: mallards, coots, moorhens, jays, crows, magpies, blue and long tailedtits, squirrels and rabbits are regulars. Deer also come over here on occasion. The hotel rooms were very peaceful and quiet throughout our stay. The grounds are very suited to walks and biking, and it is not difficult to find tranquil corners. We were told that it should be possible to access the woods to go for bike rides, but we found that the first few entries nearest to the complex were not accessible to the public due to forestry work. It would be really helpful if Center Parcs could provide routes for bikers. We normally love Aqua Sana, but unfortunately we found, for the second time since last January (when we paid £75 for two including a chocolate treat), that the entry prices were far too high (£99 for two, day entry only) and therefore once again did not visit this facility. On this occasion, we also did not visit the Tropical Dome, but on our previous visit in January we had found this to be very good - the rapids, the various slides and the Cyclone were all very good. All in all, this is a great place to relax, unwind and hide from the rest of the world for a while.

Well I have been going too since 1992. I do not have much choice as the family out vote me on the subject. When it was run by the Dutch company founders, it had a very good ethos. The large cross in the centre of the PARC and the church, with the small religious statues implanted in the trees, gave everyone a moment to think about life. New companies have taken it over and the religious apparel has been removed. I have been to this Parc around 28 times, and it has NOT gone without its faults. CLEANING and the Villa accommodation seem to be their biggest issue. On one occasion the floor flooded to the Villa and the carpets stank with damp, I reported it and they acted as though one should wait until it was dry. I remonstrated the point and they moved us. There was another time when the roof looked right over the top of our bed and we got a wash while we were asleep. When I reported it I got much of the same as you usually get with Guest Services. Last year the villa was filthy 40 Cigarette ends outside in the patio area and there were repairs that had not been touched, from when I reported them three years before that, in the same villa. I told head office in a formal complaint along with other issues such as very rude staff in one of the restaurants. I got a very cheap bottle of wine and a small box of chocolates for the inconvenience They really push the boat out. This year same time same villa, still not clean, the sofa looked like it had half a coach load of world cup supporters sleeping on it, along with the beer and damp stains. The corners of the patio door windows look like something out of a cheap bedsit hotel. I do not understand what part of the word CLEAN they do not correlate here. There is a very dangerous piece of laminate coming away from one of the cupboards in the kitchen. Which could catch on an eye/face if you are at the right height or cut ones hand, I am surprised no one's been injured. Thank the lord The windows all 8 of them were filthy cobwebs and bird excreta stains on them. The reception lady at Guest Services, by the way who was the rudest I have spoken to in 28 visits, claimed that It could have been done overnight, they went on to state it does gather together in a day. A cleaning team arrived and they windows looked fabulous and stayed like that for 2 1/2 days. The only problem was that the team missed two windows out of the 8. I have stayed in virtually all types of villa accommodation including the new 4 bedroom Ash with Pool Room and outdoor Sauna, they all seem to suffer badly from continued use. For some reason this company appears not able to keep up with turnaround refurbishments with the villas, there is a logistical problem here. There are issues at this Parc and especially with the villas. However on a positive note I must say the central part of the Parc including the Plaza, was Superlative in its condition and appearance. However, it is not commensurate with the state of the villas. The fridges/freezers at the Parc Supermarket broke down, so all week we had to shop elsewhere. That was good fun, driving on the new road to Sainsburys in Thetford. One of the staff told me that they no longer had deliveries of the Long Life patisseries in the central bay near the ice cream fridge, this was a sad loss of food purchase as it used to provide very good cakes in that section. I don't know what was in the water this week, but some of the staff were extremely unfriendly bordering on quite rude. There is an issue with the staff who are in the Tregus run restaurants on the site. If you attempt to make complaints to Head Office about staff at any of the facilities run by Tregus, they will inform you that it is no longer within Centerparcs' jurisdiction as these restaurants have been franchised out. I think Center Parc have a reporting mechanism to communicate with Tregus management and there appears to be some liaison between Tregus and Center Parc in various issues of this matter. I was told that the Tragus staff do not comply with the D.E.S. service standards that is guaranteed and delivered by Center Parc staff, even though on occasions some Center Parc staff appeared to have forgotten what Delivering Excellent Service should be. Tregus appear to have their own formula for staff deportment and training that seems to be worlds apart from the Center Parc ethos. The remark by some Center Parc staff “The others are allowed to get away with more” appears to be a poignant one to which I can agree with. The Blackstone group who own the Center Parc group and Tregus do not appear to be running these businesses in kilter with each other. I have said this to Parc management and Head Office; this is a very expensive way or methodology for a customer to be disappointed. £650 for a 4 night stay in a 2 bedroom villa to me is a lot of money. The whole 4 day stay in total costs well over £1000 after other expenses. I used to go in the cheaper weeks in December which amounted to nearly half the costs. The following week to me the cost is even more at the start of the school holidays. The company really need to take notice of the issues, before it turns the parks into a pastiche of the holiday camps we are all too familiar with from the days of 1960.

First of this, this is our 4th visit to this place and before now its been fantastic. A great friendly place until things goes wrong. There where 5 of us in our party (1 baby, 1 young child, 1 OAP, 2 healthy Adults). One night we decided to have use the take out service for Pizza (Dining out). Only the 2 Adults. 5-6 hours later, we are burping egg, stomach cramps, my wife was vomiting and we both have explosive runs. This was the only meal that we had that the others had not. In the morning after poor sleep, we reported it to Center Parc, They said they would investigate and gave us a refund (nice food poisoning for free). We had to do samples for the medical center and where told to stay away from everyone for 2 days (nice pay lots of money to be told to stay in villa). My wife got it a lot worse and it ruined 2 days of our holiday. None of the others got it. We where told from Center parcs that they would get back to us within 3 days and seemed to be taking it seriously (ish) but kept saying they have only had food poisoning twice and so its probably viral. After a week of hearing nothing I tried chasing up center parcs which was like banging your head against a wall. Finally after posting about them on twitter, we where told the samples where negative and so they take no responsibility for being ill and basically off you go. We even got a letter a few days later with the completely wrong date on, reinforcing that they wont do anything about it. So, I will let you people decide, illness for 2 days, no updates until we write about it on twitter, letters with wrong dates on, no sorry for wasting our time, being ill etc. It seems center parcs is a great place until something goes wrong, then its off you go, we don't care your recurring customer!

This is one typical British park that everyone's heard of. We've been there in December 2013 and although it was cold, we really enjoyed it. It's an amazing piece of real life nature and you simply have to visit it. It's definitely worth a trip over with your family, you won't regret it.

We've considered going to Center Parcs for a long time but never made the plunge - mainly because I can't stand really busy, noisy places where you have to queue for everything - not something I wanted for a holiday. I was very pleasantly surprised. They've clearly thought things through very well. The villas, although they are in a 'terrace' feel really private because when you look out the back patio doors all you can see are trees and wildlife and there's enough space at the front of the villa not to feel like you're in the middle of a holiday park. The fact that it is all encapsulated in a massive forest really helps to feel open and free rather than on top of people and claustrophobic. I'd definitely recommend booking a few things before you go - the choice is utterly overwhelming. We booked 4 or 5 things to do over 4 days and then when we got there we booked a load more. We have two young kids and they were both thoroughly entertained pretty much every minute of the stay. They loved it. Prices within the center weren't horrendous - they haven't followed the motto of pile people in then charge them vast sums as you have a captive audience. They really seem to want to impress and to have people come back - makes sense but so many places don't have this attitude. I read a few reviews about rude staff - our experience was quite the opposite. We must have communicated with maybe 50 members of staff over the 4 days (we did a lot of activities!) and without every single one seemed very happy in their job, to care about customers and to generally be helpful and knowledgeable. I don't know how they do it. In the hospitality sector you generally pay low wages and get what you get - which is often grumpy non-customer focused staff. Center Parcs was a revelation - the staff really helped to make it a great stay. My only gripe - and the reason I've marked it down as 4 stars not 5 - is cleanliness. Our villa was poorly maintained and poorly cleaned. The sofas gave off a cloud of dust when you sat on them, I wouldn't want to venture under the beds for too long and generally you keep finding hairs and dirt that you know wasn't left by you - yuck. A real shame as you'd have thought this would have been one of the easiest things to resolve - but our villa was grubby and generally felt like it needed a bit of a revamp - eg the patio doors were rusty and looked like they'd seen better days. This is enough to mark down Center Parcs in my view - as my wife's first comment wasn't "wow this is amazing" but was "Ok - should I spend the next hour giving this place a clean?" Not the reaction you're looking for on holiday. This aside, I'd definitely recommend Center Parcs - especially if you have kids, they will love it. We will definitely go again - I'm really hoping they've sorted out their cleaning by then though

Me n my family had an amazing time there was plenty to do for children and adults. I would defiantly recommend the teddy bears picnic for little ones. The bike hire is really good too. We will defiantly be booking up again. My little girl loved waking up to deer, squirrels, and du is right outside the door overall was an excellent holiday. The staff were brilliant and very friendly everywhere we went. The swimming pool was great fun.