Holiday Reports
| NEWS | |  | | | | | AFC WIMBLEDON | | | CRYSTAL PALACE NEWS | | | COMPETITIONS | | | | | | ON THIS DAY | | | BIZARRE LONDON | | | | |
|
|
|
Butlins Bognor: Non-stop family fun
 |
| There is no end to the fun on offer at Butlins |
IT IS a commonly held stereotype that Bognor Regis is an outdated, run-down seaside town, one of a dying breed, mocked for its heritage at every opportunity.
Another common misconception is that Butlins - Bognor's dominant tourism attraction - is stuck in the knobbly knee, glamorous granny, Hi-de-Hi era.
Anyone who thinks either of these fallacies is true has clearly never visited.
I'll start with Butlins because this was where I was based during my four-day stay in sunny Bognor.
Butlins has not just evolved from its days of being a cliched holiday camp - it has been transformed.
It has been transformed into a modern holiday resort with a choice of accommodation and a vast array of options for how to spend your days.
You can stay in a self-catering apartment (the word chalet has been banished) if you want to but for the more discerning visitor the Shoreline Hotel is the place to stay.
The hotel opened last year and I was pleased to be able to visit within the first couple of weeks with my wife and young daughter. I had serious reservations beforehand - running a quality hotel was completely new territory for Butlins - would the company be able to pull it off? But I was very pleasantly surprised and couldn't help but think extremely favourably of my stay.
 |
| The superb Shoreline Hotel |
When I returned this summer I was interested to see how the hotel had developed during its first year in operation. If anything, the hotel has got even better.
The quality of the rooms - top-notch. The quality of the service provided in the hotel - first-rate.
Not that the intention is to spend very much time in your room while you are there anyway, the bedrooms are still bright, spacious and offer everything you need for your stay. Kids having their own sleeping area is a particular plus point.
The staff in the hotel were always helpful and polite. The best hospitality I have ever received has been when I have visited the United States. For various reasons, I don't think Britain will ever come close to matching the service and courtesy shown by Stateside tourism workers, but the Shoreline Hotel is the closest thing to it I have found in this country.
Elsewhere in Butlins, the entertainment which is laid on, while slightly cheesy at times, at still very good.
The Butlins slogan is "kids love it" - and my daughter certainly did. She loved being in the presence of Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, Pingu and the various other characters, while she was besotted with the Skyline Gang - a colourful troupe of singers-cum-dancers and generally all-round performers who put on a couple of shows each day to entertain the youngsters ... and (though I say it very quietly through gritted teeth) the adults too!
The famous Redcoats are still at Butlins - very friendly as you would expect and great with the kids.
The indoor Skyline Pavilion (basically a mini version of the Millennium Dome) provides the setting for most of the fun, and is also home to many of the on-site shops and eating places. Should the British weather turn a bit, well, British, the Skyline is the perfect place to be.
Variety shows and concerts are held in the Centre Stage theatre - Simon Webbe, formerly of boyband Blue, was the big attraction while we were there.
There are plenty of sporting activities on offer at Butlins, and the Splashworld swimming pool is a great place to play should the British weather get too hot.
Butlins is a fantastic place for children as everything is geared towards family fun. There is an almost endless mix of things for youngsters to do, small children and older ones - let's face it, Butlins is all about kids - but there is plenty to keep adults entertained too, including the evening shows, bars and nightclubs.
If I had to any gripes with Butlins then these would be:
Smoking being allowed inside the Skyline dome. I don't see the point of banning it in the hotel rooms only to allow it in a space full of children.
Many of the amusements are free, including rides for smaller children, but there is an awful lot of slot machines and expensive arcade machines which presumably make a lot of money from older kids.
The choice of food available, while slightly better than last year, remains very limited - not a whole lot of options if you don't like fast or mass-produced food.
Beware if you are a light sleeper - there was of quite a lot of noise late at night in the hotel, particularly from kids shouting as they thundered up and down the corridors.
Away from Butlins, I would still recommend spending some time in Bognor itself. Rather than being a dying dinosaur of a town, Bognor still maintains a certain charm, to me at least.
Yes, it does still have all the traditional seaside trappings of a long promenade, deckchairs, beach kiosks, amusement arcades, the pier - but then in this heady, hi-tech world, what's wrong with a little bit of tradition?
Far from being a ghost town or akin to God's waiting room (despite its pensioner population), Bognor still has a certain level of vibrancy to it, at least around the seafront area.
The beach is lovely and clean, and is a wonderful place to be on a sunny day - gentle breeze, waves lapping against the shore, kids playing.
Bognor will never, ever be thought of as glamorous in any way, despite its royal connections, but it is a classic seaside town, and I love it for being just that.
Shopping is very limited in Bognor, but a few miles down the road is Chichester, the cultural centre of West Sussex, which offers a much better retail experience.
Also within easy reach are Brighton, Arundel, Littlehampton and Portsmouth. Bognor is the ideal base for spending a few days on the south coast.
I would recommend a visit to Bognor and a stay at Butlins to anyone - but especially people with young children. If you have lively toddlers or excitable infants and do not fancy a long flight out of the country, Butlins is the ideal place to go.
In fact, with everything on offer in Butlins and Bognor, why would you even want to leave this country?
Leave your snobbery at home and try it for yourself.
Shoreline prices
During school holidays £33 per person per night based on a family of four (two adults and two children aged two to 14 years) sharing a Hook's Cabin on a three-night break. This is on a room-only basis but includes Butlins Experience passes. To book a Shoreline break call 0870 998 2266 or visit theshorelinehotel.com
School holiday entertainment
This summer there are footballers and samba dancers from Brazil, acrobats and limbo dancers from Kenya and street performers from the USA.
UK Team Extreme, with top stars from skateboarding, BMXing and rollerblading, will be giving interactive coaching. Also, meet Titan, a gigantic 10ft robot.
More futuristic wonders happen 40ft up in the huge Skyline Pavilion, where Hard Drive, a futuristic aerial show brings to life the story of the feuding Nomads and Neons.
Rentaghost, the cult TV series written by Joe Pasquale, is packed with comedy.
The X-Factor comes to the resort with stars Chico, Nicholas, Brenda and Journey South live on stage. One Big Night is extravaganza full of song, dance, acrobatics and illusion, and Remember When takes you through five decades of music, fashion and news.
For toddlers, Bob the Builder teaches all about recycling in his interactive show at Bob's Yard.
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
