Center Parcs Les Ardennes

Dirty chalets, bird poo covered garden furniture, stained interior furniture (which is also garden furniture), rip-off 'activities', horrible food (unless you bring your own) and neighbours who decided to use their BBQ to light a fire from wood collected from the surrounding trees - filling the area with thick pine smoke. The entire resort lacks any real woodland - presumably as they have packed as many chalets in as possible. The 'Aquamundo' water complex is shabby, even by Centerparc standards. Cramped, lacking in facilities etc. The lazy river is more of a lazy circle, orbiting a dribbling mushroom. One flume, one slide and a couple of dangerous slippery slopes that we watched a succession of customers flying down and smashing into other pool users. Almost every villa's occupants ignored the prohibition on cars driving around - choosing instead to park by their chalet. The restaurants (if they were open - many were not) were awful. All-in-all an expensive way to spend a weekend in a beautiful part of the country without seeing any of that beauty unless you're prepared to leave the park. The last time I went to a centerparcs was 8 years ago in the UK. I should have learned my lesson

I would have given 5 stars due to the experience for kids, however we were not able to use the barbeque as there were some construction works at our chimney and barbeque. We also requested a baby bed, but this came without a mattress. I did bring my own sheets, but mattress no. All the rest were perfectly fine, as you have everything you need in the cottage, and also a supermarket. The activities are quite pleasant for children up to 12-13 years old. We enjoyed our stay!

Beds were uncomfortable and the stairs in the cottage are dangerous. They are really slippery and my wife fell down the stairs on the 2nd day. She couldn't do any of the activities for the rest of the week, and had massive bruising all over her back. Will be going to the doctors as it's likely she might have broken something. UK visitors, be prepared to spend a lot more money on food/drink and in the shop. You also cannot download the parc app as a UK resident, where you book activities and meals. Instead you have to use the My Center Parcs website, which I found problematic, but generally worked. The staff however were excellent, and the swimming pool, food and activities all great quality.

The good: cottage is a nice size. Area is beautiful. T he pool is nice, I prefer small areas so you can keep an eye on the kids. The dressing rooms were clean. Lifeguards were good. Playground inside and outside were great. The bad: The toilet in the cottage had an overwhelming urine scent. I tried cleaning it myself but it seems ingrained or something! Horrible. It’s also located right by the front door and freezing cold. Tiny and no ventilation… dull lighting and they only give you half of a toilet paper roll. Cars aren’t allowed inside the park so be prepared to do some serious walking, climbing and stairs. It’s not well lighted at night either. Though supposedly car free, it constantly has cars driving around though. We felt like we were missing something. Staff, it’s hit or miss. Mostly miss. The waiters in the restaurants need some serious training. They purposely didn’t make eye contact and when you ask for drinks, you’ll be lucky if you receive them before you finish your food. Seriously slow service. The check in is a mandatory online thing, and when you reach the boom you’ll get the keys and a brief superfast explanation. Do NOT be fooled into believing what their website says, that you can come at any time and if you’re there before the 3pm check in time, you can leave your luggage in your cottage and go explore. Not happening, the boom doesn’t open for cars before 3pm and your key won’t work either to get inside the cottage… Heating in the cottage is horrible, it switched off constantly and 2 didn’t even work. Fireplace is under so-called renovation and therefore unable to use. But I’ve read this same thing in reviews from march 2022. One restaurant, the milkshake machine was out of order. By the indoor playground the machine for hot drinks (coffee, tea and hot chocolate) was out of order. You have to make reservations at every restaurant (except the one in the pool), which is really annoying. No winging it while relaxing. Time bound you are. This was our first experience with centerparcs, but we won’t book this particular one again. It’s very confusing to navigate.

Definitely overrated .. we had a villa for 8 people .. it was really dark inside .. depressing.. lots of walls and very small windows .. kitchen is under-equipped .. pillows are really bad.. The pool experience was not bad. Paid activities are really overpriced. We had a much better experience at several of the Landal chain.