Saoirses first holiday! - Center Parcs, Longleat

---

"Saoirses first holiday!"




Day 1. Monday

All packed on Sunday and ready for today's travel day from Sussex to Wiltshire, the road trip looks clear and we made pretty good time with only one stop off at a very retro service's called the Hillside Cafe, if you ever want to feel like you've gone back in time to a simpler time, let's say the 1980's, then this is the time warp you have been looking for!

On arrival, it's a pretty painless check in queue to get into the mighty Center Parc's woodland retreat and to kick off our week of rejuvenation, we get a Starbucks ginger shot and a coffee to wake us up in the Plaza before we do get on the hunt for some food.

It’s a transition day here at Center Parcs on a Monday and you can’t get into the lodge's till 4pm in the afternoon, with that in mind we decide to chill-out and miss the mad dash of holiday'goers that form a huge queue to get to the lodges from 4-4:30, pro-tip: wait till 4:30 before heading to your lodge to avoid any queuing.

Center Parcs seems to have somehow held on to some of the lost restaurants from the UK high streets, Belle Italia, Las Iguanas and Café Rouge, so, we feel fancy and head into Café rouge for a few beers and... Ceaser salads for both of us, rock & roll! Not to be too healthy, we make sure we followed up with some ice creams from the sweet store opposite, big kids, we know! I head to the car whilst the duo take a leisurely stroll to lodge 562 in Fir. Car unpacked in record time and I’m also the first to the ranch… it turns out that Helen and Saoirse had got a little lost, but did get to see some deer's and rabbits on the way to the lodge.

We fancy a bit more leg stretching and a wonder through the park, so we head back to the car park to deposit the Jag for a 5 day rest and take a family meander through the forest before settling in for the night.

Day 2. Tuesday

The start of the itinerary kicks off with "fun pots with tots" by the Forester restaurant across from the lake and up the hill from our lodge over in the Fir area, on route we grab ginger shots again today. Looking at some of the displayed pottery, it looks like we have some competition from the other babies and toddlers! We get settled in at our painting station and let Saoirse chose the colours for the owl she chose, this is entertaining as she keeps pointing to number 27, which is a bold primary colour purple, when all the other colours are pastel, I'm not convinced she has made the right choice… so I give her a hand choosing colours so Helen can help her paint the owl.

Saoirse seemed to enjoy the pottery painting, lot's of colours and I did my best to tidy it up, even with number 27 going on the eyes… see what you think from the picture!

With the morning gone and stomachs a'rumbling, we head to the Pancake house around the corner for some much deserved deliciousness. Saoirse is taking a nap, so we have a bit of adult time to make our pancake choices… no shock, I go savory and super-size it with the Mexican pancake, which ended up been huge! Sweet for Helen, chocolate and ice cream pancake stack. For once, I couldn’t finish mine, it was mahussive!

In need of some movement to help the pancakes digest, we make slow and heavy amble to the Park supermarket to stock up on marshmallows & chocolate biscuit for some delish s'mores on the open fire tonight, nice!

But before fires and s'mores, we have a bit of woodland Adventure golf to partake in by the lake. We decided to keep Saoirse in the buggy as to not give either of us a disadvantage, although I did with the last glow balls crazy golf outing with Saoirse in her carrier on me… just saying! Any-who… Helen starts with a hole in one on a par 3, not a bad start…. For me, I manage a 7 on the same par 3, doh! From there on out, it doesn't get much better for me.. let’s just say that I didn’t win! High-fives for Helen!

Back to the lodge for some chill-out time to rest the legs and start the night-time routine, still reading "French Children Don't Throw Food", which has got some interesting tips on parenting, which hopefully we can adopt.

Day 3. Wednesday

An early rise in the ranch with Saoirse wide awake very early been a chatter box, early up and early out for a bit of daddy Daughter time, we drop Momma bear off at la aqua sauna for a massage, well deserved for being the best Mom ever! We head off for few walks around the lake to watch the zip line people from the end of the treetop rope walking with Saoirse in the ergo carrier, thanks Mom & Dad, she loves been front facing and getting to see the world from up-high. It's bright and sunny today, but a bit gusty, the weather, not me! We take shelter and grab a snack in the Sports Café, aka, the jardin de sports, I get me and Helen another ginger shot to keep the daily theme going and myself a coffee and bacon bap. No sooner had a scoffed that than it was time to meet up with a hopefully fully relaxed Helen.

Helen nice & chilled from the massage, if not a bit sore, it might take a few more session to recover from the arrival of the little one!

We decide to try out the tropical paradise swimming pool. It's as I remember but a bit lacking in areas specific to non-walking kids, which has never been anything I've had to consider before! We conclude that Saoirse might be a bit young for the kids pool with the crazy toddlers running around and splashing, so we take her into the big pool between the call of Tarzan for the wave machine, which she loves and has a good paddle around!

Another jam packed day so we head back through the forest to get some food and retire to the lodge. We decide to grab a drink and some food at the Forester, the buddha salad bowl looked pretty good, so we both go for it, it is really good and it's absolutely massive, some fun & games trying to pay as the card machines are having issues… finally sorted and we head back to chill at the lodge after a bit of a walk around the lake.

Saoirse to bed, fire on, hot fuzz (movie) on, mega marshmallows, chocolate and skewers at the ready… s'mores time baby!

Day 4. Thursday

Lazy morning in the lodge taking in the wildlife out the observation deck we made Saoirse for the back of the lodge, we get treated to: woodpeckers, deer, ducks, squirrels, robins and wader birds all kept Saoirse entertained. She even surprised us by rolling from front to back a few times, we think this is the first time, whoop whoop, another milestone nailed!

A late start and brunch is in order, we fancy a lake view breakfast at the Sports café and try to be as middle class as possible with avocado, sourdough toast and bacon, with another shot of ginger, again!

Booked in for a sensory class in the woodland for Saoirse, alas, Saoirse slept through the full hour, and she never sleeps that long in the afternoon, typical…

Today's big activity is Geocaching, we've not done this before and it sounds a lot like orienteering, should be fun. There are three teams in our slot and we are the only ones with a baby… let's see if we can win this thing! It's 8 way-points spread out across the Center Parcs estate with way-point one looking to be furthest away from the start, all the way back near the Plaza, off we trot with our buggy and Saoirse in her carrier on Helen to start the challenge… we quickly figure out that one of the other teams is in it to win it with no sight of them as we head off! I'm gifted the responsibility of GPS reader and way-point finder, which seems to work out quite well, we only get a little lost once and that's because we wanted to check out the UK's tallest redwood tree, which was, as you'd expect, pretty tall! After a nice bit of trekking around and ticking off the way-point clues for each location, we get to the last way-point by the aqua sauna and crack the code, which was the word "hedgehog", just in front of us was another team with a son of around 7 who legged it up the hill, convinced they were about to win… they came second, with us a minute behind in third, no one ever saw the team that came first, they must has ran the whole thing, but where's the fun in that! Really enjoyed geocaching and we think Saoirse enjoyed the different views and watching her parents dash about looking for stones with numbers on them.

Time for some sustenance for the Team, we fancy some food and we try Las Iguanas, but sadly the cashless system is down and they don't accept actual money anymore, which is a bit annoying as we are bit knackered and want some food and drink… we then try Hucks and that's closed due to the same, this cashless society thing isn't looking very good if it's reliant on network connectivity been 100% available... I think I'll stick to cash! We manage to get in at Café Rouge who can do the old card swipe process thankfully, a bit annoying as I had actually money on me, but they aren't allowed to accept it, very odd and hopefully not a sign of the future in the UK.

Back to the lodge to get our relax on and play a bit of chess, in a rare moment of brilliance, I win the game against the childhood chess club player, Helen, and even got a chance to teach her castling… sadly, I taught it incorrectly, apparently the king can’t have already moved and the rook and king need line of sight… doh!

Nigh time routing into action and Saoirse read to sleep again, still reading French Children don’t throw food, she’s loving it….Once down, time for us to chill, fire on, lord of the rings FOTR to keep us entertained and a bit more downtime. Last sleep in CP, we’ll pack in the morning!

Day 5. Friday

Last day… an early rise and a bit of playtime in the lounge area with Saoirse whilst we get packed up, before we head to the car we get to see a family of three deer's, it looks like the same three as before, they must take this route everyday past the pond behind our lodge.

An amazing and much, much needed little break and Saoirse first holiday adventure, lot's more to come for this little one and our family!

---