You may have noticed that we were in Butlins (Minehead) last week as I couldn't help but plaster it all over social media ;) We're always really excited for a family holiday no matter where it is, but as Butlins is a place I have never visited before, I was really intrigued to see it and let the girls explore.
We went for the Just for Tots week (monday - friday) which is deemed as a 'toddler friendly' holiday, specifically for under 5's and we couldn't wait to put it to the test with our two girls, aged 4 years and 14 months.
Accommodation - 3/5
We stayed in one of their new 2 bedroom Lakeview chalets (these sleep 4 guests) in the west lakes village which I must say was much nicer than we'd anticipated. Very clean, very modern and very toddler friendly in terms of supplying socket covers, a little card matching game for the girls to play as well as their 'Little stars' sticker book for the kids to fill out while they were there. It had everything we needed including a little kitchen with microwave fridge/freezer, toaster, kettle, cafetière and more. I loved the L-shaped sofa and open plan living area/kitchen too which is more sociable for families.
We have only given it a 3/5 as we were in the top chalet, above people and next to people. Not only were the stairs a nuisance with pushchairs and tired toddlers after a long busy day, we could also hear quite a lot of noise from next door at night when they had the TV on so no doubt they could hear our girls crying and stomping around. To see our chalet tour in more detail, watch our video below!
The new style chalets are set between two lakes and the views are beautiful and the grounds, perfectly landscaped. It's very picturesque, I would have loved to have had a Lakeside chalet and enjoyed that view with a coffee in the morning!
(not so picturesque hey, haha!)
Premium dining - 4/5
We had the premium dining package for all of us which meant breakfast and dinner in either The Yacht or The Deck restaurants. We were really impressed, by no means was it the 'best' food we had eaten but for an all you can eat buffet, we certainly couldn't complain. We loved the variety and the live cooking stations going on where you can get 'cooked to order' options. There was plenty of choice for the girls to eat and the staff were all very helpful and friendly.
The reason we have given it a 4 and not a 5 was purely down to breakfast not starting until 8am. Our girls are very early risers (5:30am-ish) and so making them wait until 8am was impossible, most mornings they would eat in the chalet beforehand but would then be a bit restless while we went to get our breakfast. For toddlers, I personally feel it should open at 7am at least! The fact that dinner was served from 4:30pm and there was a Little Tikes playground outside while we were waiting for it to open was great though!
What's on - 5/5
What's on for the kids is just perfect, there is so much variety from the live shows, arts and crafts sessions, soft play, arcades, puppet shows, tots fairground, little library, little tikes town, bungee trampolines, tots disco, fairground, baby yoga, mini golf, several parks and the splash water world. We were always busy and always had something to do and we didn't get round to half of it! The girls absolutely loved it and we loved that Aria could go on some of the rides too and not miss out.
Sienna's favourite was the shows, especially the ones by the 'Skyline gang' which is Butlins in-house entertainment team. They had various shows throughout the week and were around the site interacting with the kids too. They were brilliant, clearly loved what they did and were very entertaining! Even we enjoyed the shows :)
Sienna's favourite was the shows, especially the ones by the 'Skyline gang' which is Butlins in-house entertainment team. They had various shows throughout the week and were around the site interacting with the kids too. They were brilliant, clearly loved what they did and were very entertaining! Even we enjoyed the shows :)
The site & extras 4/5
The whole site of Butlins is bigger than I thought it would be, we walked around 10km each day! You can hire the bikes to ride around but at £9.50 for 30 minutes, we weren't doing that all week!
When we got there, we downloaded the Butlins app and something I loved, was that you can load all the activities into your calendar on your phone rather than trying to remember the times of things or checking the timetable. It was much easier for us to see what was on at what times.
The grounds were well kept, lots of green grass, trees and flowers which made it pretty and gave a nice feel to it. It also made a good backdrop for some photos ;)
The other restaurants on site were really good too if you do go self-catering or fancy trying one of them for lunches.
Our only niggle was that when we went to hire a stroller (as we stupidly forgot ours) they had all sold out for the week, so we spent half of a day driving around Minehead desperately trying to buy one as with so much walking and 2 kids we couldn't carry everything! There is a land train that can take you around but we never managed to get on it.
We really did enjoy our stay at Butlins and to say the girls loved it is an understatement, Sienna was crying because she didn't want to leave as it was so fun! We would definitely love to go back in the future, we made some lovely memories :)
Watch our holiday vlog below;
Thank you Butlins!
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*We were given our chalet and premium dining complimentary in return for this review, but as always my opinions are all my own and as honest as I can be!
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