My boyfriend and I both have brilliant memories of trips to Butlin’s as kids (way back when in the nineties, obvs) and now live a 30-min drive from the iconic white tent of the Bognor Regis location, so as a surprise, I booked us a family day trip for his birthday. A couple of friends had visited recently with their pre-schoolers and it looked like there was a lot to do, so I was excited to find out if it lived up to the nostalgia.
Here’s what I learned…
How much does it cost?
The big question with any family day trip. The cost fluctuates depending on whether it’s the weekend or during school holidays, but we paid £17 per adult, £10 per child and nothing for our toddler as under-twos go free. This almost doubles during the summer holidays, but if you go at the weekend over the autumn/winter period it stays at the £17/£10 price.
Where is Butlin’s located?
There are three parks across the UK: Bognor Regis in West Sussex, Minehead in Somerset and Skegness in Lincolnshire. The prices for a day trip actually vary between them, and the weekends/dates that they offer them also vary – so if you’re between two, it’s worth checking out both. Minehead offers adult tickets for as little as £13.
What’s available for day visitors?
Pretty much everything you’re able to access as a holiday guest. The doors open for day visitors at 10am and you can stay until 6pm. You have to choose your swimming pool slot on entry and you’re entitled to two hours in the pool as part of your ticket. Then there’s everything inside the tent including soft play, small fairground rides aimed at pre-schoolers, shows on the main stage as well as things like an arcade, face painting and temporary tattoos which all come at an extra cost. Outside there’s a wooden play area as well as a large fairground with plenty of rides like bumper cars and waltzers, as well as go-karts and a low-ropes area. You can find the full list on the Butlin’s website here.
What about the food options?
There’s a selection of different restaurants including Burger King and Papa John’s as well as some of Butlin’s own brand pub and bar-style food areas. There is also an on-site supermarket with reasonable prices that have all the snacks (crisps, fruit pots, pastries and Ella’s Kitchen pouches) you need to keep you topped up. Equally you could bring your own packed lunch as there are plenty of indoor and outdoor seating areas.
What’s the best bit?
Absolutely the swimming pool (which was refurbished in 2019). I can’t speak for the other locations but the Bognor swimming pool was new, clean and had SO many things to do – potentially the best swimming pool I’d ever been to. It was more like an indoor water park. There were slide options for kids of every age – my two are notoriously not confident in water but even they went on some of the slides upwards of 10 times. Me and the bf also took turns trying out some of the more hardcore choices such as the Adrenaline Flume (probably won’t try that again…) and the rapids which were brilliant and involved going outside too. The changing rooms were also brilliantly designed with signposted family cubicles for all genders which came in different sizes!
The staff were also incredibly helpful. We managed to lose our toddler’s scraggly blue elephant toy and when I popped into a holiday booking office within the main tent to ask if there was a lost property area they let me know that an email had already been circulated with a photo of our missing elephant and that he was waiting to be reunited with us at the kids’ fairground.
Anything not so great?
The inside of the tent, and especially the roof, feel more than ready for a facelift and a bit of love. Not much has changed since we went as kids, and I’d love to see the indoors area have that same fresh, clean look as the swimming pool.
Would we go again?
If we hadn’t been then I’d definitely be recommending it to local friends with pre-schoolers who can make use of the budget term time prices. I felt like we got a lot of variety for £44 and could easily have stretched out a full day there (we managed nearly five hours due to some overtired kids). Once there we discussed how great it would be to come back for a night or two with family members so we could make proper use of some of the fair rides and also – rather romantically – ride the rapids together. I noticed they had some delicious looking cocktail offers at the Butlin’s bar, so maybe a little at-home holiday is on the cards….
Find out more about Butlin’s day trips here
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