It's Center Parcs - but not quite as we know it

Although we have a Center Parcs holiday village close by in Sherwood Forest, SAM DIMMER travelled to Belgium to see how the European version stacked up with our own, and was pleasantly surprised

- SAM DIMMER

WE'VE all heard the joke about Center Parcs that if you want to know when the schools break up just look at the holiday prices on their website.

The issue is though, despite it being the sort of place that requires a mortgage holiday or the sale of a kidney to visit, it’s still really great for young families.

There are alternatives in the UK. I visited Sherwood Castle Holiday Forest in Newark last year which was a solid 6/10 venue with some tremendously weird features.

But what isn’t a long way from Center Parcs is Center Parcs, in Europe.

It was started by the same person (Dutch entrepreneur Piet Derksen) as the UK arm, which separated in 2001, and now boasts 26 resorts in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Denmark.

There are many similarities, as you would expect, with the UK Center Parcs, but one thing that is dramatically different is the price.