How Butlins Has Changed My Mind About UK Holidays

I have always been an avid believer that UK holidays are not as good as the ones you tend to have abroad. 

Firstly you never get the same sunshine and obviously that affects your happiness on a holiday right? 

I need to bend on one knee now and say … I was wrong. 

We had the most super time when we were lucky enough to review the Shoreline Hotel at Bognor Regis Butlins back in 2014 but since then the UK holidays we had been on were OK. Nothing amazing, nothing mind-blowing but OK. 

As you will know my lovely regular readers we went on one of the most amazing holidays to Italy earlier in the year so we were dubious we would feel as thrilled about our break away after returning from Skegness Butlins this month….

But I have to say the Monday – Friday break we were on at the beginning of the month has confirmed what I already knew about Butlins – They provide epic UK family holidays.

Later on this week, possibly even next week I will be sharing my full review of the Seaside Apartments in Skegness but I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on why I think Butlins works well for families. 

Skegness is probably our very nearest coastal location, being only an hour and half from our house. It is also a location that has in the last few decades struggled to shrug off its less than positive reputation. So the resort had remained somewhere we had never chosen to visit off the back of its location and we were very wrong. 

Now don’t get me wrong Skegness itself and Ingoldmells (on Butlins doorstep) are never going to be on our list of must visit places. Having tried again and visited Ingoldmells again while we were there I can confirm that we are now Skegness/Ingoldmells avoiders…. Permanently!

However what we loved about Skegness Butlins is you actually don’t have to travel anywhere outside the resort. There was so much to see and do that even with the rain against us (it rained 3 out of the 5 days) we could have easily filled in our time on site with the free activities available.  

It has the most beautiful beach literally on its doorstep and for us in the Seaside Apartments it was only a 2 minute walk to the beach. But for our visit the entertainment was the icing on the cake. We visited the on site Big Top Circus that is at Skegness Butlins for the summer.

Although this isn’t a free activity, it is only £6 per person (although £5 if you book online prior to your visit) and although I personally thought circus were super cheesy and not something I would love I was enthralled for the whole hour with the  crazy clown Chico Rico, who was hilarious at dragging in some unsuspecting parents into the show! 

There are amazing aerial shows with trampolining and lots of people being thrown from one side of the big top to the other! Even Jacob (18 months) sat for the entire duration. 

The fair ground was also a massive hit with 98% of rides free for the duration and with a separate toddler fairground Jacob actually got his first fairground ride and loved it. The queues even in August were only around 10 minutes maximum for the times we visited the fairground. 

As part of the package we received we also got the added B-line passes but we didn’t think we would use them. However I was wrong. We had planned the visit based on Joshua’s favourite presenter being on stage on the mid-week breaks (Steven Mulhern) and on the one night he was on the queues for the venue were probably 500 deep. Thankfully with the B-Line passes we lined up in a separate queue and went through much earlier than the other people. Even with a large number of people in the B-Line we only waited around 10 minutes or so to get in and got a great position inside the venue. 

Some people without the B-Line passes were queuing up the best part of an hour and half before the show started! 

Now I vaguely touched on our first dabble into resort evening entertainment. I have to hold my hands up and say that for us we decided many years ago that cheesy camp entertainment is not our bag but with Steven Mulhern and his Unbelievable show advertised we decided that it was a must if not just for Joshua’s sake. 

Not only did we get to watch an epic show that in fairness wouldn’t have been out-of-place on a Saturday night prime time billing we also had an amazing opportunity. 

After discovering that even though I was there to review the resort no one was able to film or take photos of the show so after asking on the Red coats about it we were thrilled to have the chance to actually meet Steven himself before the show started. Not only is Steven funny on TV he is also funny in real life as are his show companions!  (yes i was smirking with laughter in the photo)

During the show Joshua actually cried and said it was the best day of his life! 

Thank you Butlins for enabling us to make some magic summer memories for us all and for showing us that Butlins has it all for families and it’s just about making the holiday yours by selecting whats best for you and yours! 

Keep your eyes peeled for the full review coming soon.

If you are wanting to watch Steven Mulherns Unbelievable show I can highly recommend it and he even does a meet and greet session at the end.

Disclaimer: We were given a complimentary stay for the purposes of the review. This post is an added post to share with you how thrilled we were with what Butlins provided entertainment wise while we were there.