Best Center Parcs Europe in France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium

There are 24 Center Parcs in mainland Europe, including holiday parks in France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany (you'll find they are often mispelt as Centre Parcs).

They offer an appealing alternative to the UK Center Parcs, and can be considerably cheaper (though sometimes they're more expensive). The European CenterParcs have different owners to the UK sites and tend to offer more special offers and discounts.

Reviews of the 24 Center Parcs around Europe vary considerably, whereas the UK Center Parcs are much more consistent. From what I can tell, some of the European Center Parcs have been rebranded from other parks over the years, whereas the UK Center Parcs were all built under the same brand.

We've picked out the best Center Parcs in France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium based on price, customer reviews and facilities.

Which is the best Center Parcs in France?

There are six Center Parcs in France at the time of writing but we reckon Le Bois Aux Daims is the best, or Les Villages Nature Paris if you want to visit Disneyland Paris.

Le Bois Aux Daims is the best according to customer reviews, which were 4/5 on TripAdvisor when we checked. It's towards the West of France and is 3 hours by car from St Malo (which is a 9 hour ferry from Portsmouth) or a 5hr 30m drive from the Eurotunnel at Calais. It's not the cheapest, but it's also not the most expensive. It opened in 2015, making it a nice new park too.

Four other parks were scoring 3.5/5 (Les Trois Forêts, Les Hauts Des Bruyeres, Le Lac d'Ailette and Les Villages Nature Paris) whilst Les Bois-Francs was scoring 3/5.

All six are in the northern half of France, so there isn't a considerable difference in driving distance from the UK. Les Bois-Francs is the closest to the Le Havre ferry, whilst Le Lac d'Ailette and Les Villages Nature Paris are the closest to the Eurotunnel (about 2hr 30m by car from Calais).

Les Villages Nature Paris is a bit unusual, because it's also one of the official accommodations for Disneyland Paris (it's a joint thing with Center Parcs). So, it's certainly worth considering if you want a couple of days with Mickey Mouse.
So which is the cheapest Center Parcs in France?

We did a price comparison for a week in August 2019 for a family of four and came up with the following results:
Prices are for the cheapest accommodation without extras, at the time of writing. Expect it to vary according to the exchange rate. We searched in May 2019. 

Which is the best CenterParcs in the Netherlands and Holland?

There are nine Center Parcs across the Netherlands (including Holland, which is a part of the Netherlands). None of them are particularly new, but they have been modernised over the years.

Two of the Center Parks in the Netherlands tend to get better customer reviews than the rest - De Kempervennen and Het Meerdal. Both were scoring 4/5 on TripAdvisor when I checked. Most others scored 3.5/5 on TripAdvisor. 

​They are in a similar location, near Eindhoven in the South East of the Netherlands and they've both got a similar number of activities. Het Meerdal is a 3hr 30m drive from Calais, whilst De Kempervennen is 3 hours.

The main difference is the price. 

We searched for a week in August 2019 for a family of four and found that De Kempervennen was from £1369, whilst Het Meerdal was from £1019 or £350 cheaper. We also looked at dates in September and found Het Meerdal was the cheapest of all nine of the Center Parcs in the Netherlands/Hollands.

So, I'd start by looking at Center Parcs Het Meerdal if you want a Center Parcs in the Netherlands.

Which is the best Center Parcs in Germany?

Germany has a choice of six Center Parcs, but I personally would start by looking at Park Bostalsee, which scores 4/5 from most customers on review sites. It's a modern park, which opened in 2013 and it's got plenty to do.

Most of the others were scoring 3.5/5 on TripAdvisor and similar scores elsewhere. 

Another German park - Center Parcs Bispinger Heide - has about 20 more activities than the others, but it was scoring 3.5/5 from customers. Park Bostalsee has about 90 activities, so you are unlikely to get bored.

In terms of location, Park Bostalsee is in South West Germany, about 2 hours from Frankfurt. A flight from London to Frankfurt takes about 90 minutes. It's a 5 hour drive from Calais.

Park Bostalsee is quite a new park, as it opened in 2013. Park Allgäu is slightly newer (it opened in 2018) but it was considerably more expensive in our price comparisons. For a week in August 2019, we found that a family of four would pay from £1349 at Park Bostalsee or £1999 at Park Allgäu. We also looked at some dates in June and found that  Park Bostalsee was £1199, compared to £2049 at Park Allgäu.

Which is the best Center Parcs in Belgium?

There are just three Center Parcs in Belgium. I'd go for De Vossemeren although Les Ardennes gets similar review scores so is also worth a look (4/5 on most sites).

De Vossemeren has considerably more activities and in our price comparison, it had some cheaper accommodation. A week's holiday for a family of four in August 2019 was available for £1267 at De Vossemeren, compared to £1495 at Les Ardennes (the accommmodation at Les Ardennes  was a bit posher, we just went for the cheapest available when we searched)

Les Ardennes was previously a 'Sunparks' site but was rebranded as a Center Parcs a few years ago.

All three parks in Belgium are towards the Dutch border and are not all that difficult to reach from the UK. You can take your car through the Eurotunnel at Dover and then it's a 3 hour drive from Calais to De Vossemeren.

Conclusion - the best Center Parcs in Europe

If you fancy giving Center Parcs in Europe a go, I would personally start by looking at these four sites:
The exception is if you want to combine a Center Parcs holiday with a trip to Disneyland, in which case your best option is Center Parcs Les Villages Nature Paris, which is a joint thing between the two companies.

For the sake of your own curiosity, our UK Center Parcs comparison found the cheapest for price a similar holiday was £1678, but you are likely to have lower travel costs.

Other guides from the Holiday Park Guru

Holiday-Park-Guru-Don't-Blame-Us-Disclaimer: All the information on this page is accurate, as far as we know. However, facilities at holiday parks change so please check with the park before booking.