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Which Center Parcs in France is best?

The six Center Parcs in France offer a busy, family-friendly holiday in good quality accommodation. Each park has dozens of activities, including swimming pools and places to eat.

But which is the best Center Parcs in France?

If you want the short answer, we think that Le Bois Aux Daims or Les Trois Forêts should be top of your list.
However, Les Bois-Francs or Les Hauts Des Bruyeres are usually the cheapest Center Parcs in France. Also, Les Villages Nature Paris is definitely worth considering if you like the idea of also visiting Disneyland Paris as the park is next door to the theme park. Le Lac d'Ailette is the nearest to the UK for most people.

​Anyway, for our comparison we looked at factors including customer reviews, travel time from the UK, prices at different times of year, location and onsite activities.  

Which Center Parcs in France is nearest to the UK?

All six Center Parcs in France are in the Northern half of the country, meaning that they are all relatively easy to reach by car from the UK.

You can reach France via various ferries from Portsmouth, Plymouth, Harwich and other places (you can get a discount off Center Parcs France if you book a bundled ferry + accommodation deal with Stena Line).

For simplicity we’ve listed the driving time from the 35 minute Eurotunnel which goes from Folkestone to Calais. 

From nearest to furthest from Calais: So, if your priority is getting to a Center Parcs before the children have driven you to despair, then it might be worth looking at Le Lac d'Ailette.

Which Center Parcs village in France gets the best reviews?

According to average reviews, Les Trois Forêts and Le Bois Aux Daims are the best Center Parcs in France. Both were scoring 4/5 on TripAdvisor when we checked and slightly more than 4 on Google reviews.
​
Les Bois-Francs was the lowest scoring, with an average of 3/5 on TripAdvisor or 3.5/5 on Google reviews.

The remaining three (including the Center Parcs at Disneyland Paris) were somewhere in the middle, scoring 3.5/5 on TripAdvisor and just under 4/5 on Google reviews.

​So, the two Center Parcs with the best reviews also happen to be the two which are furthest from the UK. The question is whether you are willing to drive a bit further based on customer reviews.

Which Centerparcs in France is cheapest?

Now, here’s where it gets interesting…

For a rough price comparison we looked at three different sets of holiday dates at the six Center Parcs in France.

We searched for a week in early August 2020, a week in October 2020 and a week over Easter 2020. We looked for the basic price for a family of four in the cheapest accommodation available. We didn’t include the cost of activities, which can be quite a bit over the course of a week at Center Parcs.

We found that  Les Hauts Des Bruyeres was one of the cheapest every time. Les Villages Nature Paris (the one by Disneyland Paris) was always the most expensive option, sometimes costing double or treble the cheapest option.

The two French Center Parcs with the best reviews - Les Trois Forêts and Le Bois Aux Daims – were usually somewhere around the middle of the price comparison.

For those who enjoy staring at numbers as much as me, here’s the full results from our (limited) price comparison.

Prices for a week in August 2020 for four people from cheapest to most expensive
  1. Les Bois-Francs - £1009
  2. Les Hauts Des Bruyeres - £1184
  3. Les Trois Forêts - £1386
  4. Le Lac d'Ailette - £1331
  5. Le Bois Aux Daims - £1579
  6. Les Villages Nature Paris - £2936

Prices for a week over Easter 2020 for four people from cheapest to most expensive:

  1. Les Trois Forêts - £1346
  2. Les Hauts Des Bruyeres - £1373
  3. Le Lac d'Ailette - £1453
  4. Le Bois Aux Daims - £1618
  5. Les Bois-Francs - £1680
  6. Les Villages Nature Paris - £3215

Prices for a week in early October 2020 for four people from cheapest to most expensive:

  1. Les Hauts Des Bruyeres - £590
  2. Le Lac d'Ailette - £766
  3. Le Bois Aux Daims - £815
  4. Les Trois Forêts - £795
  5. Les Bois-Francs - £1118
  6. Les Villages Nature Paris - £1635

​Searches carried out in November 2019

Which Center Parcs in France has the best facilities?

Whichever Center Parcs you choose, you’ll find a good choice of activities. Many of them cost extra, but there are dozens of things to do.

In some comparisons we’ve done (such as our comparison of German Center Parcs) we’ve found big variations in the number of activities on offer. However, in France, there’s a good consistency with all six parks offering between 91 and 107 activities according to the official website.

If you’re interested, Les Hauts Des Bruyeres  had the least number of activities and Les Trois Forêts has the most, but the range wasn't all that big so I wouldn't take it as a major factor in deciding which Center Parcs in France to visit.

Other notable differences between the six Center Parcs in France

  • As mentioned, Les Villages Nature Paris is a joint venture with Disneyland Paris which opened in 2017. It takes about 15 minutes by car to get to the theme parks, or there's a shuttle that you can pay for which takes 25 minutes.
  • Le Bois Aux Daims is one of newest Center Parcs, having opened in 2015. Les Trois Forêts opened in 2010, whilst Le Lac d'Ailette opened in 2007.
  • The oldest Center Parcs in France are Les Bois-Francs and Les Hauts Des Bruyeres which both opened in the 1980s and 1990s (they are also the two cheapest parks in most cases in our price comparison).​

Conclusion – which is the best Center Parcs in France?

All six Center Parcs have something going for them, but I would personally go for Les Trois Forêts or Le Bois Aux Daims, depending on which is cheapest for the week you want to visit. They both get decent customer reviews, they have a similar number of activities and are a similar driving distance from Calais. They're also both quite new parks, having been built in the noughties.

However, if you have children wearing princess dresses or singing along to The Lion King soundtrack in the car, then you might prefer Les Villages Nature Paris which offers the facilities of CenterParcs with only a short daily journey to Disneyland Paris.

If you're looking for a cheap Center Parcs in France, I'd look at Les Hauts Des Bruyeres as it is similarly priced to Les Bois-Francs but gets slightly better reviews.

​Le Lac d'Ailette is somewhere in the middle in most of our comparisons, but it's main plus point is that it is the nearest to the UK for most people.

Which are the best cheap alternatives to Center Parcs?

There are plenty of alternatives to Center Parcs if you want a family-friendly holiday in France. You’ll find a top 10 in our guide to French holiday parks, but highlights include:

  • Le Ranolien Campsite in Brittany has six swimming pools and various sports onsite. It’s near the coast and is quite easy to get to from Plymouth via ferry.
  • La Garangeoire Campsite in Vendee on the west coast has several swimming pools, horse riding and beach access
  • Village Les Mouettes in Brittany has indoor and outdoor swimming pools, pony rides, playgrounds and places to eat onsite.

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.