Wondering if anybody's been to Butlins in recent years- I've heard it's changed. Is it a good place for young kids or is it all fast food and amusements???

I went last year with a 16, 14 and an 8 year old. And I personally have been going to Minehead since I was a bump! The changes that have been made to Butlins are on the whole not for the better - lots of franchises and not a lot of the personal feel that it used to have "back in the old days"! That said, the deals they've got at the minute mean that it can work out to be a cheap self-catering break especially if you take food and drink with you from home to your chalet, the kitchen is always well maintained. The pool is amazing and the kids (and us!) loved that - as it was March not busy but I can imagine it would be manic in peak season - so avoid for stress-free time. It is a very safe environment and you do get the chance to relax and the kids can roam, but this too can be expensive with the arcades. My nostalgia for family holidays in the seventies do slightly skew my opinion on Butlins nowadays, I do believe Billy would turn in his grave, but if it's a deal and out of season, Butlins is an ok place to go. Hope this helps.

I've done a couple of day trips to the Butlins at Bognor, but not for a few years now. The pool is certainly amazing - the very best indoor pool I've ever seen, and probably only beaten by the Disney pool parks in the USA. It's even better than the Centerparcs pools! However, the rest of Butlins is definitely more down market than Centerparcs, but then it isn't really trying not to be. The indoors area is good for awful British weather, and my six year old was enchanted - they had a Powerrangers performance on the stage, and trampolines and things like that. Outdoors was great with crazy golf and fair ground rides and gentle go karting. One problem was that you couldn't actually get to the beach, even though the place was right by it - the carpark is at the sea's edge! Seems a bit odd.... The big no no was the food - it was awful! Even the Burger King was worse than normal Burger King, and the Harry Ramsden was awful too.