Hey peeps! If you’re looking for an adventurous (free fall, high ropes and climbing wall!) staycation that your family will love, then get your bums down to Butlin’s Skegness. It’s a super family-friendly destination that’ll keep the kids (and the grown-ups) entertained for days on end. Just be prepared to sleep for a whole day when you get home 🤣 as you won’t want to sleep there, it’s too fun!
Accommodation
Let’s start with the accommodation – whether you want a basic place just to rest your head (basic rooms), or you want your accommodation to be playful (fairground apartments) orrrrr with all the mod-cons including a dishwasher and safe (gold-apartment) Butlin’s Skegness has got you covered.
We stayed in a 3 bedroom silver apartment (only because the 2 bedroom apartments were sold out) and it was well decorated, well equipped with a dishwasher, fridge-freezer, cooking facilities, and even a vacuum cleaner! Apparently, the silver apartment is just the gold apartment without towels (more than happy to bring our own to save ££ 🤣).
I’ve got to be honest, there were a few downsides to the accommodation (you’ll see on the Vlog I did). The window seals were non-existent! There were actual gaps in the windows so it was noisy and we also had to sleep with the heating on when we don’t usually – my son woke up in the middle of the night on the first night asking to snuggle because he was cold and I actually woke up sore because of the cold. You will hear the people upstairs walking around as well! Don’t be like our downstairs neighbour though – they kept banging up to us for walking around our apartment 😬
Activities
So now that you’ve heard all about the silver apartment at Butlin’s Skegness, let’s talk about the real reason you’re coming to Butlin’s: the FUN! Oh my gosh, there’s so much to do here. We LOVED the adventure activities! We did high ropes, free fall and climbing. Well, I say we… I mean I tried and my 9 year old DID! 🤣
You’ve also got the indoor water park, which has slides, flumes, a lazy river, and a wave pool. You could spend all day there and not get bored, in fact, a few of our friends did just that! There was go-karting, mini-golf, archery, football (a free fun football and also paid coaching by an FA coach which was £15 per person), t-shirt design, pottery painting, free soft play, and a mostly free fairground (the bungee trampolines are £6 each) plus a load of other stuff to keep you thrilled – AAAAAND if you go at, or after, Easter 2023 you’ll be able to experience the new sensory playground. We saw it whilst we were there and I was kinda sad I couldn’t play on the giant slide – it looks AWESOME!
10/10 – SOOOOO FUN!!! This is the one adventure activity that I 💯% completed and I loved it! could get addicted to for sure!!! Can’t wait to go climbing again!!
The climbing wall was £8 per person.
And here’s my fearless 9 year old completing the high ropes (£15 a person). I got up there and decided I couldn’t do it because they said oh yeah you’ve got to unclip yourself from one station and clip yourself on to the other. I couldn’t bring myself to unclip myself so high up! 🤣 I’m actually proud of how far I got though because a few years ago there’s no way I would’ve even considered taking part. I didn’t feel scared at all (yay for nervous system work lol) but yeah, I just couldn’t physically bring myself to unclip myself 🤣 So I’m in the middle of planning a trip to a high ropes course where you’re constantly on the safety loop thingy, no need to unclip yourself! 🤣
And here we are on the free fall (£15 per person). I got 3/4 the way up and couldn’t climb any further 🤣 it was a windy day and I could feel the pole swaying!!!!
My 9 year old shot all the way up with no issues but she did need to be pushed off the edge as she just couldn’t bring herself to jump off lol. They gave her another go for free because they were super impressed with her bravery.
Oh and don’t forget the live music, comedy acts, and family-friendly shows that are going on all the time. We went one time before on a tots break and didn’t make any shows, I’ll be honest – I was probably acting a lil stuck up then and didn’t realise how much fun the entertainment can be, I’m glad we went this time! Especially for Bingo Bango, haha! We won on the last night and my 9 year old went up on the stage to collect our prize, she loved that! 🥳
Also, don’t miss the Skyline Gang shows! They’re sure to inspire your littles! There’s a role model for every personality type 🙂 My littles went to the Skyline Dance Academy. My eldest wasn’t sure about it so she booked high ropes for halfway through the dance class – then she kinda wanted to stay! It’s a good place to try new things 🤩
FOOD
When you’re not enjoying all of the excitement you’ve gotta fuel yourself for all the fun. You’ve got plenty of dining options to choose from. There are many restaurants and food plans. We had booked a food court dining plan. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the first few days of dinner were amazing! I was eating lasagne, cottage pie, roasts and crumbles for dessert.
The last few days were a bit of a let down though – it was just nuggety type freezer food or really spicy chilli con carne – a lot more people went for the vegetarian options on those days which were Mediterranean couscous and stuffed peppers etc. The breakfast was the same every day though, with plenty of options. My littles aren’t used to getting English breakfast all the time so they got English breakfast every day with a little bit of porridge and a croissant. I love croissants so I had porridge, some scrambled egg, beans and two croissants every day, one day I went all out and had a sausage too 🤣
And if you need to stock up on snacks or essentials, there’s a supermarket and some shops on site. I was pleasantly surprised at the price of a bottle of Evian, it was the same as other supermarkets! However, my friend went to buy a bottle of coke and found it was double the price of off-site supermarkets! Eeek!
HAIR BRAIDING + FACE PAINTING
My daughter and I both had our hair braided. I was so excited haha! I hadn’t had it done since a holiday to the Canary Islands when I was about 11! Proper inner child healing there hehe 🙂 We chose to get two colours of hair extensions in our hair and it was £30 each. If we’d gone for just one colour it would’ve been £25. Mine HURT! Apparently, there’s only one braider there who braids so tight it hurts. But I’m glad I got the one that hurts you lol because my daughter got a gentle braider.
Both children got a half face paint and I was so shocked at how quick it was!! It only took 5 minutes to have them both painted! It cost between £5 and £8 each. I can’t remember because I was busy booking the hair braiding at the same time lol.
So, there you have it. Butlin’s Skegness is a fabulous family destination, it can be as cheap or as not-so-cheap as you want it to be (there are plenty of free activities to do and they’re always doing great discounts – just don’t leave it to last minute like I did if you want the best deal). Butlin’s has everything you need to have a good time, and then some!
If you’re not booking your cheap, cheerful and adventure filled staycation right now, what are you waiting for?