Got the bracelet

We have now had our day trip to Butlin's at Bognor (Regis) and we have the bracelets to prove it. A visit which was in part prompted by a two page spread in a recent Guardian covering the circus there - a circus which turned out to have packed up last week with the end of the school holidays. The up side was that we did not have to pay very much at all to get in.

First impression was of the quality of the planting. Plants of all shapes and sizes all over the place, nicely chosen and well looked after.

Second impression was of quality generally. There was, for example, very little litter. The buildings looked fresh and clean. The staff were uniformly pleasant and friendly. Ditto customers.

All helped along by it being a fine summer day, not too hot but bright and sunny. I dare say such a place would not be so clever in the rain - particularly if you had had a week of it with a couple of children in tow. That said, there was plenty for children to do indoors, including what looked like a well-flumed swimming pool. And today, there was plenty to do outdoors, although we forgot to give the adventure golf a go, so we will not be able to report back to Horton Golf Club. See reference 2.

Very impressive central tent, more impressive for me as a piece of tent engineering than for what was inside it.

A variety of options on the accommodation front, including self catering with fully equipped kitchen. And for people of working age there was a conference suite. An onsite Spar for corner shop stuff and a big Morrison's a hundred yards down the road for lentils and such like. Indicative prices for accommodation sounded very reasonable, compared with, for example, what we usually pay for an independent self-catering. And if you want to eat their food there was a good range of very reasonable looking eateries. Not posh, but well up to the standard, say, of Wetherspoons.

Two seater bicycles available for hire, for use on the complex. Good fun, but quite heavy going, partly because of sturdy construction, partly because of there being no seat adjustment, making our bicycle quite heavy on the knees. Luckily there was a very good brake.

Two down sides. One, there was a fair amount of noise about the place. Two, no direct access to the beach and one had to leave the complex by one of the checkpoints to get to it. But this last was fair enough, with one of the selling points to young families being controlled entry and exit.

And a down side for the staff was the seasonal nature of the work. You got a brand new zero hours contract each year, although if you face fitted you could be reasonably sure of getting a contract each year. Zero hours contract meant that things would be a bit thin over the winter and many of the staff would be on benefit for its duration. A thinly disguised state subsidy for the place.

PS: smoking arrangements seemed very fair, with smoking banned indoors - I did not ask about the privacy of one's own room - and largely banned outdoors, but with plenty of well-signed designated smoking areas.

Reference 1: https://www.butlins.com/day-visits/bognor-regis/.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/rumble-in-jungle.html.

Group search key: bta.