Exploring winter escapes in Mallorca

Woburn Center Parcs is the newest of the five Parcs around the country and was opened in 2014. The other sites are Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, Elveden Forest in Suffolk, Longleat Forest in Wiltshire and Whinfell Forest in Cumbria. Ten years ago virtually to this day I wrote the following about Elveden Forest Center Parcs in Suffolk.

“Our final 3 days were spent at the Centre Parcs site at Elveden Forest. If you’ve never been I would thoroughly recommend it for families. The Center Parcs concept is to provide short breaks in the forest, bringing families together and back to nature with high quality accommodation, a range of outstanding leisure facilities and over 200 activities, all set within a protected and enhanced woodland environment. Each village is set in 400 acres of natural woodland, with trees, streams and wildlife surrounding Apartment and Lodge accommodation. At the heart of each village is the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, an extensive range of restaurants, cafes and retail outlets, plus, Center Parcs’ own Aqua Sana spa facility.”

Now we didn’t go for the weather as you can imagine but it led me to think why couldn’t this concept work in Mallorca?’

So just to repeat I wrote that 10 years ago when the last Parc at Woburn was opened and my thoughts haven’t changed in the slightest. In the Summer it would be a no brainer and in the winter a great way of prolonging the season. On average 2,000 plus people a week, surely that’s worth exploring? The problem we have is there are currently no incentives for businesses to stay open in the winter as far as I know. We are an island so we need the airlines to commit and once they do it will create a snowball effect. Whilst Center Parcs has all their bars and restaurants on site you could argue how does that help the resorts? Well pretty much the same way as all inclusive has done. People will always want to explore and spending your whole holiday in the same place all the time isn’t for me and many others as I’ve discovered whilst in Jamaica.

Since I wrote the above a Spanish company (not Center Parcs) but who have a similar concept did moot a similar idea to Calvia Town Hall. The idea was to use the land occupied by Western Water Park and the old Aquapark on the outskirts of Magalluf. They had talked to the owners of the land and the idea was then pushed higher to the Balearic Government. Guess what? It was refused! I’m not party to the reason why but it was an opportunity lost in my opinion.

The arguement about winter in Mallorca apart from airline links always comes back to the weather. The winter weather though has definitely improved and as I write this from a beach in Jamaica you may be laughing as I hear it’s turned colder and there’s snow on the mountains at home. Believe me it’s a damn sight better there than the UK was over Christmas and that didn’t stop everyone having a good time at Woburn.

So I’ve made the case for Center Parcs, what about Jamaica? The major negative people will always throw at you between Mallorca and Jamaica is the weather. But it’s worth remembering the curse of Jamaican weather is the hurricane or rainy season and it officially lasts from June 1st to November 30th. Temperatures though are still high nearly all year round as opposed to Mallorca where in the winter it’s colder. To be honest it s difficult to make a comparison as there’s no denying both islands are stunningly beautiful and have beaches to die for. I’d say the infrastructure of Mallorca is better than Jamaica but I’d say the Jamaicans are friendlier.

Neither is a criticism of the other, just my opinion. Mallorca of course is a lot closer to home, a 2 hour flight compared to a 10 hour flight is always helpful. I don’t though think there’s a case for where is better but if I had to choose then of course it would have to be Mallorca.

Take care everybody and enjoy your week!