Center Parcs Allgäu — Attraction in Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Leutkirch im Allgäu

Review of Allgau, Germany||Hope this helps, see this park posted less than others||Location|Gorgeous. Really close to the Alps, can drive to Austria and Switzerland. Heidi territory with picturesque views.|We flew to Munich and hired a car, others in out group flew to Milan and drove over a few days, they highly recommend a stay at Davos. Memmingen is super close if you are able to fly there.||We did trips to Lake Constance, driving to Lindau and then taking train to Lindau island, then to Friederichshafen. We also did the Alpsee Bergwelt coaster which was a must do, with a beautiful cable car journey up the mountain. Also visited Neuschwanstein castle, too late for tickets to go inside but we enjoyed seeing it. There's a lovely cafe by the lake, and you can swim there.||The parc is close to Leutkirch, a lovely town, where there's an Aldi, Lidl and other shops. A bus runs here from the parc fairly regularly. We ate at the Thai in town and it was fab.||Lodge|We stayed in an exclusive lodge for 6 people. I had read some horrendous trip advisor reviews about cleanliness. I was blown away by how wrong they were. The lodge was by far the nicest we have stayed in in any center parcs. It was clean and comfortable. It had plenty of equipment, a washing machine and loads of space. It had a lovely outside area with a couple of loungers and a table and chairs.||The main bathroom had a sauna and whirlpool bath, with a terrace.||The one major problem was a lack of air con or ceiling fans. It was a heatwave when we were there, but the lodge was unbearably hot. This hugely impacted on our stay, it was difficult to sleep. We bought fans but they didn't help much. We couldn't have doors and windows open at night due to|mossies. The lodge type had huge windows, we kept screens and curtains closed, but this didn't help either. ||We loved the bread delivery every day, had pretzels, rolls and croissants. They were lovely!||The lodge had loads of pans, a kettle, filter coffee machine, a cafetière and a blender. The oven was a combi thing and didn't cook well. You couldn't cook a big meal in it. Would have benefitted from some instructions on how to use the appliances. There was a decent bbq. ||The site|The site definitely isn't as big as some others. It's greener than it looks on some of the website. The lodges are pretty and the site looks lovely.||We were travelling with teens and pre teens. They loved the aqua mundo and the slides and enjoyed the arcades but felt there wasn't a great deal for them to do. ||The restaurants are all inside the dome. We loved sitting outside at Sudstable and having drinks/playing cards. The burger place Rockets is passable but mega expensive. The Italian restaurant feels like a service station. We didn't try the buffet. We felt the food options were really limited, by far the better meals we had were off site. ||We felt it was missing a sports bar. There's a nice beer garden by the lake.||We visited the spa twice. This was amazing, we went with the kids one morning and all really enjoyed this experience. There's an indoor and outdoor pool and loads of treatment rooms. They are militant about no cossies in the sauna even on family days. Service in the sauna was non existent and our trips would have been enhanced by being able to get a coffee. There's a country club attached to the spa but this is odd, it could be lovely but felt like it wasn't open, it's a shame as it would be a great coffee shop.||We found the cycle centre really easy and loved having the bikes. Ours were well maintained. Some of our group cycled to Leutkirch. We agree with some of the comments about the golf buggies being a pain, they are being used by kids, and make cycling feel less safe.||We found service to be somewhat sparse. It feels like there aren't enough staff. Most staff speak English (my German is lacking). A lot of exchanges were quite curt, apart from the lovely girls in the arcade and the cycle centre. However any problems we had were dealt with and this wasn't a major issue.| |We found the parc to be a great base, we loved the lodge apart from the lack of air con and would recommend it, either as a base with teens or definitely for...

We stayed here for 5 days in May. I was hesitant after reading some negative reviews, but overall we were satisfied and we had a nice stay.

Accommodation

We stayed in an exclusive 6 person cottage with sauna and bubble bath. It was spotlessly clean, and also very well maintained. It looked newly refurbished. It was worth paying extra for the private sauna.

My only criticisms would be that the intake on the bubble bath needed a proper clean - it was fully of mould. And when we took off our mattress cover the mattress topper clearly needed a proper hoover and clean. Also, the "welcome pack" does not include much. Only the en suites and bathroom had soap, not the toilets. So make sure you bring your own. Also, there were no extra sheets or towels for the sauna.

Restaurants

The food in the restaurants was very average. Pizzas were probably straight out the freezer, pancakes from the pancake house were luke warm and rubbery. The tuna salad was ok. You can count the vegetarian options across all restaurants on one or two hands. And if you are vegan you will struggle to find anything to eat. Service varied between ok and poor depending on how busy they were. For some reason there are no menus displayed outside any of the restaurants so the only way you can check them is by fiddling about downloading them on the center Parcs website.

Activities

There are a lot of activities on offer and you need to book them in advance. We did this on one of the screens by reception which was simple and easy to use. You can also use 'my centerparcs' to do this. Most activities were well organised, although sometimes it was not clear where you had to go for the activity. Eg: high ropes said 'action desk'. This is not on the map and even when you find it there is no sign for it. Some activities were under-staffed. There was always a queue in the Bike center, so it's a good idea to arrive early so you don't waste some of your reserved time queuing. All the staff spoke English and were friendly and helpful. The only activity that was disappointing was the children's high ropes. We waited 45 minutes after the start time before we actually got to start the activity, and then we stood in a queue with everyone else to go round the circuit. This was due to lack of staff - we had to wait while they put harnesses on an adult group. It would have been better to stagger the start of our activity or do it in smaller groups.

Activities varied between about 9 euros up to 50 euros or more, so it's definitely worth accounting for this in your budget as it can get quite expensive.

The park

The park is set in lovely green woodland. You can ride around the whole park on your bikes. It is supposed to be car free after check in day, but for some reason people were still parking their cars and driving them in the park. It would be nice if the staff could be more strict on this so that you can ride around with small children and not have to worry about cars that shouldn't be there.

The parc would benefit from some outside toilets. If you are doing an activity outside, you have to go all the way back to the market hall to use the toilets which is not practical with small children. It was quite quiet when we were there and still there were queues in the ladies toilets.

Aqua mundo

The pool complex has something for all the family. It was clean with plenty of changing cabins. The tropical area wasn't that tropical though, although it's probably warmer in the summer. I would recommend an extra rash vest / swimming t-shirt for small children.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay. We went when it was off-season and capacity was probably only 50%. We probably wouldn't go in high season as there are over 1000 cottages, and it would be very busy at full capacity. But that might not...

This is one of the more 'mid' Center Parcs. We had stayed in three of the UK Center Parcs before, so we were spoiled by outstanding cleanliness, variety of activities for kids and adults, and better shopping. ||||Pros:||- there is plenty of things to do for younger children||- Food at Rockets and Oachkatzl was really nice||- Pre-ordered raclette and fondue was spectacular once we figured out how to book it||- The 'market' for shopping for items is really well stocked and has a great selection||- Info desk staff were super helpful||- Check in staff were friendly and made it easy for us||- Larger cabin made it great for larger families||- I liked the golf cart rental since I have issues with mobility ||- The outdoor market was really nice and we purchased a lot of schnapps, cow pictures and stuffed animals, and horse hoof necklaces (which were really nice). The honey on offer is also fabulous. ||- Spa was very nice (please provide larger sized bath robes). I would have liked to have spent more time there and booked more treatments, but due to the issue with the app (were unable to download) we were delayed in booking appointments. ||||Cons||- We had to rewash all the dishes and pans in the cabin. They looked clean but were greasy and had caked on food still. It was disappointing to do this. Same with the raclette rental. It arrived not fully cleaned and we had to re clean it before use. The QR code manual did nothing to help us figure out how to use the induction stove nor the microwave/oven and the washing machine. We had to find instruction manuals ourselves online. ||- When we filled the bathtub and turned on the jets a stream of dead bugs came out||- The top floor bedroom had a bug screen that was barely hanging on and leaning to the side. This allowed moths and other larger insects in the room at night. Since it was incredibly hot in the unit, the choice was to have a breeze with moths and bugs flying in, or sweat all night. Center Parcs should really provide plug in fans for the summer. ||- The floor were incredibly slippery and I slipped down the stairs way too many times. I resorted to lightly stepping up and down the stairs or wearing shoes to prevent slipping (which I hate doing indoors)||- We were unable to use the app. Each time we tried to download it, we got a message the app wasn't available in our country. This made everything about booking and check in way too hard. ||- Not enough activities for my older teen as he was deemed 'too tall' when we went up for the activities. ||- Cockroaches in the waterpark. Way too many. ||- Center Parcs really needs to monitor the people for the indoor water park portion. They were rude, left trash all over the place, dumping their drinks in the pools, picking their noses and swishing them in the water, men and young boys fondling themselves in the hot tub or with a visible erection wearing their swim trunks. The staff really need to watch for this and take action!!!!! I should not have to worry about the safety of my children in the water park and I felt extremely uncomfortable around them as well. Since I do not speak German, staff didn't understand me or were indifferent or just shrugged. ||- Provide a few more washing machines and dryers in the washing machine hut. There was a waiting line of 2 hours or more just to use a machine. ||- Despite Center Parcs saying it was 'car free' after check in, there were multiple cars still parked in front of the cabins and driving around all the time. They didn't have an accessible sticker or placard and people just refused to park them in the...