To be caught among a group of parents without an opinion on Center Parcs is like showing up at the office without your trousers. People may acknowledge your embarrassment but they won't understand how you got this far without realising something was missing.

Center Parcs virgin Jennifer Howze visited the Sherwood Forest site to find out why

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'Brilliant,' my sister-in-law called it after visiting with her two teenage sons. 'It was marvellous,' another friend said, who went with her toddler and baby. In fact, every parent my husband and I talked to had been or was planning a visit.

As any parent knows, holidays with the children are far from the wild and free excursions we all once enjoyed. These days we're happy to get two hours without playing Snakes and Ladders.

Safe, car-free fun
What's great about Center Parcs is that it does two things: it provides plenty of all-day fun that kids and adults alike can enjoy while also giving parents plenty of time to themselves.

All the camps are set up as car-free zones. You check in, park your vehicle, then spend the rest of the time wheeling around the grounds on your bike, walking through a village square that has restaurants, a market, carp ponds, a swimming pool, a bowling alley and more.

It was the simple things that pleased us the most, like simply cycling around the camp and enjoying the domesticated great outdoors. We also loved the Treasure Trail, a simple scavenger hunt on bikes you do with other families, some of them overly competitive. We were practically run over by a father, two kids on bikes with stabilisers and a mother towing a toddler in a trailer. Never mind, we goofed around, got lost twice and managed to come in fourth.

The pool, or 'Subtropical Swimming Paradise', is also a major draw. It has a main area (the temperature was a bit too cool for us but was well-populated), a baby pool, a children's pool with two slides and a sand area, a heated outdoor pool, a 'Grand Cascade' slide for adults, a 'Wild Water Rapids' and more - enough to keep everyone entertained for half a day.

Other great benefits include an Ofsted-registered creche, a billiards room, badminton, ping-pong, a football academy and a falconry. Don't worry, you'll get an entire booklet for pre-booking the activities you want.

Relax in the spa
Make sure the Aqua Sana spa is on the list. Let's face it, you can't stay at any kind of resort or hotel these days that doesn't have a spa. Some can be dispiritingly empty but the Aqua Sana here was big, with treatment rooms, a hammam, an ice fountain, gardens, rooms of different temperatures and a cafe serving 'Food Doctor' menus. Furthermore, it was populated by both men and women. Often spas have pointless little rooms for 'relaxing' that no one ever sits in. Here, I saw people meditating in the Zen garden, chatting in a sunny relaxation room, simmering in a bubbling pool and otherwise taking advantage of all the facilities.

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Center of the world: the holiday park every parent should know about