We love the 70s, at Butlins
A wet weekend in Bognor may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but when you're at a We love the 70s weekend at Butlins, it can turn out to be a laugh!
An adults only weekend at Butlins sounds a bit sleazy, but I found that a holiday park without any kids makes for an incredibly easy weekend away - even the entertainment was thrown in!
For me, the 70s were a blur of school days and exams, and one incredibly hot summer. The small town in which I grew up played host to daredevil motorcyclist Eddie Kidd, who leapt an 80-foot gap across a disused railway viaduct, but that was about as exciting as it got!
I'm not a devoted fan of dressing up, nor of nostalgia, but a group of friends and I decided to head for Bognor Regis and take up Butlins' invitation to revisit the 1970s. Hey, Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers was playing, so what's not to like?
The Bognor site sprawls along the seafront, and by the time I arrived at about 5.30pm on the Friday, the car parks were already pretty full. I assume that parking is more of a problem on their party weekends as many groups of friends, like us, were coming from different parts of the country and meeting there.
Accommodation
We rented a three-bedroom flat in Atlantic Bay, the gold-standard apartments. It was a well-arranged flat with a large, open-plan kitchen-diner-come-living room, three bedrooms and a bathroom. It was basically furnished, but perfectly comfortable and adequate for our needs. The single beds in the two twin rooms were covered with a waterproof coating which made rolling over a crunchy affair, but would be good for families of small children as there'd be no problems with bed-wetting.
My main gripe, as always in rented places, is that although the apartment was billed as self-catering, the saucepans were not really big enough to cook for six adults. And with only a small larder fridge, it would be hard for a family to stock up if they were staying on a week's holiday. There is a small supermarket on site and a large Tesco about a ten-minute drive away, so it's easy to get fresh food if the standard fare of burgers, pizza and curry doesn't appeal.
Entertainment
The party weekend attracted a mixed range of age groups. There were a few groups of young adults, probably just scraping past the over-18s cut off, but the majority were slightly older. There were several hen and stag parties, as well as plenty of mixed groups. Most people entered into the spirit of things and dressed up in the evenings. The bars were full of glam rockers, and people sporting big hair and dodgy fashions, and everyone seemed up for a laugh.
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