Butlin’s Skegness is one of three Butlin’s Locations in the UK and is the most Northerly one of the bunch, it’s on the east side of the country and caters to the North and Midlands. It’s host to a variety of accommodations, a fairground, a swimming pool, shows Complexes, activities and occasionally a Circus with the resort Pavillion in the centre.
Where is it?
Butlin’s Skegness is located on the beachfront of Skegness, which means you will have to travel right to the coast either via country roads or through little towns and villages. But you can access close to it via A1, A15, A17 and A52 however at peak times expect to be busy, especially as you get to the end as Butlins is located on one of the main roads in and out and via the local activities like Theme park, Golf course and other Caravan etc holidays.
The Resort
Compared to the other sides it may be the much older looking of the three with very little special focus on accommodation many of these style units in their range are also located at other resorts. However, there are many more Caravan places and local caravan holidays available compared to the others. Interestingly Butlins is more of a rectangle shape as it parallels to the beach and the sea with it also containing a beach gate, which is quite excluded compared to the rest of the town.
Whats on
With this shape everything is spread out in that angle, the Pavillion and much of the building are in the centre and slowly spread out from there, then you go to the accommodation and so on to the edge, this means that walking from one end to the other is actually a little distance, its the same for your accommodation to certain facilities, if your at the south end, you next the fairground, activity centre, Sky Park, Diner, Reds etc.. but the north people have further to walk.
Flip this around the northern end has the Swimming Pool, Laser Tag, Circus etc. There are some units in the middle dotted between the pavilion and the beach, these and imagine the first sets of units are probably more expensive as you are paying the premium of being close, but it’s noisier.
Use the App
This leads me to the next point, some things are a little random due to this, the Sky Park is a fantastic new play park and first launched at Skegness however I wasn’t sure where this was for the first 24 hours and actually it was near us and used the app to locate it, likewise the small kids fairground is down the South end, literally he edge of activities, this isn’t a bad thing if you have accommodation that end and for me it seems the better end, but it will be noisy. The circus in the north end is kind of ok position, it was near the Beachcomb pub and the skating with Laser tag,
Renovating
The General feel of Skegness Butlins is that it seems to be having investment, many things felt new, signage, flower displays, the layout of the fairground, etc having not been for a while I’m not 100%sure what is new but the feel of it was good, there was certainly stuff that needed doing, but much like other resorts there accommodation is being improved, such as there detach lodges and Larger caravan style which is much more of thing here that the other resorts, much like permanent caravans that you can buy which is actually much like the rest of the UK holiday resorts, more on accommodations on other Butlin related posts.
Familiarity with food
Across Butlins many of the activities have been standardized, this is not a criticism at all and actually makes them much better at organising them and knowing what works, this is the same for food, I’ve done a separate food post also and the benefits of the options. Skegness has the same Dining options as restaurants, from more generic Food like the Diner and Papa Johns’s to Beachcomb and Firehouse style pub-like, inside the main pavilion are Burger King, Fish and Chips, Bakery, and Costa.
Utilising brands is actually a huge benefit for both Butlins and customers as they have the safety net of understanding what the food is and can feel comfortable in their orders etc..
Having a mini supermarket in the pavilion is very useful for all, if you are self-catering this is a great way of topping up you food, for everyone else the option for snacks, drinks etc.. allows you to fill the gaps between meals booked or not. Speaking of Which, there are dining plans that allows you to have breakfast and Dinner, while lunch is sorted by you, these meal options are fine and balancing the price of these plans compared to food options in the resort is your choice.
Lots of things to do
Each resort has Swimming, Arcades, fairgrounds, Shows, mini fairground, activities like Laser Tag, crafts and crafts, the new Skyline Park, Bowling, Golf, and High Ropes so for Skegness this is no different. The swimming pool for our visit was half closed and maintenance work had overrun, however, the slides and kiddy pool were open and these were fine, most have a big pool and last river now, while Skegness has rapids, a unique almost fast water rush, which was pretty good. Many of these activities including swimming are bookable and can be a little limited.
The Fairground was actually the better of the three at this point, a good selection of little rides and all looked fairly up to date, not old and rundown remember this was included in the price and a great way to occupy kids for breaks in between activities. The Younger fairground which was near our accommodation oddly, had been tweaked and even though using older style rides, this really does well for younger kids who often get forgotten about at theme parks.
Dont forget the shows
There are lots to do when you add all those activities up for kids, and you can fill the week/ weekend up, but one of the main parts of Butlins is their Shows, Skegness like the other resorts has Center Stage, Reds and Studio 36 which was a special stage and venue built at lockdown that has now been kept on at all three resorts and improved, these three venues are great and allows to spread out the shows.
The pavilion has a stage and often holds the Skyline gang and the odd other thing but it is not as big and central to their shows as it used to be. In general, shows have decreased especially for younger ones but you can still enjoy a range of big-name celebrity shows like the masked Singer and Gladiators, to magic shows, tribute musical acts, Wrestling and Butlin’s own Panto and Musical shows.
Personally, there are shows that will cater for all, we have a mixed age group family now and as we now start to edge away from the really young its means we are able to enjoy more all-round entertainment, if you need to cater to a particular group like Tots breaks that have much more aimed shows to kids or the older Big weekenders which are more music and more drink and fun. These weeks are broken down when you book and you can see the different range of shows and some activities for those weeks.
Compared to the others?
For us, Skegness is our third best, but there are some good things going for it, I like it had investment and some of it looks better than the other two resorts, being northish…and on the coast, it can get cold, this could hamper your plans, it’s a were thing that I’ve mentioned it a couple of times that it feels long because of the rectangle shape, you feel like you’re going back and forth on the same line several times.
It does all feel a bit squeezed in, busy moments feel busy, and there doesn’t feel much space, it’s not a big thing but for some, they might not feel comfortable. I like the accommodation options and living at the seaside for half my life I’m no stranger to the feel of being at the seaside with all these options.
Overall
It was a good visit, we’ve been to Butlins several times now and know how you use it, the B serv felt less important here, and while booking shows and activities was an important thing to do, it felt like we needed to “Bolt-on” almost every instance/show/food activity, and that’s a post for another time. The Swiming pool was good though the part was closed, the Circus was fine…not great and we have seen this circus somewhere else and it’s much better there, the fairground and other activities were good and ultimately didn’t hamper our time, we still all had a good time even though there were some frustrations.
