One of Raisingkids’ longstanding moderators, Pollylolly agreed to review a family break at Butlins for us. She took her husband and daughters and braved the blizzards this Spring to head off to Butlins in Skegness for the Easter weekend

Woo- hoo. There's great excitement at Camp Pollylolly – we're off to Butlins. Myself and my husband haven't been for ages and our girls aged nine, 12 and 15 have never been. Now if only our wishful thinking brings out the sun!

Just can't wait
The two weeks prior to going – for the Easter weekend – our whole family had been on countdown after our nine-year-old's older sisters showed her the Butlins website. They spent days looking at all the things they were planning to do.

We set off early on Good Friday and arrived around lunchtime where we were greeted by a very smiley, amiable security man who wished us a good stay and told us which line to follow. Butlins have colour coded lines painted by the side of the road for you to follow to your accommodation type – very clever.

Our first stop was the resort's Skyline Pavilion for something to eat. The girls immediately made a bee line for Burger King but we picked one of the food outlets and got a coffee and cake for me and coffee and sausage sandwich for him.

Then it was a quick walk around the site before we succumbed to the weather and wandered up to the Butlins Gold check-in – which was lovely and warm. The staff were very pleasant, explaining where to eat, how to get to our accommodation and lastly handing out two very large Easter eggs to our younger girls. But at 15 Laura was down as an adult - so there was no egg for her!

Our apartment was amazing - one of the best self-catering ones we've ever had. Loads of room, three good-sized bedrooms, complimentary tea and coffee and DVD player with a big TV – not that we were expecting to watch much TV. We unpacked, had a brew and the girls got ready to go out for an evening meal and to see what the entertainment was like.

We dined in the restaurant set aside for guests in Gold accommodation. This was self service where you could eat as much as you want with a good choice of meals including a roast every day. They were onto a winner with our youngest as they had sprouts which she loves – peculiar child that she is! Breakfast was in the same place with a choice of full English, pancakes, omelettes and the like. We all enjoyed breakfast including our eldest girl who had croissants and fruit.

Peace and quiet
The higher the standard of accommodation the further away from the Skyline you are, and although it was nice and quiet at night, it was quite a walk to everything. In summer I would imagine it would be a very pleasant stroll to the restaurant but at this time of year we had about a mile to go through snow and ice - so bear that in mind if you're travelling with anyone who cannot walk far.

There's a lot of activities on site - although it was a pity our eldest two didn't have more teenagers around to mix with. One of the places we spent the most time was Butlins' indoor pool complex - Splash Zone. There's a shallow area for little kids, an area like a Jacuzzi where warm jets appeared from nowhere, along with an area just for parents and tots which appeared to be well used. We spent a lot of our time here!

We also bought the girls a fun pass which seemed good value - for £10 you could get a booklet which gave tickets for four things, cinema, bowling and a game of Laser Quest along with a half hour game of pool.

One area where we were disappointed was finding things for our youngest to do. The soft play area was out of bounds as she was half a centimetre too tall and perversely many of the fairground rides were out of bounds for her too as she was half a centimetre too short. But she did enjoy the two rides she got to go on.

Time stands still
At the end of the weekend, we took a morning out on the Sunday and went into Skegness itself, found a lovely café that did a good pot of tea, and had a look at the sights. It seemed as though little had changed since we'd last been! It’s a nice place to visit, the beach is clean and accessible with easy parking and the people were friendly.

Overall we had a nice break, our apartment was in a delightful, quiet village setting, the food was good and plentiful and we felt that it was safe to let our older girls wander around after dark without parental supervision which is always a bonus.

For more information about Butlins and to book your family break, click here.

• Groovy times at The Grove
• Taking the night train to Tresco
• Childcare on tap in Scotland
• Click here to return to our Easter section
  
• The Buggy Blogger - life's never dull with three kids