Review: Butlins, Minehead.

On June 10th me and my boyfriend went to Butlins in Minehead, Somerset. We spent 4 nights there for his 18th birthday, and it was my first time ever at Butlins. I really enjoyed it, but I knew I wanted to do a detailed review of the place for others who had never been on what to expect. I read a ton of reviews on TripAdvisor and it actually made me less excited to go, mainly because a handful of the reviews commented on the cleanliness of the rooms. But once we arrived I sort of forgot about it and my excitement returned. I'll talk you through the holiday from start to finish:

Splashworld

 Our trip started at 10am with two different trains and a long bus journey from Taunton to Minehead. If you go by train, you may want to consider booking your seats because we had to stand up for the majority of it (it was a 4 hour journey all together!). Once we had arrived, we went to the check in to get our keys. We arrived just before 4pm so we didn't have to wait long to get into our rooms, we were very tired and just wanted to sit down. We waited at the check in for a little train which took you around the resort and dropped you off where you were staying. We stayed at Oyster Bay which was the standard self-catering apartments. 

This is what the hallway looks like with the front door ahead.

This is the 'master' bedroom with the double bed (my minion on my side!). The only problem I found with this room was the window would not shut properly, so it would bang throughout the night, keeping me awake. We had to tuck some of the curtains between the window to stop the banging.

This was the spare room where we kept our suitcases, towels, and clothes.

The other side of the spare room with our suitcases and swimming gear. We'd just been swimming!

This was our bathroom, small but very nice, and the shower worked well. The only problem I found was the toilet roll holder was too high for my preference, I ended up taking it off and putting it on the sink for easier access.

This was the front room, dining room, and kitchen in one. It was pretty big and spacious, with quite a nice view from the first floor up. You were only allowed to watch 5 main channels on the TV, and you couldn't get a guide either. None of the heaters worked, I'm not sure whether you have to request it or pay for it, but none of the switches would turn on.

This was was kitchen and dining area with the living room being slightly to the right of this photo. It was bright and spacious, and surprisingly clean (apart from the windows and oven, those were a MESS!). The fridge had enough space to fit food for the week, but the freezer part was very small. The kitchen cupboards already have plates, cups, and cutlery (not a lot I must add). As you can see I ended up drying my hair in the kitchen because none of the other plugs worked!

This was the 'backgarden' view from the spare bedroom window. The apartments are in a square set up so these are the backs of Oyster Bay apartments.

This was the front view out of the living room window. Not as good of a sight as the back, but it was quite peaceful either way. The road in the middle was where the little train dropped us off. It took us a little bit of time to find where the apartment was.

So that was our apartment. I was quite happy with it, the only downside was the fact it was quite a walk away from the main place within the resort. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to splash world. On the second day (Tuesday) we went swimming in the morning. We were told on the brochure that it opened at 10am, so we got there 10 minutes early. There was a pretty big line already, and we ended up waiting in line for around half an hour before being allowed in. Once we got in, we put our stuff into the locker, jumped into the shower (they ask you to get 'wet' before entering the pool) and then went in. It was so full.. Uncomfortable full. Some guests got to go in earlier, and it seemed like half of the people staying at the resort were in there before us! We managed to get into the lazy river, and all I did was bump into people and drink a ton of nasty pool water. I felt hot and sick (I've not been swimming for years!). We stayed in there for roughly 3 hours, spent some time going on the slides (which were really good fun! Except we got stuck on the Master Blaster).

ARCADES!!! This is where we spent practically ALL our time!

All of the prizes we won from the arcades.

Me with my cute minion (we bought him).

The arcades were really good fun, and quite addictive. I'm not a big fan of the 2p ones, but I ended up playing non-stop for 2 hours trying to win an ice-cream, a cat, a cupcake, a panda, and some other things. We spent majority of our money there!! Some of the games you get tickets from, which go towards some gifts (which to be honest most of them you can buy off eBay for less than £5). On Thursday which was our last full day, we won the jackpot on one of the games and ended up getting a total of nearly 2,000 tickets. The guitar at the back right was the one my boyfriend won for 1,500 tickets. All the little figures were won on the 2p machines (my favourite is the cupcake, that was the first one we got). My boyfriend won me the Sponge bob from the 30p machine (I must of had about 30 tries to win him!!! Was such a happy bunny when he finally won it). The Zingy (back left) I won on my own for my boyfriend but he ended up giving it to me because I love them. He bought me the minion from the Butlin's toy shop because I am in love with Despicable Me ❤


We went to Scoop for ice cream, this was quite expensive but worth it. It was real Italian ice cream and we just couldn't pass it up... We went twice! They had quite a lot of flavours to choose from, including cookie dough, oreo, strawberry milkshake/cheesecake, fudge, mint etc. For two ice creams it cost just under £10. We also went to The Sun And Mood Inn for a lunch before going swimming on the Thursday. Again this was very expensive for two meals, two cokes, and one desert (came to just under £30), but it was worth every penny. I had a jacket potato with beans and cheese, and my boyfriend had the big cheese and bacon burger. It was filling and delicious! And the desert was HUGE! I forgot both my phone and camera so couldn't take a photo, oh how I wish I could've because it would've blown your mind.

The first time we went to Scoop, we both got the three scoops and it was way too much to handle, but was so delicious at the same time. I had mint, vanilla, and cookie dough (left); and my boyfriend had strawberry cheesecake, oero, and cookie dough (right).

Our second Scoop experience. We opted for two scoops instead of three this time. Expensive but worth every lick, tehe :3 Also, excuse the slightly sun burnt rosy cheeks.

The last place we went to was Minehead town. We passed the beach but didn't go to it as the weather wasn't the best. There wasn't many exciting places, we walked through the main part and went for a meal in Wetherspoons on Wednesday. The meals there were again expensive, but not as expensive as the Butlins prices of course. The meals were lovely and filling. I chose a burger and chips, whilst my boyfriend had a lasagna. There are plenty of "seaside" stores all around the place so you won't forget to buy your friends some rock, or get a souvenir.

The beach from afar. The weather wasn't the greatest, and the tide was out.

Butlin's have pretty good entertainment throughout the morning, afternoon, and evenings from Monday to Thursday. We didn't know about it until Tuesday, so we missed the Adele tribute and a comedy act which sounded good. We did however see three tribute acts in the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Firstly we saw The Rolling clones. These were okay, they did look and sound like them, but not my taste. I only knew one song and felt a little bit bored. Wednesday we saw the best tribute act I've ever seen! We saw Tina Turner and Tom Jones act, they sang their songs together and were absolutely amazing! Thursday we saw a Jackson's act, they dressed up and danced and sang the songs, but didn't sound like them, so it wasn't a 'full' tribute act. They were very good though, I would definitely see them again. The only thing we were disappointed with them was that none of them did the moon walk!

Looked and sounded like Tina and Tom, would see it again for sure!

Tom Jones and Tina Turner act - the best act!!!

Me watching the Tina and Tom tribute act (and being very tired)

If you're planning on going to Butlin's, whether it be Minehead or another place, I hope you enjoy it and have a ton of fun. If you're self catering, remember to either bring food with you, or go to the Tescos or Morrisons stores which are a 10 minute walk away from the main entrance of the Minehead resort and stock up (unless you're going out for food). Let me know your experiences!