Diving in Bedfordshire at Center Parcs

There’ll be a new opportunity for inland diving in Bedfordshire when Center Parcs Woburn opens in 2014.

With finance now secured after a five-year delay, the £250-million Woburn facility will become the fifth Center Parcs resort in the UK.

a lake on site for watersports

It will join the leisure company’s existing four sites at Whinfell Forest (Cumbria), Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire), Elveden Forest (Suffolk) and Longleat Forest (Wiltshire).

Center Parcs began life as a Dutch concern 40 years ago, although it was taken over by a US private equity firm in 2006. It opened its first UK resort in Sherwood Forest around 25 years ago.

Twee family holidays are pitched as activity-cum-rest-and-recreation. Golf, horse riding and archery feature against the backdrop of a woodland setting.

But what about diving? Well, Woburn will have a lake on site for watersports – although it’s not clear if scuba will take place there or in one of the several on-site swimming pools.

So should you want a resort-based UK diving holiday, you may be better off taking the kids to Stoney Cove for a week. Hopefully you have an understanding wife…