If anyone had told me six months ago that I would be going on holiday with twelve bloggers I had never met before I would have told them they are absolutely crazy, but this is exactly how I spent last weekend! Back in February LDN Meet-Up organised a blogger holiday to Centerparcs Longleat Forest for twelve bloggers and I was so lucky to be able to go! If you want to get to know all of the bloggers that went Vicky has done an amazing post introducing everyone over on her blog.
After months of getting to know the girls that were going through 1000’s of Whatsapp messages the weekend of #BloggersInvadeCenterparcs had finally arrived. I headed to London the day before to meet up with one of my best friends Adele for a bit of pre-holiday shopping and to stay in Kingston for the night so that I felt well prepared for an early morning of travelling.
After quickly getting ready on Friday morning me and Adele started our road trip – complete with one of the best road trip play lists I have heard yet (think lots of One Direction, Megan Trainer and Taylor Swift). First was a quick stop off at Fleet services for some snacks for the road, then we headed to Adele’s home town where we went to visit her parents. After a quick lunch in Waitrose, we grabbed some Fro Yo and headed to Centerparcs Longleat Forest!
We were the first to arrive so we headed to Lodge 552 (AKA Lodge 2) and quickly unpacked all of the stuff and waited for everyone to arrive. Bella, Jess, Abi and Vicky arrived one by one and we sat and talked for ages getting to know each other and watching videos of our favourite blogger.
It’s amazing how much we all clicked, considering most of us had never met beforehand, it soon became like we had known each other for years.
Once everyone had arrived and we’d had the chance to relax a little we went over to Lodge 1 to meet the other girls. Lauren, Rachel, Laura, Laura and Laura (yes, there were three Laura’s!) had already made themselves comfortable so we sat and joined them before heading off to make dinner!
Even though we hadn’t mentioned to the other girls what we were cooking both lodges ended up making fajitas. Jess and Adele cooked up an amazing Mexican feast and we sat talking for hours before we all called it a night.
The next morning we woke up to Jess and Abi cooking an Instagram-worthy breakfast of croissants, crumpets and fruit. After breakfast, a couple of the girls headed to get their bikes and to go canoeing but me, Adele and Vicky decided to go down to the Jardin Des Sports for a Starbucks and a bit of badminton. Adele was absolutely amazing and put both of us to shame (which wasn’t too difficult in my case). The highlight had to be Adele hitting Vicky in the face with the shuttlecock, causing her to fall over!
We worked up an appetite playing badminton so we grabbed some lunch at the Sports Cafe before we went to play a round of Mini Golf. I was slightly better at mini golf than I was at badminton, however, Adele still managed to beat us both. We went back to Lodge 1 and ended up watching Pitch Perfect (best film ever!) before going back to our own lodge to get ready for a night out.
We all met at Lodge 1 and then caught the worlds slowest train down to Hucks American Diner where I sat with Laura, Bella and Abi. It was a perfect chance to get to know them better and I loved hearing all about Laura’s job! The meal consisted of selfie sticks, hot dogs, mac n cheese, burgers, amazing conversation and plenty of strong cocktails. I had a Frozen Daiquiri and the Mac n Cheese Hot Dog – it was bloody gorgeous! After food, we had Lodge 1 vs. Lodge 2 bowling, which was so fun. I’m terrible at bowling but we had Adele on our team who had definitely been practising!
We caught the train back to our lodges and went to grab our drinks (including glittery vodka jelly shots) before heading over to Lodge 1 for a very sober Kings Cup and Never Have I Ever, where we learnt a lot about each other than we will never tell. As we drank more and more we played heads up (which is absolutely hilarious), had a game of Beer Pong with Asti and saw Vicky reveal her hidden talent. Move over Jay-Z, Bloggas in Paris happened. The night introduced us to some amazing new hashtags too, my favourite definitely being #thatgirlfog.
The next morning some of us were a little worse for wear so after Adele cooked us an amazing fry up we spent the morning watching Devil Wears Prada, Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You while eating lots of junk food. A couple of the girls headed home that afternoon so we said our Goodbyes to Vicky, Laura and Rachel before some of us headed to the pool.
The pool was absolutely amazing, especially as we went as it was getting dark and the pretty fairy lights come on. The girls managed to persuade me to go on the rapids and I am so glad that they did as they were so scary but so much fun! On the way home, we grabbed some takeaway food and went back to the lodge to watch Sex and the City before an early night.
The next morning we packed up our things and said our goodbyes! Me, Adele, Bella and Abi had decided to go to Longleat Safari and Adventure Park as it was just next door and it was amazing so I will be doing another post about our day there soon. After we had well and truly tired ourselves out we said goodbye and went our separate ways, which was so sad! I had a long journey ahead of me, but Adele kindly drove me back to Kingston so I could head to London for my train, I was so happy as we got to Drive past Stone Henge which I have never seen before!
If you have made it to the end of this post – thank you! I had the most amazing time and I know I have made friends with some amazing girls and that we will be friends for life. I have never clicked so well with a group of people within minutes of meeting each other, and I am so happy I had the opportunity to do something so amazing. Thank you so much, Lauren, for organising everything at Centerparcs Longleat Forest. Roll on the next Trip!
