Get competitive with your colleagues at Center Parcs

It’s one of the hottest days of the year, we’re wearing laser belts on our heads and our team of four girls are running around with laser guns in the middle of a forest. We’re also trying to shoot a bunch of middle-aged men. Not your average afternoon at work, but it’s the best fun we’ve had in a long time. 

We’re trying the Center Parcs Conquer the Forest teambuilding challenge, competing against two teams of proper blokes. We’ve already had an ice-breaker game of adventure golf, as well as a pedalo boat race (which we won). 

Now, it’s time for the main and final challenge of the day –  laser combat. If you’ve got a competitive lot, this is their outlet, as the atmosphere gets progressively intense as the pulse-increasing rounds go on (you collect points for each round won). We preferred the games where you had an additional task besides shooting your opponents (collect balls, raise a flag, find an object), as it required an extra level of teamwork and strategising. 

We went into the final challenge feeling super confident, but we were soon outdone by the male teams, who have more ‘combat’ (read video game) experience than us. It’s all good fun though, and at the end, we didn’t even care that we were covered in sweat, mud and leaves. 

Only slightly defeated (and with a hint of sunburn on our shoulders) we arrived back at the Center Parcs conference suite to hear the results. Turns out teamwork and strategising (plus excellent pedalo skills) pay off, as we were announced the overall winners. 

Overjoyed – and only a tiny bit smug – we returned to London feeling exhausted, but in the good, outdoorsy, get-stuck-in kind of way. We highly recommend Center Parcs for a fun day out of the office.