Eurocamp: anyone been and would recommend?

[sparkle]

Have any of you been on a Eurocamp holiday on the continent? Or another similar style holiday? Would you recommend it? Or would anyone recommend a different type of summer holiday for a family with under 10s?

any thoughts gratefully received!

[nunheadmum]

We've been to a camp used by both Eurocamp and Keycamp (and Canvas and others). It was Beg Meil l'Atlantique in Southern Brittany. We booked directly with the French operators Sunelia which got us a better (fresher) mobile home than the Eurocamp/KeyCAmp ones. But we were amid the French holidaymakers which wasn't as good perhaps for the kids (depends how outgoing yours are....ours are shy!).

Our LO's were younger 4 & 2 and we went out of season. But considering something like that for them this year.

We didn't use the kids clubs. The kiddie ones looked a bit tired out of season but others used them and liked them, for what they were. Expect the whole site feels more alive in high season.

For us the important stuff is a nice pool complex (different ones have different mixes of types of pool on offer), walking distance to the beach, close to some nice touristy areas for those days when you want to escape the camp. The on-site shop selling fresh bread and croissants was also a hit for us!

They're the kind of place we'd never have looked at before the kids but actually, they do the job quite well if you pick carefully.

[DVnewbie]

Hello - have been with both Keycamp (when children were nearly 1 and 2) to the Vendee and Eurocamp to the Dordogne (when children were nearly 2 and 3).

We went out of season both times and had lovely holidays. Although, we didn't really like the Vendee itself that much - the campsite itself was great.

Highly recommend this site in the Dordogne St Avit Loisir

Totally agree with Nunhead mum though - I've heard from lots of people that you get better accomodation if you book directly with a French operator. Also, we went in September last year so it was very very quiet. We wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if we went on our own but we went with 4 of my uni friends (plus their husbands and children!) so we had a quite a large party.... That made it lots of fun. But all the sites are set up for children under 10 - they all seem to love it.

The Dordogne is particularly lovely though. In fact, so lovely, we are going to the same sort of area again this year. (Sharing two houses this year though as it works out cheaper - Eurocamp etc. are not cheap!)

Brittany is great too and will probably be warm enough if you are going in the school summer holidays - and don't want too much of a drive.

[catgirl]

We've done it a few times and I think it's a brilliant family holiday. It's perfect for the children with great swimming pools, playgrounds and lots of other children to play with all on site. Lots of the sites have bike hire, horse riding and other activities too and restaurant / take away for when you can't be bothered to cook / bbq and don't want to eat out.

It's fab being outside in the fresh air all the time and we find it a really relaxing and fun way to holiday.

We book direct with the campsite - all the big sites have their own chalet / mobile homes for hire and is usually about 2/3 of the price of a Eurocamp mobile on the same site. Some sites also have their own tents for hire if you'd rather that than a mobile home.

The Eurocamp website is useful for choosing campsites though and if you're looking at France then the 'Castels' chain of campsites are all apparently excellent (we've stayed in 2 of them, both fab)

We've stayed in several sites in the Dordogne - all fab including St Avit Loisir recommended above which was lovely. Also a few in the Loire and a lovely one near Nice - let me know if you want more specifics.

Another tip on price is that the French schools go back mid august so the last week or 2 of the UK summer holidays are usually much cheaper if you are booking direct with the French site (very possibly the same case for other european countries but am not sure).

[snowboarder]

In my search for 'glamping' holidays I came across this article.

[catgirl]

Actually snowboarder, I meant to reply to your glamping thread as well and suggest camping in a mobile home in France. In June you could get a cheap deal and lots of the mobiles / chalets have 3 bedrooms so you could have both children in their own room. We have stayed in both the Loire campsites and the Dordogne one in that article and are going to the Vendee one - La Garengoire this year after rave reviews from friends about it.

We stayed here 3 years ago in Junewhen ours were aged 4 and just turned 1. Great facilities including a bouncy castle which both children spent ages on every day! We hired a 3 bed mobile home direct from the site.

http://www.camping-castels.co.uk/camping-domaine-de-la-breche-id253-id_camping16.html

[sparkle]

Thanks so much for all the useful information, lots of leads to follow.

How did you all get to these places? Did any of you drive? If so did you stop over?

catgirl when you booked direct with the campsite did you end up in an area with other English holiday makers (am all up for trying out my gcse french, but hope the small ones can make a few friends, and imagine that's a little easier with the same language!) Also can you tell me about the campsites you went to in the Loire?

Do the campsites have much shade?

thanks!

[Ann]

Sparkle, we have had many enjoyable campsite holidays over the years. Have been with Eurocamp, Keycamp, Venue and have also booked directly with campsite.

I agree with others that booking directly with the site is quite a lot cheaper but you will find yourself surrounded by French families- not a bad thing but perhaps not ideal with very young kids. I would also add that the spec in Euro/Keycamp is slightly higher; French caravans will not have an oven, possibly no microwave and defiantly no kettle! They also do a gistapo style inventory check, you have to clean your caravan before departure and stand there while they inspect your work! I found this a distinctly stressful way to end a holiday.

My children are now 16 and 18 and yep we're going again this summer!

We found a particularly good campsite a few years back and have returned. All sorts of friendships have been made, daughter is applying to study French at University and will have so many friends in France if she goes on work experience. We would recommend Le Brasilia near Perpignan. But in all honesty you can't go wrong with camping holidays in France!

Good luck!

[DVnewbie]

Sparkle - we got the ferry both times. Overnight to St Malo when we went to the Vendee - then drove straight to the campsite. (Ok, quite fun, but got minimal sleep overnight in our cabin....) When we went to the Dordogne we just stopped somewhere near Orleans. Just used a cheap travelodge type hotel - if you want to do the same, I recommend Campanille. Cheap and quite nice breakfast. Or you can stay overnight in some of the Eurocamp sites on the way down if there is a handy one to break your journey.

The websites should say how much shade the sites have - you can call them up and quiz them about details if it's not clear.

I think it's a really good holiday. However, I'm not convinced it's a particularly "cheap" option - unless you book with the French campsites directly but then you probably won't be directly surrounded by English toddlers. Not necessarily a bad thing...?

[catgirl]

We have driven to the Loire and Dordogne - leave early to get a ferry about 8 - 9am (chunnel is quicker but we like the change of scene and wandering around potential on the boat). Loire is then about ?4 hours from Calais and Dordogne more like 8. We have driven down straight to the Dordogne but also stayed overnight in Loire area. When we went to south of France we flew to Nice and hired a car there.

Have never really thought about it but yes, I guess we've been more surrounded by French and Dutch when we book direct but we tend to spend a lot of the time at the pool / playground / other communal areas which is where the children make friends anyway.

We've also not found any problem with the accommodation - the Castels site we went to in Loire (link above) had brand new mobiles which were fully equipped and amazing and we didn't have an inventory check or to do huge clean before we left. I've noticed the site we're going to this year offers end of stay cleaning as an extra so guess that implies they expect it to be left super clean in which case we'll just pay the 30euro for that which is still a saving of several hundred pounds from going with eurocamp to the same site. Also the chalet we're in has a covered terrace (quite a few sites own chalets have these) which is great for shade and also to enable eating outside even if raining!

Have to say sites vary greatly on shade and is something I always worry about. We always request a shady emplacement and you do always get an umbrella and can usually request an extra one(with eurocamp or sites own) but does seem quite hit and miss.

Will post later with site details

[prickle]

We camp rather than Eurocamp but find it less stressful to be with French and other non Brit people as our close neighbours. We can't understand them and they can't understand us! Can be very distracting when you can understand every little bit of your neighbours conversation. Too much information!

Agree that kids will find each other around the campsite and preschoolers in particular don't really need a common language to start a friendship.

[Carrie]

We used to go to the campsite recommended by Catgirl in the Loire (L'Etang de la Breche) with Eurocamp with a group of friends and their children every May half term - it is a lovely site and the Eurocamp pitches are quite big (compared with other French sites. We used to get the ferry over to Calais on Friday evening and stay overnight in an Etap hotel in Boulogne and then drive down on the Saturday morning. Eurocamp was always quite cheap in half term (I think it is quite an expensive option in the summer holidays) and the weather in the Loire was normally good (lazing round the pool type weather) although we did have a couple of rainy years.The last couple of years that we went we stayed on another Castels site in the Vendee which was another lovely site but I can't remember the name (maybe St Julien Lelande or something like that) which had a lot to do for slightly older kids - horseriding, archery, canoeing etc.

Going on the Dover/ Calais ferry was definitely the cheapest option and staying overnight in the Etap hotel always worked out cheaper than any of the other travel options.