Camping in France

[snowboarder]

Can I have some recommendations please?!? We don't (yet) have our own tent but could be persuaded to buy, but honestly I think I would prefer a chalet or lodge (or mobile home?) type accommodation. Swimming pool and driving distance from UK is preferable, and not too big/holiday park-like. We need to holiday on a budget this year!

Also - we've never done this kind of hols before apart from the odd 'glamping' weekend in the UK - would you go for 2 weeks or would that be a bit much and better a week with another option tagged on?

OR...recommendations for a school holidays family holiday for 4 that won't break the bank!!

(sorry - I think I do a post like this every January :-) )

[bawdy-nan]

I love camping in France and its great for kids.

There are lots of very good ones - you could try looking at the cool camping website..

https://www.coolcamping.co.uk/campsites/europe/france

In some places you can hire pre-erected tents - Indigo camping do safari tents and this was brilliant - all the pleasures of camping with none of the hauling ...

http://www.camping-indigo.com/en

We did this in Noirmoutier which was absolutely gorgeous. No pool but right on the beach, lovely cycling, great place, can't recommend highly enough and not too bad a drive.

The thing about France though is that you can't necessarily guarantee the weather unless you go very far south. Last year, for example was drizzly in Burgundy (though we stayed at a very lovely campsite in the Movan Forest http://www.campinglaforet.nl/pages/uk.campsite.htm - excellent for kids with a swimming "pond" a big barn to play in and very friendly owners who do "activities" like a campfire, and occasional camp meals) stormy but lovely in the Ardeche and then sunny and lovely in Northern Provence.

Generally we go for about two weeks and stay at 3 different sites making sure we don't have to drive too far in one go. Sometimes we'll break up the return journey with an overnight in a hotel (travelodge type) but pick a nice town and its great (Beaunes or Tours, I;d highly recommend). I think the good thing about taking your own tent is that it is gobsmackingly cheaper than hiring a chalet or caravan type thing. Also, i love the outsideness of it and the kids just lolloping around outdoors instead of inside...

Places we've really liked have been:

the one in Burgundy mentioned above (my son said it was the best place he'd ever been);

the Indigo campsite in Noirmoutier (see above);

http://www.campingmilletoiles.com/en on the Ardeche River (but right above the gorge so not at all resorty and a great walk down to the river); quite isolated (but we liked that)

http://www.camping-pyrenees-natura.com/ in the pyrenees - very very beautiful site and area (but can be chilly in the night); amazing walks and a short drive over a beautiful hilly road to a village with an outdoor pool where you can swim looking up at soaring birds of prey and mountains.

http://www.camping-panorama.com/ on the Great Dune of Pyla - nice for sliding down difficult climb up and not especially great for swimming but gorgeous site in the pines, lovely restaurant and a great pool; gorgeous views and sunsets, oysters a plenty, you can get a boat out to the sandbar or from Arcachon across to the Cap

http://www.camping-indigo.com/fr/camping-indigo-forcalquier-provence.html nice campsite with a pool on the edge of a lovely little Provencal hill town.

http://www.campinglecapeyrou.com/index.html?lg=gb - in Dordogne - not a fan of the Dordogne myself (may have just had a bad experience being positioned next to a huge group of hideous and fighty brits) but this was a great site - right on the river for paddling and canoeing, two castles walkable, great shop across the road - pretty site.

http://camping-le-raguenes-plage.com/en/ this is a nice site in Brittany with a walk through a field to the beach - and lots of lovely things to do nearby though Brittany can be very chilly and wet (bit like Cornwall).

[SLad]

Apparently center parcs in the Netherlands and Belgium are brill and much cheaper than over here.

[katgod]

Indigo, huttopia and castels sites all good. Cabins etc cheaper if you book direct with sites rather than via Eurocamp or Keycamp - the latter UK companies use/own accommodation on sites owned by former.

[snowboarder]

Wow thanks Bawdynan - loads to be looking at! I do like the look of the Indigo places - but can I survive for a week without a bathroom?!? I've only ever done 1/2 nights!

Husband is suggesting a trip to Eurodisney on the way/way back.....Oh my, that's a whole different ballgame!!

[yeknomyeknom]

I recently did some similar research. I wanted a short drive from the eurostar, to be beside a lake and to have activities for my boy. I found Le Lac d'Ailette. It's run by centre parcs. French centre parcs is very different than UK centre parcs. Not that I'm knocking either. It's a very short drive door to door. The accomodation on the lake is beautiful and there are fab kids facilities including a farm. It is also very reasonably priced.

[StraferJack]

Camping in France you say?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Tent-Bucket-Emma-Kennedy/dp/0091926793

[bjm]

La Belle Dune in Picardy, one hour drive from Calais, lovely houses to stay in on the French run park. Huge indoor swimming pool and outdoor, playground, train to local resort which has a fabulous huge clean beach.

Also Normandy Gardens Eurocamp, amazing beaches nearby and a lovely site with pool and indoor play area.

[catgirl]

snowboarder - not sure about the huttopia ones but certainly the castels sites all have mobile homes / chalets which have bathrooms in.

As katgod said, is much cheaper to book directly with the campsite and stay in their own accommodation rather than through eurocamp / keycamp. Having said that, the eurocamp / keycamp websites are quite useful for finding camp sites in the fist place.

Eurocamp website shows at a glance the size of the campsite and what is available at each one. We tend to go for the medium / small ones rather than the huge full on ones.

It's a brilliant holiday for children and adults - it's great to be outside all the time and playground, pool, shop etc all in one place. We take bikes too so the children can cycle around the campsite and we do some longer family bike rides too.

We normally do 2 weeks and do a week in 2 different campsites because we like a bit of variety. Only disadvantage of this is that you have to pack / unpack twice!

[Lmcg46]

We've done a few mobile home holidays both in France and here in the UK. I think they're a great option for a budget and a good bit easier/less organising than camping. Our kids love the mini-house as they always call it. Having all the amenities onsite is great for lazy days or you can go offsite for a bit of alternative relief - they're usually in good tourist areas in France. We usually try and go somewhere near a beach that you can walk to for ultimate convenience.

We've always done 2 weeks in one place - we started doing 1 week holidays but found you'd no sooner started to relax than you had to think about heading back. 2 weeks allows for a real chill out feeling.

Would definitely go for the smaller parks and book direct as discussed above to get the best prices - and often the better vans/pitches!

[natalieljackson]

If you look up Ch?teau des Marais on the Eurocamp website, then book a cabin through the French site, not Eurocamp, it's far cheaper and a really lovely site. Not too far South of Paris, lots to do for a family with kids in the area. You can even stay in a tree house if your kids aren't prone to lemming behaviour like ours!

The Eurocamp tents are great too as they have kitchenettes but I preferred the cabin as we didn't have to go outside to the loo!

[scareyt]

We're going here in August for our first time camping in France. All the bigish sites seem to have a package where you bring your own tent but you can hire a set of table, chairs, loungers, sun umbrella, barbeque & fridge from the site for 10 Euros a day. Which solves the problem of packing the car so full you can't move.

http://www.campingchantepie.com/en/