The Wife and I are considering taking our van abroad for the first time this summer. We live just outside of Bristol, and have two kids 7 and 9 so want the complete the travelling in a day, each way. We are quite happy to remain at the cooler end of France for the first trip, and allthough we arn't totally skint, would like to do this first trip on a fairly low budget. A site with an indoor pool, closed to the beach, with walks, local interests, and good scenery would be nice.
Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.
Tony B
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We stayed at Le Grand Large in Normandy last year. Weather was lovely and our pitch was 13 steps away from huge almost empty beach. No indoor pool, but one outside. We're in Cheltenham so near you, however because we took tunnel we did it in 2 days.Our boys were 5 and 7 at the time and loved pool, beach, ping pong , massive playground in the dunes and football pitch If you took ferry, may be doable in a day!
The vendee isnt too far assuming youre not going to dover for the ferry, not sure about indoor pools though, most tend to be outside as there is a bit of a micro climate - which means its a liitle warmer than you would expect, hence the lack of outside pools.
We are quite near you. I would go for Portsmouth or is it Poole to Cherborg and then drive into Brittany or Vendee. Can all be done in a day easily and an early exit from the ferry will mean quite kids for the majority of the mornings drive. There are some nice municiple sites along the way if you need and over night stop.
I have done the Plymouth -Roscoff route which is great for getting into Brittany, but we are better placed for Portsmouth routes.
Don't worry about an indoor pool as the weather will be lovely. There are lots of beaches and interesting places from Quimper down the coast to La Rochelle and beyond. Obviously the temperature gets cranked up alot from La Rochelle down.
Have you considered a campsite next to a lake instead of a beach, they are really impressive too?
We have also done night driving for long distances as the traffic just dissapears and you can cover an awful lot of ground on empty roads with sleeping kids, you just miss the scenery.
Sueze
------------- sueze
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If you don't mind paying about £600odd return on the ferry, then Portsmouth-St Malo will put you straight into a popular holiday area.
If you want to take a Dover route for about £150ret or much less if you find an offer or use Tesco vouchers on Eurotunnel you can drive down the coast only about 80miles or less to a nice enough area.
There are some nice sites around the Bay de la Somme/ St Valery area, about 60 miles south of Calais. Some even take camping cheques for a lot of the season. because they're in the north they often have sliding roofs on their pools so they can close them or open them depending on the weather.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Just another thought - if you want to bring costs down then think about going the last two weeks in August, rather than late July/early August. Some campsites bring their prices down, and you can make quite a saving. You could also take advantage of Camping Cheques at sites such as Val de Trie, in Picardie - which takes Camping Cheques from the 17th August. This would mean that a pitch for two adults, car and caravan, awning and electricity would cost just £13.95 per night, and the sites accepts 11 Camping Cheques for 14 nights. The normal site price for 17th August would be 25.80 euros - so you're saving 10 euros per night. There are supplements for the children, but you'd pay these if you were paying the normal site tariff. It has a covered pool, and is about 10 kilometres from the beach. It also has a park on site with petting animals, and you can watch the cows being milked (according to the information page about the site!).
There are several other Camping Cheque sites within a day's driving of Calais or Dunkerque, including Le Grand Large, mentioned above - which accepts Camping Cheques from 22nd August.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: First Trip abroad info.
