Single mother. Please advise on best Europe camping!

[lovemenorca]

I would love some guidance

Never been camping but I think my two children (9 and 7) would love.

I’m thinking camping next year.

Pre reqs
Hot and sunny
Pre erected, glancing kind of experience
Great swimming pool
Walking distance to a beach

And here’s the core one.... taxi distance from airport or ferry as I don’t want to hire a car when out there (nervous driver)

Can anyone help please?

I would decide which airports / ferry ports you can get to easily and in budget, then search on campsites on Trip Advisor.

Ah yes - I should have said that too.

I’m in Kent.

@ExpletiveDelighted
I’m looking for explicit guidance to best for a single (inexperienced camper) parent. Trip advisor not best for that. Mumsnet a great source for this kind of thing I have found in in the past

Duinrell in Holland is a suggestion. Less than an hour from the airport. Plenty to do on site and safe cycling.
The tents are quite close together tho and the weather is similar to the UK.

I hire a static caravan when there or one of the duingelows because it's a much more comfortable experience.

I don’t have any specific recommendations but I think the Ile de Re in France could tick your boxes?

The only thing is that sunshine might not be completely guaranteed as it is quite far north.

In general Huttopia sites are lovely, you could see if any of those are close enough to the coast/airport.

There's a great Facebook page you can join called Eurocamp Unofficial Supporters club (or similar) which has lots of posts and replies about this. It's a great resource.

Thanks so much

Really looking for Southern Europe as would like to be confident that sunny

The Eurocamp website offers a search option for car-free holidays. There's quite a few:
www.eurocamp.co.uk/travel-and-extras/travelling-by-plane/car-free-holidays
Do bear in mind that tents get unbearably hot.

Can recommend a campsite near Pula in Croatia called Stoja. V close to the centre about 4km (bus stops right outside the camp gates). Generally hot and sunny. No swimming pool but fabulous sea surrounding the campsite - one safe shingle beach and the rest rocky. Fabulous sunsets and if you are lucky can spot dolphins. Kids club. Good on-site supermarket and restaurant and bar. We were there in our camper van but they also have glamping tents and mobile homes. English widely spoken though v few Brits.

Tents get unbearably hot if not in shelter - all my eurocamp experiences have been in sheltered tents re plenty of trees with tents pitched underneath them.

I've had great experiences as a single parent family with eurocamp. I can't remember specific sites but mostly in brittany or sw. But I did take my car on the ferry.

I don't think you'll go far wrong with eurocamp.

Have you looked at lake Balaton in Hungary?
www.balatontourist.hu/en/campsites-campings-accommodations-at-lake-balaton/fured
You have guaranteed nice weather and it is easy to get to.

Companies you can look at
Eurocamp
Canvas holidays
Sun camp or sun lodge
Roan camping
Vacansoleil

My tips would be look at the local area and find reviews of the campsite. You can get transfers from airports relatively easy but will struggle if you can't get enough food locally.
Other things to consider when camping is going to the toilet. If you or one child needs the toilet in the night, will you be happy leaving the other sleeping whilst you go. If not, perhaps a caravan could be an option. Generally it's the same experience just with a toilet.

Just returned from France, not far from ile de re and the temperature was hovering around 30c and barely a cloud in the sky. St Giles croix de vie is accessible via the train so could be an option

France is known for campsties. Theres even one in paris. Southern europe may be a bit too hot and uncomfortable for camping in summer.

There are campsites in northern Spain on the med around hour from Girona airport or Barcelona and also the French coast not sure of the airports there though.

The site we go to in Spain (camping l’amfora) doesn’t do pre erected tents but has a range of mobile homes

One option might be flying to Nice in the French Riviera, and there are quite a few Eurocamp sites nearby along the coast. Have a look at La Baume, near Frejus. Either get a taxi from Nice (50km) or get the coast train to Frejus and a taxi from there. At that site you could get a chalet thing instead of a tent, which might be cooler in summer. The site has several pools.

I think I know an ideal place, OP.
Yelloh Village Serignan Plage.
It’s in the south of France, on a nature reserve, beautiful beach.
We stayed in a log cabin, Cabane Robinson I think. Air con, shower, microwave, dishwasher etc. 3 bedrooms. But there are tents etc and smaller cabins.
You can hire bikes, pretty cheap, our cabin came with bikes. There is a big pool with water slides. A good shop, brilliant bakery/patisserie, very good butchers that makes a MASSIVE paella for sale most days. Restaurant which does take away pizzas etc too.
In the evening there is a small funfair type thing, trampolines, merry go round etc. The main sq fills up, people walking around, chatting, eating waffles etc. You can play boules, or watch the moon over the sea.
My kids adored it here at the ages your kids were. They had great independence as it was very safe. They could scoot up to the square to play table tennis with the friends they made.
Really recommend it. And very near Beziers! We drove but my friend went and just got a taxi.
Here.

We stayed for a week at a Yelloh site near Beziers in France because my son was working there. We had a mobile home type thing near the beach which was lovely. It was a little out of season, so the site was very quiet (I’m not sure how it would be peak season). Did some great bike rides in the area, down the Canal du Midi, and spent a lot of time either by one of the pools, or on the beach. The village was called Vias Plage and was about 15 minutes by taxi from the small airport.

I am so touched with responses

Thank you!

Going to investigate them all now!

Should have made clear that not at all committed to a tent! Very happy with mobile home or similar

Will update... when booked!

Then get something with air con. It will make the holiday so much better.

@EleanorLavish and @Shockers

That’s the one I’m going to go for... thank you

Never done anything like this before. What accommodation and where on site would you recommend. Would like quiet spot ideally as we are early to bed

Not bothered about budget. Important thing is ease and comfort

@lovemenorca, we have possibly mentioned two separate sites which are very close. I’d go with Eleanor’s because she will have gone during the season, I think.

On ours, we chose the sandy part next to the beach and it was fabulous. It was a short walk from the main part of the site, so felt very much part of the beach, and had a lovely decked area with a sail for shade and lots of room for boules etc.

Good luck and happy holidays! 😎😃

This site is lovely and ticks your boxes.

Hot, sunny, lots of glamping options.

The site also offers a shuttle service from Barcelona airport.

The site is huge (5 pools including a massive dolphin shaped pool), 6 restaurants, sports club, beach club, onsite supermarket, laundry, bike hire etc

Everything you need basically, so no need to have a car.

www.eldelfinverde.com/en/accommodation-types/glamping-en/