Bruges / Lille / Le Touquet or...?

[nearlyspringyay]

Thinking October half term with 11 yo DTs. Fancy a few nights in France or Belgium, no more than two hours from Calais. We do further south every year in the summer. We've done Paris and Disney already.

Will the kids be bored in Bruges? Is there somewhere better?

What do your DTs like? Bruges is old buildings, canal trips, chocolate, very cute. Lille is a big city with lots of regeneration going on - fab museums, especially www.roubaix-lapiscine.com/en/home/ (tram ride away), flea markets etc. Le Touquet is mostly about the beach and great if there's good weather. Otherwise, it's quite sedate - lots of Anglicised Tudorbethan buildings called 'Daffodils' and stuff owned by posh Parisians.

What about exploring Belgium. Everything is so close together, Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp are all gorgeous. Plus highly recommend a day at the theme park Plopsaland de Panne. Absolutely fantastic rides and if the Belgian and French schools are not on hols will be pretty quiet. Great indoor waterpark there too. Dc12 and 15 love it there, been 4 or 5 times.

I was surprised how much we liked Lille - museums and galleries, good shopping, restaurants and cafes.

Le Touquet has a great Saturday market. The beach is huge, lots of water sport but it might be chilly in October.

At about that age, we combined a short stay at De Haan (Belgian coastal resort) with a day trip to Bruges (somehow stumbling on a massive underground carpark).

We stayed at a Sunpark (cheaper version of Centreparcs), which was good enough. They've hopefully refurbished it in the intervening years.

Eating out was easy as DD loves mussels and meat (and waffles and chocolate)!