Eurocamp

[Whiiiissstle]

Morning everyone,

I've seen Eurocamp pop up on a couple of threads recently, I have to admit I had never heard of it before.

I had a, quick look at the site and it seems to offer a good compromise on having a holiday abroad but not breaking the bank so would like to look more into it for the four of us (kids are 6 and 8)

I was just wondering if anyone had been to a Parc before? Are they easy to get to, was the parc nice, can you do day trips outside of the site etc. Does anyone have any experience they can share some insight to? 😀

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If you’re short on time, here’s a summary of the best Eurocamp sites Mumsnetters are recommending on this thread:

😎La Vallée, Normandy, France

😎La Croix de Vieux Pont, Paris

😎Des Menhirs, Brittany

😎Union Lido, Adriatic, Italy

😎Park Albatros, Tuscany

MNHQ

Still following and also interested in more info about travel to Bella Italia

France as a while is incredibly dog friendly. Takes a while to organise the passport.

Can I share this link for the sun holidays

www.ukholidaysinthesun.co.uk

If you search by specific park - scroll down for the non UK sites, it will give you an option to select 7 nights. You can then search for the dates and see if anything is available.

Alternatively you can search by area but this will only search by 3/4 nights.

The prices look good.

Thanks for the link @hollyblueivy 😀

I am certain you could do Bella Italia without a car. We did have a car when we stayed there but I remember at the reception desk there were people getting picked up/dropped off by taxis. It is really close to Verona airport.

Having said Eurocamp are expensive - and they are - I think we did book through them when we stayed there. But you could book direct with the site.

The site itself is huge. There is a good-sized supermarket on site selling everything you'd need for a week, but obviously a bit more expensive than an off site one. There's also a bakery, ice cream shop, take aways, restaurants and some other souvenir/holiday tat shops.

There are several different types of pool and lots of other activities, playgrounds, mini golf maybe?

It's walking distance to the nearest town, but the site also puts on one of those little tourist trains that took you into town in the evenings if you didn't want to walk. The town has loads of restaurants and shops and is very nice for a mooch about.

The site is right on Lake Garda so you can go to the beach there and hire pedalos to take out on the lake. We also hired an electric boat for a few hours which was really good fun.

I expect the reception also organise trips to Verona and Venice, and I think there's a train station in Pescheria.

We did Bella Italia through Canvas.
Verona and Venice are easily accessible by train - it's about 20 minute walk to the station.
There's also bike hire on site, with child seats available, and a long lake-side path.
So you wouldn't need a car for the whole time. Maybe just a few days if you're there for a couple of weeks.

We have been enthusiastic EuroCampers when DS was younger. We've always had a great time and couldn't rate them highly enough for the opportunity to go abroad without costing the Earth.

The on park couriers have very occasionally been a bit hit and miss (mostly younger and hungover new to the job but there's usually more than one so not a problem) The only time I ever had an issue that I had to raise to customer services, they dealt immediately and I was given a partial refund.

I liked the choice of accommodation as our needs changed over the years. When we were predominantly out and about and only returning to the van to sleep, the older and tireder vans were an absolute bargain.

I've also booked with the park direct (EuroCamp have accommodation on established sites rather than their own sites) but stuck with EuroCamp in the early years as I wasn't proficient in the local languages, and I felt it gave me a level of support when DS was younger if anything had gone wrong.

We used to go to a small campsite at La Trinite sur Mer, just up the road from Carnac. It's about a 3-4 hour drive from the ferry port at Caen but once there it's possible to do quite a lot without a car, particularly if you take bikes with you.

My children are adults now but they still talk about those holidays and we have some brilliant memories.

We did Eurocamp/ Keycamp every year as kids, they’re the happiest memories I have! We stayed across France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy and the facilities put British campsites to shame!

I love Eurocamp!! Parcs are always lovely, kids make tonnes of friends, kids clubs are low key but great way to meet people plus you get a break.

Definitely a base to explore the region - day trips to French markets are my favourite thing ever.

Range of parcs with massive pools / entertainment and hundreds of pitches (Italian ones ade particularly massive) down to some lovely quiet sites with a pool and tiny onsite shop.

We love the overnight ferry Portsmouth to St Malo as you can then hit the better weather in the South without a 2 day drive

Bella italia is the front runner currently, although I will check everyone's suggestions at the weekend 😀 France may be a more realistic option for a first go of this as flights may be easier to get and if I do drive, it might not be as far/long on the other end. I will look into booking direct compared to going through eurocamp alone.
@planthelpadvice thank you so much for the helpful advice! Did you go by ferry and the drive to the site? I'm not ruling out taking the car or hiring one it's more the thought of driving abroad! I had a look at flights quickly but because of the length of connection times I'm not entirely convinced it's the best way to use time at ths moment.
@BinkyBeaufort can I ask how you got there, as in did you fly, or ferry and drive?

We flew when we went to Bella Italia - can't remember if it was to Verona or Venice and then picked up a hire car.

I saw on the Mumsnet money saver email that Canvas Holidays have a sale on until Monday.

Love love love eurocamp, done so many over the years and never found them expensive

We only holiday at the camps now. Clean, cheap accommodation, safe and calm atmosphere, pools, restaurants, normally close to a lot of tourist spots and just a generally positive, fun experience. Eurocamp and Canvas are great providers. There is a also a company called Vacansoleil but I've never used them. I've seen their cabins at the camps.

We used to do euro camp as kids. Back then it was pre erected tents though rather than caravans. Such happy memories. I’ve been on at DH for years about going with our kids. I will definitely use this thread for recommendations

Thanks @planthelpadvice
@Jijithecat thanks for saying, I'll have a look over the weekend when I have a look at everyone's suggestions.
@Whatsthescory can't say I've heard of them, but I hadn't heard of eurocamp either till the other day, I'll add them onto my list 😊
All in all there's so many people with positive things to say about doing that kind of holiday I wish I had heard about it before!

We went to Carnac (La Grande Metairie) with Canvas holidays last year and it was amazing! Will definitely book again. I was about to say they have a sale on but can see a pp has mentioned it.

We did drive so perhaps not the one for you this time but lots of other options. Caravan was compact but clean and facilities beautiful.

F

I always check Allcamps. This is a brilliant website- basically a bit like trivago but for campsites in Europe so you can easily compare all the different providers on sites. The only thing to be wary of is that most European companies expect you to clean yourself before leaving or will charge a hefty fee. Also you usually have to add linen hire as it is much harder to bring your own if flying! UK based companies include Venue, Canvas and Lifestyle which are usually cheaper than Eurocamp and I have had positive experiences with them all.

We have done loads of sites in France, Spain, Italy etc and as it is only me I have never hired a car because I do not want to spend the holiday driving. There are plenty of sites where this is doable due to public transport for trips out. One amassing place in Tuscany arranged loads of trips which was great as it was on the middle of the most popular tourists towns and villages in the region.
https://www.allcamps.co.uk/?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=1663252074&cq_con=64860645100&cq_term=allcamps&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-IWkBhBTEiwA2exyOxcbKT6jj9IxQWbHlq_cTRJN-UvG-v9wjLDNakx51e_5mRdShNOmgxoCFlwQAvD_BwE

@MsJuniper I'm not totally against driving, and at this point after so many replies it does seem like it would make things easier so is worth considering.

What I'm apprehensive of is firstly I've never driven abroad and secondly I'm the only driver in the family so I would like a holiday where I don't have to drive for once, ferry people around and can relax. If it seemed like it was beneficial to take or hire a car to get to an amazing site I would probably consider it though.

Carnac has been mentioned a few times though so I'll definitely have a look into it 😀 And as you have pointed out about the caravan being compact etc, I don't think we're after anything particularly fancy as the aim is to be out a lot, but somewhere clean is obviously a must.

We love Eurocamp. Have been to many in France.

The first time we went to Brittany. Just before we left the UK, DH put his back out so couldn't drive. I was forced to do all the driving. It was fine. The roads are so much better in France than the UK. DH navigated and helped me remember how to handle roundabouts etc. satnav was a huge help too.

I decided I wouldn't drive every day while out here. And DH took up a lot of the slack in terms of sorting kids etc on travel days.

Honestly, it was far easier than I expected.

Has anyone done any of these as a single parent with kids?

Just looking at options for next year, DD is 11 and I've only just got passports for us so this is all a bit new but I would like to take the plunge as bored with UK hols (before I had kids I worked in travel and we t all over the place but haven't since, also DD is autistic)

@TakemedowntoPotatoCity - I have several times and it works well. There is loads to do on site, children will find their own little tribe and as an adult you can be as sociable or not as you want. It is quite easy as you have your own space and usually a veranda and bbq for relaxed evenings. I find camps usually have a lovely atmosphere and are very family orientated. I also love a bit of aqua gym 😉

Late August the prices drop quite a bit, we used to get back just in time for school. Would echo looking at other providers eg Canvas, Lifestyle - same sites and accommodation but cheaper