To think camping holidays abroad actually end up costing much more than hotels?

[Deemail]

I'm not sure if camping holidays through the likes of eurocamp ect, are as popular in the UK, as they are here in Ireland, but after going once I can honestly say never again.

We usually go half board in a theme park hotel, which initially costs more but in my opinion works out cheaper in the long run plus is a lot less hassle.

So many people seem to love camping holidays and reckon it's much better and cheaper than hotels/ apartments, for me it doesn't compare. Aibu, is there something I've missed?

Defo no power shower where we were, lol. I know now I didn't spend enough time choosing, everything was going fast and the site was recommended by seasoned campers!
I'll describe the park and accomodation. The park was a car free site, parking was separate from the mobiles, which made it ver safe. It was really clean as were the mobiles. Food was good. Mobiles were very close, almost back to back, we had to keep one curtain closed as we could see into each other's. Basic cooking facilities, no dishwasher, to be honest it now wouldn't matter if they were state of the art I don't want to cook while on holidays. Gas BBQ, good decking and plenty of seating. Plenty of utensils, ok size fridge with small freezer. Storage was ok, except in shower/toilet room where there was none. It was quiet cramped in rooms and made getting to storage hard.
There was bike hire available on site, and a fabulous cycle route went past the back, we visited some beautiful villages using the bikes. Site located in the middle of no where, car or bikes needed to reach nearest town. No buses, taxis expensive. No food included. All cleaning and tidying and cooking had to be done by us. Restricted by how much we could bring as it's expensive to book 5 cases, so had to do laundry a couple of times.

Hotel facilities, two large interconnecting rooms, with large ensuites plus safe and fridge. No tea making facilities, we bring a travel kettle. Great storage, either balcony or terrace. On the outskirts of local town, 10 min walk, we prefer this as it's peaceful there and away from the hustle and bustle. Located beside theme and water park with free entry. So there's something to do at the drop of a hat. Sometimes we would go in in the evening just to see one of the excellent shows. Lots of buses and cheaper taxis. Half board included, buffet breakfast, it's not that the kids are very fussy but like different things, so this suits. Evening meal choice to eat in buffets in 3 hotels, or instead receive vouchers to eat in any of the a la carte restaurants in park or hotel and pay the difference, usually less than a tenner. No cleaning, no cooking of course I did a little tidy but cleaners did a fab job, every day plus changed linen a couple of times. Allowed 20kg each plus hand luggage so no need to do laundry apart from one or two bits.

So roughly both holidays cost the same when all is spent but one was to me harder work lol. As I said earlier if I was saving money it could be worth it, also mean we could go for longer plus I'd choose better but when I'm not I can't see the point.
Interesting though to see that it's worked out for you guys, leaves me wondering what I did wrong!!!

What theme park / water park did you go to?

Best holiday I had was camping in Switzerland. £100 for ferry crossing and £10 a night camping. That's got to be cheaper than a hotel?

But we drove and took our own tent. Happy to go to a basic site with no pool.

I priced up staying in a mobile home/tent with Eurocamp in the Dordogne and it worked out a lot cheaper to stay in a cottage complex with a pool.

I guess it would be different if you had DCs that really enjoy the activities and clubs but DS isn't a great joiner so we'd rather pay less for more comfort.

I wouldn't stay in a hotel though as I think we'd go crazy if we were all in the same room and if it was that or a mobile home then I'd happily pay more for the mobile home.

Most of the campsites we have stayed at have been in France.

The one time we went to Italy we ended up coming home early. Italian campsites tend to be a lot more rammed so very little space for each mobile home. Where we were they were also ruthless about making sure the campsite was quiet for siesta time. It was far too regimented. We did not enjoy Italy.

Staying on campsites in France have given us our happiest memories. The Dordogne is wonderful, beautiful countryside. Further south and wonderfully baked we stayed here for our last big family holiday. The eurocamp pitches tended to be small. If we go back then we would book direct with the campsite.

As with property it is location, location, location. Our DCs have grown up with Grottes (caves), castles and markets. For them this (and a pool) is what makes a holiday. I dont think that one type of holiday is better than another I think that it is just vital to work out what matters to you.

We tried staying in French holiday home complexes a couple of times - collections of holiday homes set up by British owners. We found the owners far too intrusive.

We love eurocamp. There is no fucking way I'm staying in a tent. That's not a holiday. Just more housework in a field. Caravan is like a little apartment. Much easier and not expensive compared to a hotel.

Um.... I'm guessing you ate drank and went out too much to your budget....?

Deemail what you describe wasn't even camping, sounds like you just made a poor decision about your accomodation (chalet rather than hotel) but your thread title is innacurate.

You said it cost so much because of your spending money, but that was your choice, you didn't have to spend that money.

In terms of the cost of accommodation, camping holidays can work out cheaper than hotels. aparatments or 'theme park chalets', but you have to plan it properly so that it is cheaper.

We camp all the time, proper camping, in fields, with a tent and a few other possessions. We research our campsites and find lovely quiet ones with lots of space, that are less than £20 per night for all of us together. We cook at the campsite, we make packed lunches each day and go out exploring, and use the campsite as a tranquil beautiful base that provides cheap accommodation while we are on holiday.

Totally agree gnome, we've each got to go with what we like. When I look back the couple who recommended it to us like different things in general so it's not surprising it wasn't our cup of tea. I loved italy though, loved it, in fairness there was no siesta period bug I have heard of camps there where they are.

The kids enjoyed the holiday but also much prefer the hotel experience, we've been lucky and had large rooms so not experienced been cramped but we wouldn't spend much time in the room anyway, so like the small mobile it wouldn't be a big issue if the rooms were small especially when there's two.

I really want to go to France but have promised them Portaventura next year again so after that we will have to see, it quiet likely maybe the last where the 5 of us go together or I might have to use it as bait to tempt the eldest to join us again lol.
For the kids it's simply a case that the theme park offers so much nothing else compares. Me and dh love it too, especially the no cooking/ cleaning aspect, it's a lot of fun and we insist on a couple of " culture" trips further afield. I have toyed with booking south of France for a week then travelling down for a few days to Portaventura but unless we car hire,(didn't enjoy that either, could end in divorce;-). It seems complicated to get there.

Does anyone rose find the spending money on self catering an issue?

Camping to me is about getting back to nature, stripping life back to the bare essentials and really enjoying a relaxing time.

I could never stay at a eurocamp site, or a site with a pool, and we never stay at the campsite during the day.

I think, OP, you just didn't do your research and then weren't careful with your spending. That doesn't mean camping is expensive.

Deemail we always go self catering because it is cheaper and gives us more options.

See that's the thing if we did eat and drink a lot I wouldn't have minded but we didn't. Only really deep rink wine and can't drink every evening, just not able but even if we did wine was about €5 for a large jug. We ate out 4 times in the evening and had lunches while on day trips. Rest of meals and breakfasts were prepared by ourselves. An evening meal with one mineral each, no starters or desserts was between €80/€100. We had a couple of ice creams every day, went to a theme park which cost over €200, a water park not much cheaper.

Overmydeadbody, what I'm saying is for the same money, we got less meals out and activities/ entertainment. I have no idea why these holidays are referred to as camping, but it's what everyone here in ireland anyway refers to them as, it doesn't make sense to me either.

We're camping in the UK this weekend, the guy checking in next to me was paying 460! for a campervan pitch (10 days 2 people).

I generally thought campsites abroad offer better value but if you had 2000 Euro spending money I suspect our ideas of holidays differ widely.

Lol at the " you didn't do your research" I've already said that you got that info from me. Without a shadow of a doubt I could have found a site which suited us better but it would have cost as much, because I did research that aspect, my issue isn't really that I didn't love the site, it's that a self catering holiday, where you cooked and cleaned worked out as expensive as a hotel where you're looked after.

We camped in a small French campsite with our own tent for a week for 130 euros, 2 adults & 2 children. That's got to be cheaper than a hotel! Looking into a UK camping holiday this year I think it will cost us less to go back to France! UK campsites near the south coast are twice the price than French ones that are better

This is not at all camping in any way.

IME it depends on how you approach self-catering. For us the food is part of the holiday. We like cooking so buy local produce and eat that. During our holidays we eat more simple meals as the quality of the ingredients tends to be a lot higher.

A favourite starter is sweet melon and saucisson (French preserved sausage) bought in the local market and chopped up together into a big bowl. Everyone takes a fork and dives in. Delicious!

Another market staple is cooked chicken and potatoes. Chicken roasted on a huge rotisserie and potatoes cooked in the chicken dripping below.

Sausages and aligote (mash but so much more)

Good steak cooked on the barbecue and served with takeaway chips.

Pork chop cooked in cider

This is why we go to France. On the whole we found the food in Italy disappointing.

Deemail self catering doesn't work for us either, I like the sound of it but in reality we end up having nearly all our meals out and go way over budget. My favourite holidays are hotels in interesting cities by the sea where you can have a big buffet breakfast at the hotel, a smallish lunch out and then eat somewhere different each evening and do a bit of people watching.

Gnome, I found the food in Italy disappointing in comparison to France too. I also find Italy less friendly on the whole, but haven't travelled it as extensively as France. I'm also less confident with the language.

I prefer Italian wine though .

Ah OP that wasn't really the kind of camping you do to save money! Sounds more like over priced glamping.

I like camping because for £20-£30 a night you can have a lovely tranquil location as your base. Plenty of room for kids to run about and play, nice view for the adults and I really like that feeling of being outside.

We used to go camping to the south of France every summer when I was a kid. Loved it. Almost certainly more work for my parents than going to a hotel but a lot cheaper and probably a better quality holiday. We never stayed at euro camp type places or campsites with pools or facilities. Have to admit at the time I did wings a bit about not going to a euro camp style place! There was one quite near our usual campsite and mum and dad used to sometimes let me spend my holiday pocket money on pool entrance there in the afternoons while they rested. Sounds a bit like benign neglect when I think about it! The pool was ace, had three exciting slides.

I think that does sound fairly expensive for what you get though still. The £5000 holiday last year was for 4 people, 5 star hotel with exectutive suite, al a carte breakfast and dinner ( on private terrace if wanted)

This July we will go to Sardinia. Now have 5 children with us ( looking after 3 due to family illness). So dh, myself, children age 4years ,3years,2years, 4 months, 4 months.
5 star hotel, breakfast included, flights, car hire is around £2500. We book everything separately and far cheaper than package. We never go half board/ all inclusive as will often be out in the evening elsewhere as like to travel across Island so will eat out

I think it also depends on what you want from a holiday. 2 weeks in a theme park hotel sounds like hell to me.

We camp with our own tent and tend to chose quite upmarket campsites in france but we still only spend £500 for the 2 weeks. They have fab pools with slides etc and the girls love the freedom you get on a campsite.

I looked into a 'proper holiday' as I fancied going further afield but couldn't believe the prices. For what we could afford, the hotel/apartment would have been mediocre and it didn't seem like value for money. Doesn't help that I teach so shcool holidays only for us although that pretty much applies to everybody with kids now.

However, DH and I like the cooking aspect of camping and enjoy shopping for food in france, plus we have really good blow up beds, decent camping chairs, hire a fridge from the campsite so we don't have to shop every day and have a massive tent.

we enjoyed the eurocamp type experience so much we bought a tent and camped in the uk for mini breaks. it all depends on what you like. as others have said, we enoyed shopping in french markets/supermarkets and having BBQ's. my kids are sporty and spent hours playing football with other kids - so french campsites suited us much better than hotels.

yes i guess for 3k we could have afforded a hotel - but access to outide space would be harder. i guess they would have objected to our pitching the bandminton net outside our door. plus theme parks, and having to eat at certain times wasn't what we were looking for on our hols, plus eating with a load of others each night and food we didn't necessarly choose

A lot of people camp because they can't afford to have a meal served for them every evening and therefore save money by cooking something themselves for all bar one/two meals. Throw in a take away pizza or two, simple meals and lots of fresh air and exercise for DC and it can be a great holiday.

If you do want theme parks and not to cook at all then yes, paying for it as a package will be cheaper.