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?

I can see your point. It's not that cheap- but having priced both it is still cheaper. Like others have said the facilities- sports, pools and outdoor space are what we like. Also love french food and relaxed eating on camp holidays. I think it worked out very expensive for you as you left the camp a lot. No way I would be going to a watermark with a pool, slides etc. on site.

Water park, sorry!

We travel from Scotland so do fly drive like you. It does certainly add up.

actual camping is the bee's knees. I love sitting outside in the sunshine relaxing.

it is such a simple life.

we often eat out fairly early on in the trip and decide we prefer to cook steak and prawns on the barbie and don't eat out again.

For those who stay in hotels etc, what do you do after the kids go to bed? On the campsites, we tend to sit up with a bottle of wine outside the tent enjoying the fresh air. Its one of my favourite parts of camping.

The thought of sitting in a room or even on a balcony just isn't the same.

Dermail. 3300 euro doesn't equal 2500 pounds! Is that what you said?
I've had a drink so obviously am
Prepared to be told I'm wrong.

Also what theme park are you staying in?

Yep italy didn't really live up to food expectations, eating out was sometimes lovely but I was disappointed by supermarket choice. Yes the wine is amazing:-)

Olga, we hadn't planned on spending €2000.
Re leaving the park to go to a water park, the pools in the site had two slides that was it, we were lead to believe it was a " splash world " or something like that, didn't come near to one.
None of us are good at sitting around, we have to be doing something and on the go. Also we live in the countryside near lots of beautiful beaches, woods and mountains so it's the norm for us to be out and about to these places. It's nice to do something different while away.

Re what we do when the kids are in bed, ours are older, but we've always let them stay up for evening entertainment, or maybe a walk into town to do shopping or sit outside the hotel in the " village square " or on the balcony/ terrace.

We don't have to eat at set times, it's available from 6 until late but we like to eat earlier. Because it's included in the price, it means the kids can try new food, they're not limited to choosing one main from a menu.

So thinking on what you guys are saying, I think unless we were willing to spend a lot of time on site, cooked more and chosen a cheaper country, it wasn't going to work out cheaper.

We usually go "abroad" every second year in order to have the kind of holiday we like, so that's why the budget is higher. I had been hoping that if it worked out we could do a camp holiday every year but even if we halved our spends, the €4/5k we spend every two years wouldn't cover it.

All of your holidays sound lovely, it's great to get away but even better to be able to say that you love where you go and what you do. I think we can all agree quality, fun time as a family is what's important and what memories are made of.

WhathaveI, I love that too. One of my favourite memories of Normandy last year is making a huge meal with my friend, for both families, then sitting with wine and candles, watching the Space Station orbiting whilst putting the world to rights/having a laugh.

I'm looking forward to this year's holiday so much!

Poorbuthappy, no it doesn't, the wine isn't gone to your head:-). It's cheaper to book the same holiday from the UK, than it is from Ireland, I presume the extra flight distance plus Ireland is generally more expensive for everything:-(.
I mentioned the theme park earlier, PortAventura.

Deemail,I'm in Ireland and everyone I know who goes camping in France goes by boat. If going yo Italy yes they fly. The boat from Ireland is quite expensive but I save my tesco tokens to pay it. My 8 nights in France at beginning of June cost me €257 for accommodation, the ferry was dear but we always get the most expensive cabin so with tesco tokens all I had to pay was €200. For the last few years we've gone through UK which makes it even cheaper.
Next year we are thinking of port aventura but might fly and stay on a campsite, it's wayyyyy too expensive for me to stay at the theme park hotels.

What- when we stay in a hotel we just take the children with us out and back to hotel for bed. Ie typical day:
Wake 9am, ready, eat
10-12 on beach/ in pool
12-2 wander in local town
2-5 lunch and everyone naps ( adults included)
5-9pm drive somewhere and see castle/ historic place/ boat trip.
9pm find restaurant along beach to eat. Kids play on beach in front and we all eat. Maybe stroll into town after or just have cocktail on beach whilst they play
11/12pm head back to hotel room

Never have 7pm bed even at home, more like 9pm. Add 3 hr naps abroad during heat of day and they are happy to stay up and play with new friends, and we socialise. We also do this in uk though also. The twins may fall asleep in sling as only months old, 2,3,4 year olds will play between themselves or with any other children they find

We camp for a month in Cornwall . There's a toilet and a shower in a field .
I love it . It's very weather dependent , if its nice we spend nothing more than we would at home .
We glamped one year in a Premade tent , it was lacking something . We only did that as it was the Olympic year and we needed a tv .
This year I plan on leaving when the kids break up and staying until they go back - cant wait .

Love the link to Yelloh as a cheap option.It's extortionate in August.

We're going with Canvas in August in a safari tent too and our figures were more than Shockers.

Yabu but it sounds like you know that. It also sounds to me like you were trying to change a self catering holiday into a catered one. On a self catering holiday, you don't eat out every night, and I can't for the life of me figure out how you spent €2000 unless you did! I'm walking back from the laundry on a Eurocamp site at the end of out first week and I think we've spent about €300 so far and that includes a massive shop when we got here that included a tent for the beach and a lot of wine. Also, when you say you always need to be on the go, why does that include spending lots of money? The beach, hiking?

We could certainly have done an AI holiday for less money but eating hotel food for 2 weeks is my idea of hell. Admittedly our children are little still but I came in this holiday with huge trepidation (a boutique hotel on the Amalfi coast it ain't) and I'm really impressed.

We are quite far south in France BTW, tonnes of Irish, everyone drove. But yes Italy is further.

I think it sounds like self catering isn't your thing. Which is fine. Just don't come on a self catering holiday .

Oh and Eurocamp is most definitely camping . Did you hear that DH?? This is as basic as I'm going!!

On holiday, not in holiday obviously!

All these posts make me wish I was on holiday right now.

I think it depends on the size of your family. We only have one child so it does work out expensive, two or three and it's cheaper than a hotel.
I did a lot of Europe camping as a child some own tent, some euros or canvas holidays. It was great

Apmom, that works out much more affordable, I'd really love to go to France and from all the feedback it sounds cheaper, and nicer food. I just can't imagine dh driving without stressing out and that's no fun. I'm sure you've heard of Cambrills and sangueli campsites near Salou, they get great feedback but book now as availability goes fast!!

Re the why do we feel the need to pay to do things, we don't always, but we can go to the beach and hike at home so when away it's nice to do something out of the norm. Both dh and I and to a certain extent the kids like museums, architecture and historical sites, there's so much history that's been preserved in other countries, a lot of Ireland's has been lost, so we really enjoy spending a day to two doing this.

Re the spending, I look back and wonder too and we were watching it!! We got trains a couple of places, the kids are older and eat non stop ( which is why buffet suits) and everything for them is adult prices.

Middling it sounds like you're in heaven right now, enjoy.

Can I ask two more questions please:-)?

Firstly what's your average weekly spend while on holiday, and what does that include? I want to try and figure where we went overboard?
Secondly does anyone bring teens, do these holidays suit them?

We love Keycamp/Eurocamp and find them great value for a family of 4. We travel for Scotland and normally drive although we did fly drive last year - that increased the price A LOT and I'm not sure I'd do it again. We love the freedom & peace of a French campsite. We don't eat out loads - maybe a couple of times and prefer to have a BBQ most nights. Re spending money we budget for approx £100 per day and that includes shopping, ice creams/drinks, eating out, day trips, tolls, petrol.

It's the ideal holiday for us - being in a hotel for 2 weeks and having to get dressed for dinner etc is just not for me. I love the casualness of a campsite holiday, although the trick is to choose your campsite wisely.

Deemail have you been on or would you consider a cruise. I also have teens and find they work really well for us. We all love the food and there are so many sightseeing opportunities of the ship and lots of activities on board.
I totally get what you mean about paying adult prices for teens, it makes eating out out and some days out very expensive.

Shockers - can I ask which park you went to? We are considering Eurocamp or similar for the 1st time this year and near Beziers would be good as we can get cheap flights to there

Cat we priced up loads near Bezier and then gave up.The flights with tax didn't work out that cheap,then car hire and then site on top.Priced it by driving and worked out we'd spend £900 to get down there alone with petrol,tolls,overnight stops and food.

So we're off to Brittany.

If you do better than us do share,I did start to think we must just be Googling wrong it was so extortionate in August.

Ah - we are looking at early September as DS is only 2.5 so we are lucky enough to be able to avoid the school hols. That might explain the price difference

RyanAir (I know) seemed to have cheap flights for around £90 each and then the campsite was looking like 400 euros-ish. Some of the seemed close enough to the airport to not need a car - just a train / taxi / bus.

Manchester to Beziers £102 return here

Checked for August and RyanAir were doing Manchester - Beziers for still around £100 each. I know RyanAir are terrible, but it's pretty cheap and a short flight.

Have you added on luggage and tax?

That's with the tax, but without luggage which adds another £50 / £60 each depending on how much weight you go for. Which actually is quiet a lot.

Still smarting from the realisation that at 2.5 DS has to pay full price :) I wish we had gone abroad last year when he was still £20 or whatever. We did when he was 9 months but didn't realise we had one more year where he wasn't full price until I started looking for this year!