cheap holiday in the sun - without hiring a car- any ideas?

[TinyPenguin]

we have been looking for a cheap holiday for a week at beginning of September, eurocamp type holiday - we will have a 2.5 year old & 8 mth old at the time. We would prefer to fly from Manchester airport as we're based 'up north' & can't face the car journey to ferry port & then again on the other side - so ideally we want somewhere close to an airport with a swimming pool & poss a beach & town nearby - as long as we could get public transport (try to avoid car hire)

can it be done?

Yes it can be done ! - cheapest way is to look at all the destinations that ryan air easy jet etc. do from manchester - if your not too bothered what sort of time you fly, you could pick up some cheapy seats - then choose your accomodation - go for holiday appartments (private hire is cheaper than package deals) there are always loads of taxi's at the holiday airports or you may be able to get on a bus - it just needs working out the timings - what sort of budget are you looking at ?

It can definitely be done and I was going to suggest Serignan Plage near Beziers in the S of France as we went there in September a couple of years ago and had great weather and a great time as nearly all the activities and facilities were still open. We did hire a car but could have done without as the site has pretty much everything you need there.

Then I looked at the Ryanair prices from Manchester to Beziers - £800+!!! So, I would start with looking at where you can get a cheap flight to - S. France, Italy, Spain and then see if anyone here's got a recommended site close by. Some sites don't offer all services outside July-Aug, so double check that everything you want will be open.

Also, Selectcamp have lovely tents (some with private bathrooms) and are cheaper than Eurocamp and the sites themselves will drop their prices considerably once August is out so you may get a much better off season deal not booking with a UK operator like Eurocamp.

I'm not sure about somewhere with both a beach and a town accessible on foot/bus. (I can only think of Argeles - very lively in full season, not sure what it's like out of season).

Look at Skyscanner for flights -input Manchester and a destination country/airport and you can opt to see flights for the entire month so if you're not limited to certain dates you can make use of the occasional fluke cheap flights.

For accommodation I use Home Away/Holiday Rentals - individual property details give you the distance from the nearest airport and often states whether or not a car is necessary.

Its time consuming if you're not sure where you want to go but worth it IME.

I can 2nd skyscanner (and the martin lewis sponsered one too).... There are a fair few camspites near Pisa that could be reached via bus's....Don't forget to check out the campsites web pages themselves as lots rent tents/chalets themselves and this can be cheaper than eurocamp et al....Alan Rogers website is good as there is a map version.
Maybe check out flights then come back here and ask about sites?

could do manc to verona, then it's an easy bus ride to lake garda eastern towns where there are good camp sites eg in bardolino. so some beach and pools or the lake.

The Costa Brava area of Spain, if you can get flights to Girona or Barcelona/Reus?
The big companies have sites there.

I went to Ile de Re last year flying Ryan Air to La Rochelle. There is a direct bus from the airport but it leaves quite soon after the flight (missed it as case damaged and had to fill in forms) or otherwise it is 2 changes. The campsite I stayed at had permanent type tents, it was Les Amis in Bois en Plage.