Cheepest "ready put up tent" holiday company in Europe?

[LynetteScavo]

Please save me hours of research.

£1,300 sounds like a lot for a week in a tent in Northern France.

Would I be better off buying a tent and struggling to put it up?

I want to go as far/hot as I can for as little money as possible.

Also look at Flower camping and camping indigo. About 600euros in a safari type tent in August in the south for a week, no ferry or tunnel.

Thank you all so far!

DH is very fond of his week in Cornwall, and so has suggested I give him a presentation of the holiday/s I want(rather than jibbering on while he is trying to do something else...presumably the more persuasive the presentation the more likely he is to agree to go, so power points and costings here I come.

i have just checked out flower camping and camping indigo and am very impressed! Great sites and good prices. Camping Indigo is especially impressive as it is 'eco' and has ready to camp kits so you don't have to take a car load of equipment with you. Thanks for the suggestions superspudable - I will be adding it into my already fevered holiday research!

lynetteScavo if dh loves cornwall the brittany would be a perfect first step into france. we went for our first french camping holiday in 2002 when ur kids were small and it was brilliant. Try fousenant as a destination, loads to do, friendly big beaches, night markets, and lots of choice for rockpooling campsites.

we are trying to make the break to another country but the draw of france is very strong after all these years!

If you are thinking of Brittany we went here last year in our own tent
Belle Vue Farm Brittany
They do have set up tents so I've linked to the price list. We also got 25% off our brittany ferries crossing. It's a farm campsite with a pool and farm animals, the DCs had a blast but maybe not that much going on for teenagers.

Much as i would love to encourage you to go by train, i don't think it would be possible to get travel and accommodation for under £1000- eurostar return is £70 min for adults/children over 12, and not much less for children under 12, then at least £30 return to wherever you're going, if you book it early enough, probably more.

And you haven't yet hired a car, or indeed got to london to catch the eurostar. Or paid for accommodation.

So sorry as train is definitely the best way to travel.

overthemill - you're welcome. We stayed at Les Chateaux in the Loire with Camping Indigo (having stayed in some cabins with their sister company Huttopia out of season) and it was really great. We've booked Forcalquier in the south with Indigo and in a Freeflower tent with Flower somewhere near Grenoble both for August and it was really reasonable (2 weeks for about a grand) and we're confident of the quality!

Ponders, we've stayed at the one in the Vendee, but with Eurocamp. It was a really good site, quite small, but with a few little play parks, a couple of pools and a great beach nearby. We really enjoyed it there. It was about 5 years ago though, so it might have changed.

One thing I'd add is that the last couple of weeks in August are usually a bit cheaper but campsites are often winding down facilities in the last week because of French schools going back week before us. So that is worth checking out. Once in vendee we were reduced to one shower block and no little shop until midday! It was ok but not forewarned it was a shock on first day.

Thanks for the tip about the end of August!

The price drop in France tends to happen after the Ascension bank holiday on August 15th...

found this useful website while looking for places in italy - has huge number of camping companies doing tents and mobiles and google will translate for you if they are dutch! going to compare prices with the ones I usually use.

We have booked with Selectcamp for the Venetian Riviera - very soon after returning home early last August having been rained out in Cornwall! I do love Cornwall but my body needs some sun now :-)

Get this though - we have a fully plumbed in bathroom & kitchen in the tent we are going to

I think it came in at about £1100 for 5 of us in August. We are flying though so have that cost in top - too far to drive!

Try vacancesoleil (sp?) but their french/euro quoted site. Lot cheaper - but then you have to sort ferries out yourself.

Matthews Holidays are cheaper for their smallest caravan than all the other companies Tent prices. They have 7 nights for £875 throughout the holidays, plus 15% off if you book by end Jan.

Sample prices for Chateu Des Ormes site here