Summer in Europe on a shoestring?

[NotARealWookiie]

Hello wise campers

I’ve been fortunate to secure a job with a term time only contract and it’s got me thinking about that looooooong summer break.

I was pondering the idea of camping in Europe for 2-4 weeks in summer 2026 and wondering if anyone had done this and could offer any insight? Im interested in costs, in my head we’d be having pastries for breakfast, bread and cheese etc for lunch and spending days pottering around beaches and visiting towns.

We have a tent and most of the gear but looking at sites in Europe they look expensive! I’d be needing a site to be €20-30 per night really. Is this achievable? Destination flexible but thinking France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy…maybe Croatia or Austria .

I do have a caravan but thought tent camping would be cheaper and an adventure for the kids.

Would love to hear other’s experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly!!

thanks all xx

Hi, I have done 4 weeks in Germany with 2 DC (4& 9) about 8 years ago.

Firstly, definitely go fror it! It's madness but in an adventurous way!
Secondly choose your campsite carefully. We went Black Forrest and had free access to the local swimming pool and free public transport (via tourist tax). Campsite had a decent playground and decent shower, toilet and washing facilities. It was right on edge of the town, so easy walkable access to supermarket, trains and bus for getting around.

I was lucky enough to have visited the site a year before the holiday. So had checked pitch size amenities and location. (I was not interested in kids club or evening entertainment). I knew I could just park up the car and leave it for 80% of the holiday.

Budget wise our main costs were travelling there & back and the pitch with electric hook up. Food was roughly what we would spend at home over the same period of time. Sorry, but cooking was unavoidable to keep things cheaply.
For special days out, I saved up and had a separate budget - all pre planned.

The free stuff included a trip to a waterfall, visiting various adventure playgrounds in the vicinity, bare foot pahs and exploring a ruins of and medieval castle....

One of my favourite memories of that holiday is DC (4) in the playground, comparing bikes with a Dutch boy of similar age. My 9yo made German & Italian friends playing table tennis most evenings.

camping-kirchzarten.de/

Yep, it's absolutely do-able!

You just have to take most of the recommendations for campsites on MN with a pinch of salt, because people on here seem to be obsessed with bells-and-whistles, Eurocamp style places. Anywhere right next to the sea is going to be pricier, too.

My top tip for sites is looking on Google Maps. And know the key words for cheap campsites in every country. In the UK it's "Farm Camping", in France it's either "Camping Municipale" or "Camping a la Ferme", in Spain it's "Camping Rural".

Some recommendations for France and Spain: Le Milin Kerhe, Brittany, Camping Intercommunale du Chinon, Loire Valley, Camping du Toy, les Landes, Caserio San Marcial, Spanish Pyrenees, plus one we never got to- Camping de l'Isla, Picos de Europa.

All of these were around 20-30 euros for an adult and 2 DC.

I don't know that you're going to avoid making dinner most nights if you're on a shoestring, sadly. Hopefully you can at least get the DC to do the washing up!

@DancefloorAcrobatics and @crackofdoom thank you do much for the vote of confidence! I was checking out pitch up and a lot of the sites were coming out at €50 per night so it’s good to hear that cheaper sites are still possible.

Yes - I totally accept I will have to do some cooking! I’m not adverse to a regular trip to lidl - is it just me or are foreign supermarkets part of the fun? Luckily I have fairly picky kids so they would be happy to eat hot dogs/burgers/pasta endlessly and we can save the money for fruit and of course a daily ice cream. I figure I’m doing a weekly shop at home anyway so as long as we are sensible it can work.

The kids will be 2 and 9 so the older one will hopefully be a bit helpful…I might be mad but this could be great.

Thanks so much for these recommendations and I’ll check them out. Waterfalls sound lovely.

Ive never tent-camped with ehu but thinking I’m going to need some sort of fridge!

A year to plan then…

Wow - camping kirchzaten has gone up! 4 nights is €247.90 in august! For a tent.

Im going to trawl the municipale campsites…I refuse to be deterred!

Yep fridge is essential - unless you want to go shopping daily! We just had one of those cheapish drinks fridges.

Also, make sure your 9yo is a confident swimmer! One thing less to worry about - I let my 9yo go off to the swimming pool with the new found friends. After DC demonstrated a jump off the 3m dive bored. Obviously the place also had plenty of lifeguards about.

The campsite we stayed at wasn't cheap but it was very family friendly and had the right location. Can you save or compromise for that little bit better place?

Yeh we paid something like €800 for the 4 weeks about 8 years ago ... that was a large pitch with electric hook up all in.

@DancefloorAcrobatics ok I’ll get a fridge! Yes when you put it like that £800 for a month is still good value. I think I want to move about a bit though and do a bit of a tour 5-7 nights per place!

Fortunately the currently 8 year old is a cracking little swimmer so I’m confident she’ll be ok whilst my focus is on the little one.

I just found a lovely Camping Municipale for £130 for a week with a pool so I can probably do a mix of chilled and fancy sites. I swear all the kids want is a pool anyway!

Ooh, Where's your camping municipale??

I have never had a fridge, or an EHU. I do have a 12v coolbox that runs off the car battery, backed up with ice packs that you can refreeze in an onsite freezer.

(OK, especially in hot weather things have been known to deteriorate quite fast in there and you have to clean it out once a week, but I guess that's camping on a shoestring!)

We've done a few tours....last year was Brittany, then driving down through France to the Spanish Pyrenees. A couple of years before that we went from Brittany (usually our jumping off point because our nearest ferry port is Plymouth) to the Auvergne and Loire Valley, stopping off at Nantes on the way back.

But I would say....don't underestimate the exhaustion of camping with a toddler! You don't get that break that you do with slightly older children at campsites when they disappear off for hours with their new friends. And at those ages you'll have to do 99% of the work of setting up and striking camp yourself, plus the driving. DS1 is now 15, and honestly, he sets up more of the camp than me nowadays!

When they were 3 and 8 we just did a 2 centre holiday- Normandy and Brittany- and that worked quite well.

Ooops it was lake not pool, I must have been thinking of another one and got confused but it’s a bargain!

https://www.campingfrance.com/uk/find-your-campsite/auvergne-rhone-alps/ain/val-revermont/la-grange-du-pin

I have done the ice blocks in a cool box before but I find milk and butter are at risk after 3 days and that’s in the UK.

I do fear the exhaustion of camping with a 2 year old actually…the days could be verrrry long…

@crackofdoom have you got a massive tent? Ours is fairly modest…it has a bedroom and a main room but it’s not big…

NotARealWookiie I had a big family tent with 2 generous bedrooms a general living area (enough space for 2 tables and 4 chairs) for us. I think if you want to travel around and have to pitch the tent a few times, small & compact is better.

I remember vividly pitching ours during a thunderstorm after a long drive with the help of some lovely fellow campers. It was late and getting dark, most things were damp or wet and I felt pretty miserable, questioning my sanity. Meanwhile, DC had a ball with all the puddles inside the tent...
As for the long days/ evenings: if you are camping as single parent there is a whole community out there! Obviously it's a bit of luck finding the right place & people but I always managed to find some adults to chat to, same as DC made friends.

@DancefloorAcrobatics that’s what I think … smallish tent feels more manageable. The main room is big enough for us to put a table/chairs in if needed and the bedroom is a 5 person so we can all fit with space. It also has a curtain so we could divide up the space into a 2/3 if needed.

It would be me alone just because I have a term time contract and DH doesn’t but he could fly out for a long weekend if we plan well enough. We caravan a lot here and I was hoping the camping community will be as friendly. DD is super sociable so I think she’ll make us friends 😂

Don’t discount the caravan - it might not be any / much more expensive than the tent if you end up aiming for an EHU pitch anyway. Double check if there’s a price difference between a tent or a caravan for the sites you like.

We did have a sizeable one- the Great Green Shed. Well I still have it actually...it's tucked away under the bed waiting for the day when it rides again. Nowadays we camp with me in the van and the DC each in their own small tent. But still, striking camp, packing the car, driving quite a distance, unpacking the car and pitching camp again in the heat can be a lot. Especially when there's someone clinging to your leg demanding something RIGHT NOW!

On long drives, cheap hotels were a bit of a lifesaver. France has a lot of really convenient chain hotels with family rooms for pretty cheap prices, they're great to break a long drive.

Your campsite looks great! It's a part of France I don't know at all, but there looks like loads to do there. I checked it out on Google maps and it looks like you have your big waterfall nearby! A lake with a beach is even nicer than a pool IMO.

I have noticed that…the costs are about the same, it’s just the extra cost of fuel and the ferry plus having to travel everywhere more slowly that puts me off the caravan…on the plus it’s soooo much more comfortable. I think if I only book one or two sites without major distance I might take it but I don’t fancy super long tows…. I find towing tires me out much more than driving!

You are so right about Google maps. They are so helpful! I thought it looked a nice site, chilled and such a bargain!

Eeek, it is a lot with a toddler isn’t it? I am quite good at changing plans a bit when it’s clear something is only going to get harder by doggedly sticking with it so that’s in my favour 😂

It you don’t mind basic facilities, check out the municipal campsites in France. They’re a owned and run by the local town/village and can be as cheap as £10-15 per night

Such a bargain and exactly what we need!

We do this every summer for at least 3 weeks and this summer we are doing 4 weeks. It is is the best way to holiday we absolutely love it! We tend to do SW France but next year plan to do Lake annecy, Switzerland’ Austria and lake Garda - mix of eurocamp caravans and our tent!