Italy family holiday

[dinkydoos]

Hi all.
Me, dp and kids (6 and 4) are driving(!) ti lake Garda next august and staying at bella italia site for a week in a mobile home. We are now wondering what to do for week 2. Part of me thinks go and do a hotel so as not to have to cook/tidy a mobile all the time, maybe on the Italian riviera. We were looking at maybe finale ligura, but I can't help feeling that after a week of 'keycamp' type fun on a site, the kids would be a bit bored in this type of set up, and whether the hotel thing really works when kids are young and you just end up sat in a room whilst they sleep in the evenings! Another idea was another site such as parc albatross in Tuscany but again have heard mixed reviews. Any one else done this sort of thing and has any wisdom to impart? Any good hotel ideas or anyone been to any good sites?
thanks for any advice.

We went to Parc Albatross last year. We enjoyed it but the site is massive, and the vans are quite packed in. I would imagine that in August it would be heaving and very, very hot.

We stayed here on the Italian Riviera a few years ago.

Ceriale is a nice little town. This place has a huge pool, decent apartments and is 5 mins from the beach, town center, supermarket etc. You can get breakfast there and there is a restaurant - though plenty of choice in town too. They do have a kids club - mainly Italian - but there will be other little ones to play with. There is a big water park in Ceriale too.

Thanks for replying. That place looks fab, what did you think of it as a venue for august? Would you go back there?
I must say the heat thing worries me, I had really fancied the norcenni girasole site but thought that the heat plus steep site maybe a bit much! I had hoped that albatross would be cooler, but your comments make me doubt it. Any cooler in ceriale do you think? Sorry to bombard you but have noticed you seem to be the Italy expert so really appreciate the advice as I am driving myself a bit crackers with my dithering about!

Hiya,
We drove to Italy the year before last, stayed in the mountains outside Florence, we booked hotels along the way with one night in each then stayed in an old farmhouse in the hills, it was great but our DS was only 18 months and so we didn't need activities as such, he was happy to play and swim and sleep!
We drove back along the ligurian coastline into France and said we would go back last year and have a beach holiday. We stayed in San Remo (a little more french as it's only 12km from Ventimiglia but lovely) the drive along the coast was amazing and DS loved the beach for a week, learned to swim in the sea and built sandcastles/buried DH all day.
The apartments were self catering and excellent because the beach had an enclosed bay which was safer than the open sea. Called Residence dei due porti. San Remo has long cycle tracks along the coast and the apartments lend bikes free of charge (with child seats of necessary) we cycled around and it was lovely
Would reccomend that, and it also means you can carry on back into France and up the country back to Calais eventually I assume?

Forgot to add, DH has family in Lucca, so we had couple of days there and there is lots to do there but it's very hot during the day as it's a walled city, depends how much driving you want to do whilst there or if you just want one destination after eurocamp?

Thanks propercrimbo, will look that place in San remo up. Part of me wants to tour round a bit but the more practical side of me is telling me that won't be ideal for my kids, my days of coffees/wine in lovely Italian squares seem to be behind me! So you reckon this area pretty good for family holiday then?

I would go back there - definitely. I guess it will be busy in August (we went in September) but then everywhere is busy in August. Northern Italy shouldn't be THAT bad for temperatures.

Thanks for your help everyone. I emailed both suggestions; San remo one all booked and am waiting for the ceriale one to get back to me so fingers crossed.

We went to Parc Albatros in June in 2009. It was too hot! Fine going from airconditionned mobile home to pool but we only made the walk from camp to the beach once got too hot there and walked back. We are grumpy in the heat tho. It was quite a bit cooler at my Dad's inland but still to hot for us. One day his unheated pool got to 24degrees or something silly. It was pretty busy around there end of June too.

Just wanted to update - couldn't get either of the recommendations on here, but have finally confirmed here
Like the fact that it has pools, but also on beach and has some kids stuff on in summer, and also short walk to marina/shops etc. Its Italian Riviera near to the places suggested in the thread
Anyway - thanks for help - I am just glad I've finally booked!

Have just seen this Dinkydoos, and I wanted to reassure you that Liguria isn't incredibly hot in August, you should be ok. The hottest month in Italy is usually July.