Where do the British vacation?

[sameyeam]

Moving to the UK, with British husband and we were wondering what families and children do for the month of August.

In the US, there are lots of camps.
Parents ship them off in June and don't collect them until August. Or they send them to a "day" camp where they are gone from 8-5. I know that the London area doesn't have as many camps, and that's fine...I would maybe do a week or 2 of camp in July but...

We were looking to spend time as a family for the month of August, perhaps in France. Would anybody know places that are more frequented by other British families? Like, certain towns/areas that attract UK residents in the summer? Especially ones in France....or another country if one comes to mind.

Thanks for any advice.

Once you get here, you'll find out. This year, we aren't planning to go anywhere due to financial constraints. It's the first time DD has ever lived in the UK so we are exploring places around where we live.
She will be going to holiday club while I am at work.
In the past (pre DD), me and DH went camping in Britanny and Normandy and there were loads of Brit children.
Ask around when you arrive.
I do know that PGL do long holiday clubs. Not sure if they are boarding or day I'm afraid. They used to use DHs school which was boarding.

I think most British people would agree with me that families tend to try and have either a week or two week holiday during the summer. Going somewhere for a month is more unusual. The only people I know who do it have their own holiday home. However you could look into doing something like renting a holiday home for a month in Cornwall or Devon. Prices can be quite high and good weather far from garunteed. Or France is an option, in an area such as Brittany there is lots to do and it is family friendly.

Popular areas of France for British families -
Brittany
Vendee
Dordogne

Main UK camp providers for children's camps are PGL and Camp Beaumont - but there are many more (though not on US scale). Generally, children go there just for one week residential and only for longer if it is a local day camp.

Most people tend to have a week or two together as a family, either somewhere in the UK or abroad. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey are all very popular.

I don't know anyone who has ever sent their child away to a camp on their own.

I would really like a family vacation to Sydney, Australia. Don't know if an apt Birtish vacaction, but definitely sounds enchanting!!

I think part of the reason we're not so big on camps is that school summer holidays are shorter, usually six weeks from late July. Also we don't have the frontier, outdoorsy 'of course I can survive in the wild' mentality and heritage that's still part of north american identity (it's certainly there in my urban Canadian relatives). Our wilderness is a bit limited too.

There are residential activity camps run by PGL and others and for older children, scouts and guides go camping, Outward Bound and youth hostels run activity courses. There will probably be week and fortnight long day camps locally, focusing on sport, drama or other things.

Lots of Brits in France and lots of lovely areas, also Spain but more beach resorts, Turkey - Lycian peninsula is lovely, a few towns are full of British ex-pats and lots of Brits visiting elsewhere.

A lot of Brits often go to the Mediterranean for holidays for guaranteed sunshine. As lottiegb has pointed out we don't tend to ship our children off for several weeks in the holidays. School holidays in the UK are usually from the last week of July to the first week of September - about 6 weeks in total. On the other hand there are often a lot of out of school holiday activities run by various different organisations - schools, church, libraries etc.

I hope you like it here in the UK - oh and bring an umbrella

Dordogne is almost 'Little Britain' in August - you can barely go more than a mile before bumping into another British car.
There were also an awful lot of Brits in the South of France.

Other places that will be inundated with Brits will be the Spanish costas, Majorca and many of the Greek islands, especially Corfu.