Talk to me about Eurocamp kids clubs please

[caitlinohara]

So, last few years we have done self catering in France, always in gites but always in different regions and always with extended family or friends. Our boys will be 5, 8 and 10 next year and they argue A LOT. This is especially noticeable on holiday, which is why I think we might all be happier going somewhere with a kids club or at least plenty of other children around who they could be with and not me or each other

Has anyone any experience of these? I gather that they are 'free', so it seems that you are paying for them anyway whether you use them or not. We have never done a resort holiday so this seems like a cost effective middle ground, but I need convincing!

my kids hated eurocamp type kids clubs, except for the football one which they did a lot. i think you had to pay for that one. we did this sort of holiday a lot when they were the age of your kids, mainly because they had such fun playing sport and making friends. this left me to drink wine/read books and watch my husband BBQ dinner

the only thing you have to watch out for is that they don't bring all their new friends back to your mobile.

dreaming dh is a proper magnet for other people's kids: that does worry me about this type of thing

eldest ds has vetoed the idea of kids clubs already but the others seemed interested. Have read some disappointing reviews of the parcs though so I'm not sure now...

its like all things, some people love this sort of holiday, others don't. we did it for 10 years+ and we loved it. We did a gite when our oldest was 2 and even then he quickly got bored. Once our youngest was 16 he wanted a bit more luxury so we did a gite again - but in between mobiles. towards the end they even had dishwashers.

pick carefully. ukcampsites.co.uk has reviews as well. Or you can ask on here. what area are you looking at - i'm an 'expert' on brittany sites if that helps!

apart from having an onsite bar, for us the other appeal was the sporting facilities - tabletennis, tennis, golf, swimming, maybe archery. we also put a badminton net up in our pitch and often played things like rounders or cricket on the campsite field - others would come and join in. as you know boys are always active, and we found with a bit of siteseeing for me, and some beaches, it was a really good mix.

Try looking at the bigger sites,they tend to have a few different kids clubs split into ages (so all your dc would be separated) as opposed to the smaller ones which have one club for all the kids. HTH

My experience of Eurocamp dates back to my own childhood in the 80s and 90s so feel free to ignore it! But my sisters loved the kids' clubs and I hated them because I was/am quite shy and insular. So it really depends on the child.

On the website it tells you the different age ranges for the clubs,but check carefully what sites they have the teen clubs and what dates.
Even if you only use the kids club for a couple hours a day it's worth it for some down time for you. Looking after kids 24/7 isn't a holiday! Last time we went Eurocamp puts were too young for the kids clubs but the kids doing it were having a great time, lots of sports, theme days etc
Neilsons holidays, which are not camping, have amazing kids clubs. Even two year olds are put sailing etc.

Also the kids couriers will babysit for a fee. So you can go out to nice local restaurants etc for an evening or two.
Don't book tent book mobile home.

We've just come back from a big site and whilst my younger DD liked the kids club run by the English tour company (not Eurocamp but similar), she's 7, my older ones (oldest is 11) were at the very edge of being too old for it.

However, the site had various activities which the older ones joined in (Soccer, pretty much every day - for free with the "Animation" team) although they were possibly the only English speaking children to attend. But football is universal!

We've been on lots of Eurocamp type holidays and our kids only went to the kids club once. And that was because it was a football training session. The beauty of camping is that all the kids just tend to make friends and then hang out. Go for it.