Holiday destination ideas less than 5 hours drive from calais

[Reastie]

Would appreciate some ideas on where might be a good holiday destination for dh, dd (will then be 7) and I. We are thinking of doing our first foreign holiday with dd and getting th Euro tunnel to Calais and driving on somewhere.

I've been looking on maps but feeling very confused about where to go. Ideally I'd love to go to the alps and stay near a resort but have a destination a bit off the beaten track. We always stay self catering. I've been oooking around grindlewald as I have great memories of a family holiday there but the drive is too long for me to cope with (I do all the driving) so I'm looking ideally for less than 5 hours drive from Calais which likely rules that out. I was wondering about the Black Forest in Germany but online reviews say it is very busy in summer. We would be going beginning to mid July.

To give you an idea about our likes dd loves typical tourist stuff and dh likes quiet places that aren't hectic or full of people and not spending too much money on tourist attractions! I like beautiful vistas, places that aren't spoilt, trying to get a run or two in on holiday, and keeping everyone else happy.

I'm really stuck, I feel looking at maps there must be so many great options but I don't know the areas well enough. Any guidance for places we could focus our search would be great.

There will be a tourist office for Namur itself and another one for the Province of Namur, both worth contacting.

You're not far from Bouillion, which has the most fantastic medieval castle, lived in by one of the First Crusade leaders.

Wow, nearish the Ardennes this place looks really unusual and dd would love it here

Wow, nearish the Ardennes this place looks really unusual and dd would love it here

Looks fantastic! And certainly rural!

We really enjoyed a family holiday in the Hohes Venn Eifel region near Monschau which is about 4 hours away from Calais.
www.germany.travel/en/leisure-and-recreation/natural-landscapes/nature-parks/naturpark-hohes-venn-eifel.html
www.monschau.de/en/

Loire is do able - lovely lovely area.

Bruges/ Holland is lovely too - and you can visit....Efteling! Perfect for a 7 year old , amsterdam is good for dc too.

Look at Alsace. We stayed there once and managed to visit Colmar, Freiburg, Basel, Belfort, Strasbourg. I think we had a night in Lille to break it up at the start though.

The Loire valley is stunning. Not just about wine. Beautiful little medieval towns, so many castles to explore and stunning countryside.
Check out the Loire Valley retreat. Kid friendly and adult friendly. Just such a perfect place.

www.loire-gites.com

Stayed here last night in one of the gates which was lovely. It's also a campsite and very family orientated with a play area, small pool. The couple who,run it are English and are very welcoming. Some nights they do reasonably priced meals as well.

Whilst there we went to chateaux, Le Mans, vineyards etc.

Duinrell - Mumsnet favourite in Holland, pool complex and theme park next to it, near to Masterdam, sandy beaches etc

I'n not quite sure how long these drives are.

Centre Parcs - cheaper than the UK ones and some are fairly close to Calais, in France, Belgium and Holland.

August Efteling looks great! Have you been before? Is it the type of place like U.K. Theme parks where you spend hours in queues though? I'd love to go to Amsterdam to visit Anne franks apartment but I think it's too far to drive.

Thanks for the other ideas, I am continuing to do lots of googling!

Efteling is nothing like any theme park here!! Its far superior. We are not theme park people nor do we enjoy holidays in places where all grouped together. Before efteling I would book b and b s and little out of the way places. There is more to efteling than the rides, your 7 year old would have amazing time there without going on a single ride. If you went for a day, I would concentrate on wandering around,gett app and if something happened to have shorter queue hop on. If you stayed over night much easier to get on ride. Even dh love's it there . The accommodation has ville Roy and Bosch baths, solid built apartment etc.very attractive. We love it. It's world away from UK theme parks. It's very old, all material park is built with is attractive,no ugly paving, fences, planting is beautiful and themed to each area, red roses by sleeping beauty castle. And it's in real forests so frogs hop about,loads of squirrels...they even March geese in fairy tale square.

Amsterdam is an hour and 20 from eftling. We are using efteling as our base, and driving round Netherlands from it.

Just looked at efletling self catering and looks lovely but can only stay there for a few days not a full week and I'd like to have just one place for the full week (a full week there would be £££). I looked it up and it's only 3.5 hours from calais though, so maybe Netherlands is worth thinking about, especially if I get somewhere between Amsterdam and there, but I'm not sure how much/what there actually is to do there bar those two day trips (dh would do the Amsterdam trip under duress as he doesn't like city breaks and would probably hate the theme park but dd and I would love it

Reastie, so many people said their DH would hate it - but they also fell in love with it....

There is a safari park near by people say is very good, there is the Hague area ( not been yet) and pleasant beaches? Towns of Delft and Urtecht supposed to be charming too ( never been myself). Also the water park Duinell.

Bruges is where we stop over from ferry to dunkirk.

In future if you book in advance you get 15% discount for Efteling and also when you stay you may be sent an offer for a further 10% off... ( we are doing a week there because we got lots of offers)

Scenery is not that amazing, but it feels open and easy to get around. I am looking forward to exploring more on my forthcoming trip. Again if you have not been to amsterdam before - its a unique place not like other cities so might feel different for him.