Bit last minute but… the 6-week holiday away somewhere with kids? Anyone done it successfully?

[Doggabaaa]

DH works from home, so we’ve decided to put our place on Airbnb (we’ve Airbnb’d it a lot before) or do a home swap and spend the 6-week summer holiday somewhere else.

Has anyone had a really good 6-week summer holiday break anywhere?

We don’t need childcare, but one of our children (7) is high needs with us (not at school - an angel at school!) and needs a lot of entertaining. So some kind of summer day camp option would make it more fun for all.

We’ve got a very open mind to almost anywhere! Europe? Canada? Open to any ideas!

I’d love some advice. Or are we too late for all the good, reasonably priced places?

It would be great to find somewhere fun enough that we could ditch the kids’ screens as well! (Wishful thinking?! 😉)

No advice but that sounds fun!

Not personally, but I have a friend who when her 3 kids were young hired an RV and toured in America. They're v active so lots of scrambling and national parks involved. She said it was cool to be able to just bed the kids down and sit outside themselves.

I think it depends where you are now, we live somewhere quite boring but with access to countryside,I always fantasise about a month in London.

We live in London! We like the countryside and also like to be busy. It doesn’t need to be a city, just enough to keep the DC occupied without my constant help (but obviously I will enable and join lots of the fun!) - or the help of constant screens 😀

Love the idea of the US road trip. But DH has to work (hours are flexible, he won’t need to join meetings on uk time etc), so we actually can’t manage an RV trip as he’d probably struggle with that, although I may look into the practicalities of it…

I have visited the US around Las Vegas and I was surprised at the amount and variety of National Parks within a (fairly) short distance drive. So if I had six weeks I would probably base myself in two places for 3 weeks each. In one of those 3 weeks I would try and see if I could get the kids into a summer camp in that area. I’m not sure if this is even possible and would possibly make the planning around a summer camp that the kids were interested in and organise an itinerary for other things around that.

Any ideas for English speaking day camps/ clubs in France or Italy? I’m guessing not - except in holiday resorts. But France / Italy would be our ideal, I think!

A quick Google search will provide you with some info OP.

For instance:
www.tuttocampiestivi.com/it/blog/campi-estivi/the-best-international-summer-camps-in-italy]]

There are loads of summer camps in Italy that aren't officially English but that will have English speakers among the staff.How about a mobile home on a campsite?

I think you need a mobile home, or a few in different places. They'll give you what you want with ease. Our mobile home is on a Siblu site, most of the animations team are English although things may have changed since Covid. And you could drive and avoid the airport chaos.

Atlantic coast - surfing, cycling etc, very outdoorsy and active.

We used to book our (non French speaking) son into the beach kids clubs in La Rochelle in France, probably from age 6-10, as we had family nearby so holidayed there. He did some sailing too. There were always a few staff members who could speak enough English to communicate with him (we taught him the basics of how to say he was thirsty/hungry/needed the toilet etc.) and he seemed to have fun with the other kids as he asked to go back year after year but he was a pretty chilled kid.