Camping in a mobile home in france - where to start! (first family holiday)

[Chattyhan]

So we started looking at keycamp and have now noticed there are several other companies doing the same thing! Me and DP will be travelling with ds1 who's 3 and ds2 who will be approx 8 months. Never done this before or driven to france! How do we get there and where should we go? region and campsite? Don't want nightmare journey and neither of us have driven abroad before so what do we need to know about that? Home for us is fleet, hampshire and we need it as cheap as possible! I'm sure by the time we figure it out it'll be next year!

How far do you want to go?

Do you want to go near a beach?

Is it 'improtant' for you to have a warmish holiday, or are you OK with the potential for more rain?

Small site that is quiet, or big site with more facilities and more going on?

Don't want to drive more than 8 hrs preferably less! we want a beach, would like warm weather but if this means 16hrs drive than we can put up with chancing the rain! As for size of site - we would like facilities eg restaurant, pool, things to do but don't want it so noisy we can't get the kids to sleep! I think small would be better with a young family but DP thinks we won't have any facilities?

Don't want to drive more than 8 hrs preferably less! we want a beach, would like warm weather but if this means 16hrs drive than we can put up with chancing the rain! As for size of site - we would like facilities eg restaurant, pool, things to do but don't want it so noisy we can't get the kids to sleep! I think small would be better with a young family but DP thinks we won't have any facilities?

Would a 15 minute drive to the beach be too much for you?

We are thinking of doing this next year as well, though prob flying as we are in Scotland. I am currenly looking at a company called Canvas Holidays....they seem very reasonable and have an excellent choice of locations, accommodation etc.

No 15 min to the beach would be fine

We went to Village La Plage in Guilvinec, Brittany with Venue Holidays - much cheaper than Keycamp etc. They sort the ferries for you - you could go from Portsmouth and it was only a couple of hours drive from the port. The campsite was lovely and right on the beach and not noisy as it was mainly families.

Here

8 hours drive from Calais. less if you went from Caen.

160 pitches or so, in the grounds of a Chateux, low ket entertainment. 2 small pools, bar resturant, take away, mini golf, playground, shopette, 15 mins walk to village supermarket.

!5 mins to beaches. Nice place been several times. Keycamp go there

thats brilliant martianbishop thanks for the help - what do we need to know about driving in france?

It is on the other side of the road

It is fine. I did it for the first time last year. You do need headlight defectors, and a warning triangle, and that is about it. We go in the tunnel as we are all crap sailors, but living where you do, you could go on the longer crossing, if you don't mind the boats. But that might put the cost up a bit

thanks! i suppose i asked for that really!

very nice campsite, there are also 3 large lakes on site. faded elegance sort of thing. You can book with them direct, as they have a few chalets there, not sure if this would be cheaper or not....we take our own tent.

when there are no road markings at a junction, cede priority to the car on the right

thanks everyone - any other suggestions/hints?

I would second Listmaker's recommendation. Find the Yelloh villages website for more suggestions and book direct. I saved 2/3rds of the price eurocamp wanted to charge for the same campsite at the same time of year - last year. I would do a link but my computer crashed last time I tried and so I'm not risking it again.

www.villagelaplage.com/en/index.htm

thanks for risking the link indignito!

sorry 'indignatio'

we've had very good experience with keycamp

do consider paying the extra for air con so you can keep mobile home v cool and so littlies can go down for naps in the middle of the day or down easily at bedtime.

.

When are you going? Be aware the cross channel ferries can be extortionate! I'm thinking of one quote, admittedly in the first part of the school summer hols- midweek to midweek Poole/Portsmouth to St Malo or thereabouts which was 750quid!! An estate car and 5 people!! We've got it down to 330 quid with Condor Ferries, Portsmouth/Cherbourg out, St Malo/Poole back in late August. I've booked direct with the Le Ranolien site (which Canvas, Keycamp etc do)on the Brittany north coast via their French website which is MUCH cheaper than the big companies BUT I'm not sure exactly how good our accommodation will be! It's a 4 hour drive from Cherbourg, and 2-ish St Malo.

Thanks miljee great advice we're flexible on when we go but thinking may/early june to keep costs down. Looks like portsmouth th st malo is the crossing we need who do we book that through?

You can book your ferry crossing using Airmiles/Tesco vouchers if you have enough through Airmiles - not sure how much it willbe but with pre schoolers def go out of season!! We have done 5 years in June or Sept which is much nicer , quieter and better weather than Aug - both Brittany and Vendee!! Also prices are MUCH cheaper. We stayed at Le Guilvenic Village la plage which was a lovely location but site is very basic and toddlers pool isn't really suitable for toddlers! Ds was 3 and dd 2 and the pool was crap for them/ Small very deep and with very high sides. as I said location great as ona beach but pool - no.

best pool complexes for kids your LOs age that we've stayed at are;

Raguienes (brittany) - camping les deux fonataines - FAB pool for LOs and adults. Mini disco early eve, walking distance to beach. Driving distance to UK run indoor soft play - in case of rain! has baby area.

Camping Acalpulco in St jean de Monts - lovely pool - sandy area play area, great location - near beach and local shops/suopermarket. Great restaurant/takeaway. would go back

camping Mane Guerneheu, baden Brittany. Lovely lovely site with great pool complex, great restuarant (with little tikes play area - ideal for an 18mo dd and 30 mo ds!!!). 3 fishing lakes - feeding ducks and 2 fields of donkeys and goats we could feed! As we went end Aug/beg Sept they were closing down kids club so our kids were allowed to play in the kc tents and use up all the stuff!! Also within wlaking distance of a lovely village with all you need. had to drive to beach. Only downside is that siteis hilly. means if you are bottom of hill, you ahve loveley views n peace and quiet but hilly walk to pool!Didn't bother me but it did Dh!

Also been to Camping les Bois Masson in St Jean de Monts but wouldn't go back - on main rd, haven Europe sitea nd v British n busy!

If you sail to ST malo I'd recommend the overnight sailing - dead easy with LOs!! Tire em out at the live band in the bar while you ahve a vino or 3, then bed in the cabin. Wake up and you've a couple of hours drive to resort! fantastic and offordable out of season. Sadly, ridiculous prices out of season! Good luck choosing!!

You can pay for holiday with Twesco vouchers if you go with French/Canvas Life or Siblu.

Leslaki - Camping Acalpulco in St jean de Monts - Is it warm there?

thanks leslaki - great information

le bois masson/dormont was on our maybe list so thanks for info about main rd and v.busy now i can rule it out!

Have looked at ferry crossing portsmouth to st malo and it's £288 is there any way of getting this down? We do have about £30 of clubcard vouchers but how do i book with these?

We've decided we want to do vendee in early june and suggestions we're working on are:

vacan soleil - les dune des sables or le california

Canvas - st hilaire les biches or les amiaux

Keycamp - st julien des landes (la foret)

Any info about these would be great!