2 months in Europe- ideas wanted!

[MommaBox]

Hi all, we’ve got an opportunity for me to extend my mat leave and go abroad for a few months whilst my partner can work from anywhere.

We’re thinking Europe just so it’s not too far in case family or mates fancy joining us for a week.

Has anyone done similar? Chipped off to Europe for a few months? If so, do you have any recommendations of where to go?

We were thinking may be Spain or France? Greece? But open to options.

We’re ideally looking for somewhere by the beach, stuff for me to do with the kids… and some hope I’ll get chatting to other Mums/ families? (Our kids will be 1 and the other, nearly 3.)

And… cheap (ish!) Our budget isn’t huge sadly.

Any ideas or recommendations or advice in general would be gratefully received!

We just want to have a mini adventure but I’m also conscious my husband will still be working so I’ll be flying solo with the 2 kids. I don’t want to go insane! 🤣

What about Portugal? Lovely beaches and good value for money. Or parts of Malta maybe? Not sure how cheap it is these days though, it's a while since I was there

All depends when you are planning to travel.

It will be much cheaper to avoid the high season (July/August) and probably much pleasanter too, especially with young children.
Do you speak a foreign language at all? If you or your DH have a bit of Spanish, for example, then Spain would be an obvious choice. Or you could think about taking a few classes in 'Holiday Italian' or similar to get you started. Might be helpful in making new friends too.

Remember you can only spend 90 days in 180 in EU these days. You also need to check with each country what the rules are about long stays - for many you would have to register with the local authorities. There are also rules about working in many countries - need to avoid double taxation. And you might need a visa to do this. Brexit has unfortunately made it a lot harder. Has your DH checked with his employer that this is allowed. I live in EU and even we are not allowed to work abroad for reasons of tax and insurance.

The usual way of doing this is with a motorhome/campervan or caravan. If you're having to pay for accommodation your budget won't go as far. What are your thoughts on the type of accommodation you're looking for? If you've got a MH/caravan then I'd look at pitching up a municipal campsite in France, they're well priced, have good facilities, they usually have a few long-stayers and that can get a community feel going on.

Two months is comfortably inside the 90/180, but your partner does need to be at least aware of the rules for working abroad. We go over for a month in summer and I'll usually have a laptop and do a few mornings of checking emails, answering queries - but I try and avoid revenue generating work when travelling. It does depend, to an extent, on what you partner does.

And… cheap (ish!) Our budget isn’t huge sadly.

do you know anyone with an apartment they want to let for a couple of months?

Spain is probably the cheapest to stay out of Portugal and France, both supermarket prices and accommodation. Im not up on prices in Greece, so don't know how they compare.

Will you be flying or driving?

www.vrbo.com/en-gb/search/keywords:spain/@38.11122799063624,-0.6458543564400232,38.78449864821662,0.1231886123099768,10z/minNightlyPrice/0?filterByTotalPrice=true&petIncluded=false&ssr=true&orderBy=prices&ascending=true

you can get an apartment for 4 people with an average nightly cost of £30 - thats not much different from some campsite charges in Spain and France for a motorhome with electric you can easily be paying 20 euros a night and then you have to factor in the higher fuel costs of a motorhome

Thanks for all of your helpful replies!

My partner is self employed doing sports journalism so he should be all good.

and yeh, just 2 months so we’ll be ok re the 90 day limit.

looking at mid May- mid July.

i did look briefly at motor homes but they were so expensive to hire!

i think I need to do a shout out on some of my mates what’s app groups and see if anyone has a friend of a friend type thing with an apartment we could rent. or like you say, Evan a camper van!

that vrbo link looks good. I’ve been on that website and saw some options but was hard pushed to know where was ‘nice.’

Someone suggested eurocamp…. We thought we could do a bit of a 2 week holiday….
….and then head down to San Sebastián? Biarritz?

I’ve never been. Does anyone know of they would be good family toddler friendly options?

thanks again for you all of your replies! It’s good to hear people’s advice and experiences!