Holiday park in France

[newyear2023newmeihope]

Hi everyone
We are planning to travel to a Holiday park in France possibly Belgium. The main thing is it needs to be. Or too far from Calais- up to 3 ish hours is fine. Needs to be ok the beach, lots of water slides pools and clean accommodation and ideally us water sports. Can anyone recommend any parks? We don't want it to be in a vey isolated area, not too at from shops restaurants etc.

How do the weather normally in August? Also any hidden expenses we need to know about driving to France / Belgium ? Visas etc. 4 dc ages 16,14,8,6

La Croix du Vieux Pont is ideal. It has a swimming lake with sandy beach plus pools. It’s One of our favourite sites in France due to its facilities, location etc. Its also an hour from Parc Asterix and similar to Disney.

La Vallee in Houlgate, Normandy.

Great site that has been updated with slides etc.
10/15 minute walk to town and beach.
Surrounding towns and beaches all very nice, lots of D-Day sights.

Can't comment on water sports.

This is a great site. We stayed in the summer. So much for the kids, close to a supermarket and attractions.

Yes I was looking at la croix du Vieux pont. Is it near a beach? Is there lots to do on and outside the park ?

How's the weather in mid august

We stayed at La Croix du Vieux Pont for 3 nights on the way to our main destination last year. Handy for Parc Asterix (amazing theme park) and Disney. Paris in a day is doable but we didn't try it. There isn't anything close by really but the site is massive and has lots to do. We found our bikes useful as the site was so large and spaced out. No good if you want actual beaches although there is a man made beach which is perfect for little ones. Beach bar is very loud.

We have stayed at a park in Belgium but there were very few Brits about if your DC like to make friends this could be an issue. You could press on to The Netherlands. Duinrell is fantastic with a huge indoor fun pool. You need to book direct to get free pool access. It's 2-3 miles to a massive sandy beach.

We haven't stayed ourselves but La Vallee in Normandy is on our to do list and looks like it would tick all your boxes. Weather isn't going to be much better than South East England unless you are prepared to drive a long way South.

We loved La vallee in Houlgate. 6 DC range from 15-5 & all of them had a great time.

We're staying at La Bien Assise near Calais this year (booked with Canvas holidays) due to autistic 16 year old niece needing less travel time & it looks great. We're going to do a Belgium day trip too.

Last summer we went to The Netherlands with Huttopia. It was a national park, not very busy & pool was small but it only took 4 hours from Calais & was absolutely lovely.

Following because I am interested in this type of holiday x

Oh wow this all sounds good, any other recommendations? I'll definitely look in to La Croix du Vieux Pont.

Do we need to take anything in terms of driving to France sort from. Passports. Any other requirements?

Also how is it driving on the other side of the road? We've never done it before ?

You used to need to take a breathalyser kit with you and you'll need a UK sticker or magnetic plaque for the rear of your car. Make sure you have European breakdown cover too. You don't want to break down abroad and be stranded.

Driving on the other side of the road is okay, but just have your wits about you. As the driver of a British car in Europe you, the driver, will be sitting closer to the edge of the road than the middle, so it's good to have a fellow driver in the passenger seat to act as an extra pair of eyes, if needed. This is particularly important if you need to overtake the vehicle in front. Remember you go the opposite way around roundabouts and when pulling out onto from a T-junction just think for a moment which side of the road you'll be going onto if there are no other cars visible to remind you. You'll soon get the hang of it - it's surprisingly easy after the first hour.

Depending where you're driving in France, you might need a crit'air sticker for your windscreen. It's a measure of how polluting your car is. There is an official government site where you put your reg no in - and can say it's for a foreign car. Costs about 4 euros.
If you go to la bien assise there's a good museum near for the battle of Azincourt with commentary in English by Robert Hardy. I found it quite amusing as it was a crushing defeat for the French and the fact they had a museum as they don't stop ribbing the British for celebrating the Dunkirk spirit.
There's a logic de France hotel on the site, and you can use their restaurant as well as the camp snack bar.
Don't forget that men/boys can't use knee length shorts in swimming pools, it's either budgie smugglers or close fitting swim shorts in lycra.

Oh wow ok I'll get searching for these requirements, @newtb I didn't realise boys and mens couldn't wear knee length swimming shorts That's crazy 😜

France is very weird about swimwear, it's Speedo's for men (trunk style is fine as long as they are tight fitting and made if swimming costume material ) in Spain it was wasn't the swimwear causing an issue but hotel pools inland often demand everyone wears a swim cap even men with crew cuts! And flip flops were compulsory too at one place. Just check before you go so you can buy appropriate clothes in advance and prepare young men who will freak!

The main thing to remember is if you're staying within that distance of Calais it might not be that much warmer than the UK in August. We've stayed on Brittany before and had a good time but it wasn't super warm (low 20s during day, colder in evening). Normandy was even colder.

Doesn't bother me but if you're spending lots of time in the water make sure it's heated pools.

La Croix du Vieux Pont is the only french site I have been too that wasn't fussed on males wearing budgies - board shorts were fine when we were there in Aug 2021 (the weather was meh though). We are heading back there for 3 nights this summer (Aug bank holiday) as my daughter loved the pool (night time pool parties) and my son loved the football pitches.

We'll be stopping off there on our way back from a longer trip to a smaller site - Camping Lac d'orient - which has pools, slides etc and is set next to a lake (lovely clear water) with an aquapark, pedalo hire etc. We will take our paddle boards and bikes as there is a good bike path all round (about 20km-ish - dh and I will hire bikes). It's a bit further from Calais (4 hours) but the weather has always been excellent and it's in the Champagne region so I set myself the challenge of drinking champagne everyday. I think there is a theme park near by-ish - Ningboland? Pool wise, my son has been fine in jammers and my husband has shorts type speedos (like tight boxers) but they do not allow board shorts!

Weather in northern France, Belgium is similar to south of UK ie unpredictable! I live in Belgium so know! Driving is fine . Just be aware of shockingly bad driving and give way to right rule in Belgium (think it's been changed in France ) . come on over, it's lovely !

Thank you everyone that's all very helpful. Has anyone booked through all camps ? As it's your tote a bit cheaper than the eurocamps?

Bump

Also allcamps shows mandatory tourist tax does anyone know what and how
Much this is?

www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/travel/what-is-frances-tourist-tax-taxe-de-sejour-and-who-pays-it/ You normally have to pay tourist tax in france no matter where you stay.

'passage protégé' still exists in France. About 10km from where I live, in the centre of the sous préfecture there's a roundabout with 5 roads, 2 are 1 way. There's traffic lights, give way and passage protéger. Even better, there's a motorail terminal in the town.

Has anyone stayed at La Croix du Vieux Pont recently? The are alot of reviews complaining the accommodation is dirty and lots if other issues ?