Belgium with kids

[unicornglittersprinkles]

We’re a family of 5 - 3 young children (will be 7, 7 and 4 by next year) so holidays are tricky to find something suitable, especially given that we prefer to get out and about rather than just pool/beach. The last 2 years we’ve driven and taken the ferry which has been great for us and I think we’d like to stick with that formula until the kids are a little older. This year we did a Yelloh! village site in france and last year we went to The Netherlands (Duinrell and Efteling).

For next year we’re starting to consider Belgium and I think we’re set on one week at Center Parcs Vossemeren but we’d like another week to do some exploring. I’d love to go to Bruges and Ghent and Plopsaland also looks good but then we also love the look of the beautiful towns in the Belgian Ardennes too.

Has anyone been with young children? Any recommendations on where to base ourselves?

Have a look at https://little-clogs-holidays.co.uk/, loads of recommendations for places to stay and the lovely ladies who run it can offer tailored advice if you send them a message.

We did a week in Belgium camping when the kids were 7 and 5. We camped at De Lisle Bergen which was amazing. The only draw back was very few English speakers and my kids missed making friends. We did day trips to Antwerp and Brussels from a nearby train station.

No recommendations for where else to go, but definitely a thumbs up for Centerparcs De Vossemeren. It was perfect when my DC were that age and we had several brilliant holidays there.

De Vossemeren and also Eperheide are great with small kids. Maybe the CP at De Haan if you want to get a bit of the coast. De Haan is one of the nicer, less built up towns - though the beach is fab all the way along really. Plopsaland, Boudewijn SeaPark. Blanckenberg is a bit built up but is the town, other than Ostend that has easy access by train to Bruges and Ghent. It has some great beach activities laid on, mini golf, Pier etc. The De Lijn tram takes you up and down the coast. Have a look also at Landal.com and Roompot.com. I live in Belgium and the coast is much underrated elsewhere. The locals flock there and many people have second homes.

We booked several holidays with Roompot when my dcs were very young. We really liked this one, in NL not Belgium though
https://www.roompot.nl/aanbiedingen/hellevoetsluis/?referer=ggle&gclid=CjwKCAjwr_CnBhA0EiwAci5sikCxdKijh_JdpUwwTfp_gYXCKAOMNfJIbqK-tppbRXUHS6FOq1rwhBoCzlQQAvD_BwE

For countryside Marche en Famenne/Durbuy/Rochefort is pretty central for the Ardennes. Les Grottes de Han, wild animal parks, Eurospace Centre, yours might be too young for the war museum at Bastogne. I'd probably stick to the sea.

We recently spent a week at this holiday park. It's in a beautiful location and has good facilities. They do have kids clubs, mainly in Dutch, but my kids still enjoyed them.
https://www.sandaya.co.uk/our-campsites/parc-la-clusure

The Euro Space Center is nearby and great fun.

We went to this amazing park:
https://www.tripadvisor.fr/Attraction_Review-g4997661-d6857094-Reviews-Domaine_Provincial_de_Chevetogne-Chevetogne_The_Ardennes_Wallonia.html
It was huge. There was so much to do and our only expense was 13 euros to park the car.

Parc Chlorophylle was a little further out, but brilliant facilities and they had a children's trail in English too.

We did Plopsaland last year - it was fantastic! Absolutely loads for little kids (our youngest was 4, eldest 12). I would thoroughly recommend it - the indoor play areas are spectacular so even if you have damp weather you will enjoy it. Some of the queues were quite slow but overall we loved it more than Legoland or Chessington. The aqua park has terrible reviews so we skipped that.

We have done Ghent with an 8 yo, it is a lovely small place - the castle is cute and the tourist office has a free scavenger hunt app where you do a small walking tour solving easy clues to find the tourist hotspots.

Antwerp zoo is good but I think I missed the point of Antwerp and didn’t like it much.

Bruges is lovely - very touristy and expensive. I probably wouldn’t do it with such young kids.

I don’t know the whole coast but I can recommend Dunkirk beach - very low key but has little restaurants along the front and it’s a vast wide beach with warm shallow pools that trickle down to the sea. We spent a very happy 6 hours playing in the sand there.

We went to a Sun Park at De Hann when our boys were 3 and 7, very close to the Beach where there’s a lovely promenade, we went into Bruges one day and also to Ostend and Blankenbourg.

Thanks all, so much to think about!

@MaryToft that Sandaya park looks great. We’ve done some of those in France and love the format. Now seriously considering one week there and one week CP Vossemeren.

The more we look at it, the more I’m thinking that Bruges, Ghent, etc. would be more for us adults and The Ardennes might actually be the better option as a family. We love the outdoors and we can still get our town fix in Dinant, Namur, etc.

You can get the cable car down from the Citadel in Dinant. It's fairly short, but it's a bit of a novelty. There is a children's playground at the top of the Citadel too.

Just came in to say we were at Plopsaland last week. My kids love it even though they are now 14 +16. It is fab,.and the new big ride there is mad....the Ride to Happiness...craziest thing I've ever been on! But it is brilliant there! Enjoy.

We stayed at the Sandaya La Closure with our then 5 year old and it was great. There is a river to play in , our favourite feature was that the the bar/restaurant overlooks the playground!

There were few Brits there but DD still went to the kids club and made an English speaking Dutch friend (Dutch are definitely the main clientele at this park)

We visited Dinant and the Grottes de Han as day trips.