Campervan holiday in Europe with kids - where? Black Forest? France?

[EuropeAdventures]

We're looking to do our first trip to Europe in the campervan this summer. The kids will be 9 and 6.

We want to be within a 6 hour drive of Calais and will probably spend 10-12 days.

Happy to have a couple of longer bases or move around every couple of nights. We're not the mot outgoing people so probably prefer quieter sites to the big water park eurocamp type places but open to idea.

So where might be good to visit? I was thinking of the Black Forest but I've heard the weather can be rainy in the summer. Maybe France but my children are pretty bouncy kids and I've heard France doesn't think too highly of spirited children.

The Vosges area is lovely, if you don't go too high into the mountains as it can be a bit rainy at times then.

Brittany is interesting.

We were in the medoc region last summer. Lots of lakes and water parks. We didn’t camp but plan to this year. Close to the sea too

Dutch kids are loud, so you could look for a Dutch campsite in France, problem solved

Anywhere south of Lyon is likely to be very hot in the summer though. Atlantic coast is more comfortable in a heat wave. Central Germany is horrendous in a heat wave, and bad summer storms from the mountains are getting more common. The same goes for the Italian lakes unfortunately

The Limousin. Often gets overlooked but generally reliably good weather over the summer. Not at busy as many other places, but so beautiful. And it's got Lac Vassiviere, plus a host of other swimming lakes.

You can find some fantastic aires, many with facilities, and explore from there. Many are free, or charge just for electricity. These aires charge a small fee which you pay by loading a card in advance:

https://www.campingcarpark.com/en_GB/

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Looks like France seems to be more popular than Germany. I'll have a look at all the places this weekend. We're happy to make it a road trip so could do a few regions.

I have wondered about the aires but wonder how they will be in summer given that you can't book. We quite like the idea of being more flexible and not tied to our bookings if we're loving a place.

Last year we did a road trip through North Europe. Ferry to France. First night in Belgium, second night Luxembourg then into Germany - down through the Black Forest region. A day trip to Basel in Switzerland from the Black Forest as you only pay tourist tax (80c per person per night) for a travel card for any trains across the region and to Basel. Then back up to Belgium and The Netherlands. We stayed on free Aires mainly. I used the search for sites app. But did need to pay for Aires for a few nights nearer the south of Germany as free ones were hard to find.
6 countries in 2 weeks :)
Our children were 8 and 13.

We loved our holidays with our caravan and children (no issue from any French about being too loud!).
Our favourite places were the Black Forest, Luxembourg (much less touristy if that's what you fancy as we barely saw and brits) then various regions of France of which our favourites were the Dordogne and the auvergne (again, less touristy). We've stayed away from coastal regions but chose campsites with pools and lakes as well.
If we travelled further than six hours from Calais, we'd do overnight stops and occasionally combined with a couple of nights in Paris. Once we did (to DHs horror) two nights at Disneyland Paris on the way back.

You can book ahead with the aires I linked to. Not the case with 'normal' aires, as you say.

Edited to add that al we've not found it difficult to book at short notice, and iirc, you only get charged when you leave.

Black Forest is amazing and my dc loved europaparc theme parc, but can't recommend camp sites as I book hotels, hate camping when touring. As for "bouncy" children, perhaps use the next few months to get them used to sitting still at the table, french kids are just as lively at the play park etc but they definitely have excellent table manners typically (that said so did my British children!)

We've done a few trips to France in Summer & predominantly used Camping CarParks on journey with no issues. Ile de Re is lovely. France is very geared up for campervans. Roads much better & easier driving than here.

Oh yes roads in Europe are amazing. Our worst part of the journey was always the bit down to Dover and the English part of the way back!

Mmm agree. If stuck, almost every small town (and many villages) will have a free aire - our village does, and there are about 10 more within 20km of us. It's fine to just park up somewhere quiet too.

Ile de Re and the Dordogne are both great places to head to with a campervan - it's where we spent many a happy holiday in our campervan when our kids were young

Look at Huttopia sites as they are a bit smaller than some of the Eurocamp type ones.

You can book the aires run by camping carpark...the initial subscription is more though.

Other aires, municipal run are not bookable.

Someone mentioned Dordogne...fab with lots to do but can be excruciatingly hot in August...was 45 degrees summer of 2022. The Lot area next door is as lovely but not nearly as busy.

Huttopia sites have been mentioned...agree, good sites if you want a bigger site and pre bookable.

Loire area is lovely...lots to do..visiting castles, cycle routes, towns.

We camped in the Black Forest one July for a week and it was a very damp week. We were in a tent and PIL were in a mobile home, and we had to take our towels to PIL because we couldn't get them dried in the tent.

If you are still considering the Black Forrest, we stayed at this campsite a few years back. We had free access to the public swimming pool and were given a tourist travel card for public transport which was excellent (part of the tourist tax scheme.

There is plenty for DC to do in the area... Europe Park (of course) and Hasenhorn coaster, which was my DC favourite trip!

www.eurocampings.co.uk/germany/baden-wurttemberg/kirchzarten/camping-kirchzarten-100187/

That's the kind of thing we're after - I like the sound of the travel card.

This was also the one I was going to say - we've been a couple of times (and I went as a child) and loved it. However, it is a big site although it's divided into sections so doesn't feel as big as it is.

It's great, we literally drove there, parked the car and just used local transport (bus & train). It gives you a few discounts for places as well- but we didn't use them, so not sure how good they are.

www.blackforest-highlights.com/plan-your-trip/guest-cards-konus

The Black Forest is not rainy in summer, except to the extent that of course it can rain anywhere. It's a nice place to be in the hot summer because it's 4 or 5 degrees less hot than the Rhine Valley. It's only a couple of hours from the BF to the Vosges, so you can see France and Germany on the same trip. (The eastern side of the Vosges used to be Germany and there are some similarities.) If you like spirits, go to Kappelrodeck and do the Schnappsbrunnentour. In the southern BF you can see the source of the Rhine and the source of the Danube, which are only a couple of hundred metres apart.

The only thing is that it's more like 8 hours drive from Calais rather than 6. But it's a camper-friendly area, you see loads of them around.

I campervanned for 5 months with my kids round Europe when they were 8 and 10. They loved Venice, but that's maybe a bit far for you to drive. The Ardeche is good, the Gorge du Tarn has some great riverside campsites and as it's in shade for much of the day it's likely to be cooler in a hot summer. You can go to see the visitor centre for the cave paintings, and fire canoes to go canoeing on the river. The Millau bridge is very impressive to see. Lots to do round there.