Looking for impossible! Young adults and 12 year old active cheap holiday Europe

[Shimmerandshine21]

I’m looking for the impossible I think. Suggestions for a holiday for a 19,17 and 12 year old (plus me). Happy to book all bits separately and drive to keep costs down. But suggestions for locations +- accommodation ideas for somewhere active -think watersports- type holiday, needs to be decently warm but also somewhere nice to be inside if it’s too hot! Potentially last time taking 19 year old who is quite demanding on what they want and tricky to please the age range!! Thanks in advance.

@NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy thank you so much. I hope you have a lovely time. That looks great. We camped at lake bled and it was absolutely beautiful. The kids loved the lake etc too. We have also been to a campsite near Zell and the coasters were such good fun. The safari tents sound amazing . I hope you have a great time. we drove from bled to zell am see too when we did it.

@LemonDrizzlecake12 yes last two weeks of august is often a bit cheaper hence why I pick that time!! I’ll have a look. We have actually done duinrell a couple of times and it was good fun again we camped which does make it cheaper.

@Inthecafe all kids fit - one elite, one a regular gym goer and the other cycles 6mikes a day to/from school- does other clubs. I’ve just complete couch25k and have a good baseline fitness!

@EyeLevelStick thank you.

So on further discussion their top request is kayaking and/or snorkelling.

Eurocamp is a great bet, but most of the big sites will be fully booked for this year. Duinrell has loads but it isn’t cheap by Eurocamp standards, probably about £1200-1500 for a week. You do get a lot of activities included with Eurocamp generally but water sports etc tend to be extra. You might be able to put together an itinerary moving around every few days.

We’ve just come back from one and the prices for activities were pretty reasonable: €20 for two hours on a treetop adventure course, €2 for pedalo, €6 for two shots on the giant zip line over the water, etc. And you can spend as much or as little on food as you want to depending on how much cooking you want to do. We tend to get stuff in for breakfast from local supermarket and then do a mix of eating out/takeaway for dinner and the odd pasta dish or picky tea.

The self catering lodges on holiday parks in Germany are good value and often situated near lakes and hiking trails so you can do watersports/ mountain biking etc. They are much less noisy and overcrowded than UK holiday parks and often in much nicer spots (I am a haven/park dean veteran so not being a snob, just that you get more for your money). Ferry from Harwich to hook of Holland can be cheap and fun and then you could drive down to Germany v easily.

We are staying at Terspegelt later this year. It has tube rafting and an inflatables thing on the lake itself and canoeing nearby.

We went to a campsite in Dordogne a few years ago and it is driveable from Calais (albeit 8 hours drive) and there is plenty of kayaking on the river available which was really good.

The actual campsite we went to was better for littlies but I am sure there are others with more activities for teenagers.

I would drive down to lake annecy, stopping overnight on the way to break up the journey.
There is a campsite with availability for two weeks at the end of August right on the lake for £850. We have stayed in camping pods/ wooden huts before on lake annecy for not much more money than camping but they might be all booked uo by mow! My kids have down windsurfing courses on lake annecy. What are your exact dates?

If they like kayaking then I would buy a couple of these https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/mp/sevylor/sevylor-thaaa-kayak-for-2-adults/_/R-p-98107e2b-530e-44f4-bd84-d30e4f59e25c

Before you go to save spending a fortune on hiring every day. Ime they are pretty easy to set up and sturdy.

I watch a lot of cruise stuff on YouTube.

One was a river cruise where you had the option of staying on the boat or cycling to the next stop. I don't know if they had a minimum age though.

Go to one of the Eurocamps in France in late August that’s centred around a lake- there’s a few in the ardeche area- you can filter on their site to ‘active’ - pay for the best accommodation they have , including crossing, fuel, tolls etc both ways I’m reckoning around £2.1k - some of the sites are amazing and lakes can have a ton of sports .

Of course you can find a decent holiday for that price, especially if you're willing to camp! Kayaking on the Dordogne/ Gorges du Tarn while staying in a reasonably priced campsite? (And you don't have to go to a bells-and-whistles Eurocamp style campsite- there are plenty of lovely cheap municipal campsites). You could do a two centre trip and stay somewhere near Cassis for snorkeling in the Calanques National Park, too. The DC are probably old enough to enjoy a trip to Marseille, too.

We've got those- I got them off Facebook Marketplace. We don't use them as much as I envisaged because they're not that great when it's windy and it's always bloody windy here! (But of course it's far less likely to be so on inland lakes and rivers in continental Europe).

For adventure, try an Explore or Exodus holiday to Morocco or similar. Inexpensive and very memorable. Desert camps, camel rides, ancient sites, souks etc.

For something calmer I agree Slovenia is amazing. Ljubljana is clean, safe, pretty. A gorgeous city with a funicular, castle, great markets and cafes. Lake Bled is perfect for cycling, swimming, kayaking, boat to the island, another castle, Tito's summer palace is now a tea shop ( in high season only iirc) Lake Bohinj is sapphire blue and jade green. Great hikes around the lakes, water sports, hang gliding for dare devils. Everywhere us clean, safe, beautiful, easy to reach.

Or a long city break in Budapest. Explore the amazing spas, dating from Roman times to 1930s glamour. There is a secret wartime hospital hidden in Buda caves, now a .museum, a church in the caves, the old ruin bars, Danube cruises, Margrit island with hire of all sorts of bikes and carts, and a mudical fountain, indoor markets, animal cafes. When we went there was a brilliant music festival on. And you can take a trip out to the bear sanctuary to hand feed honey to the bears.

Centerparcs Kempervennen have a water ski lake with a chain link, kayaking climbing zip wire etc and a proper snow indoor ski slope.Went with my dc in late teens and the loved it.
Also last week in august is cheap

I’d also look at the Euro camps / euro parcs / centre parcs in The Netherlands. They’re not overly expensive and if you research the sites some have water sports or are close to lakes etc that offer this. The pools at centre parcs are fun for all ages. Also lots of theme parks to visit as well.

Have you looked at the French alps? Morzine has lots to do in the summer, cycling, road and mountain. There’s a big lake near by that does kayaking and paddle boarding, swimming pool complex in the town.