Brainstorm (crowdstorm?!) my summer hol - NE France/Benelux

[DiamandaTheGreat]

Family of four incl 11 and 12yr olds (fairly mature in terms of sightseeing/not complaining etc). We live in the Midlands.

We usually go self-catering somewhere in Normandy/Brittany (with the car, via ferry) but fancy something different. My husband likes the sound of public transport so am thinking maybe Eurostar to Lille for a few nights and then combine with a Eurocamp-type place more rurally for some relaxation and pool time. We'd need to get to it by train/bus though. We've been to Berny-Riviere - that's the sort of place I'm thinking of.

Another option was Eurostar to Rotterdam and a similar plan - city then elsewhere for contrast. I'm also looking at the Belgian coast (De Haan?) and maybe a couple of nights in Bruges.

I like the look of Luxembourg but I don't know if it's too far south/will just entail too much travelling. We'll probably take 10-12 days in total.

We're not super fussy about accomm - happy with cheap and cheerful, and lodge tents/cabins/statics at a holiday park.

Any other ideas I've missed, or bits of wisdom please?

Bump

Hof van Saksen in the Netherlands is quite easy to access with public transport. The nearest train station is Assen which is a 15 min taxi ride from the resort. There are also buses which go from Assen to the bus stop 10 mins walk from it. Either fly or get the Eurostar to Amsterdam and then a direct train to Assen takes under 2 hours. It’s a really good option for tweens as there’s so much to do onsite.

We’ve done Duinrell in The Netherlands three times. We drove but lots of people use public transport. Much better than Berny-Rivière in my opinion. It’s close to the beach and easy to get to The Hague, Amsterdam, Delft, Leiden.

We did Brussels by Eurostar then on to Centre Parcs De Haan one year. Centre Parcs was about 10 minutes walk from the coastal tram stop. There was a direct bus to Brugge and trams up the coast to Ostende. We really enjoyed it.

Thank you both!

We've been to Duinrell and loved it, but it gets booked up so quickly in school hols (we've only been off season, when it's affordable!). I love The Hague and Leiden.

I've never heard of Hof Von Saksen, will look into 👍