Where to go for a short break abroad with a family on low budget?

[toja555]

Due to circumstances we have never been on abroad holidays with my DH and DS, so we are very newbies in travelling. We would love to go on a budget short break (3-7 days) with relatively short and easy travel time (by plane, train or ferry) from London. Our budget is limited to £400-500. We don?t mind any destination as long as it is child friendly (we have 1.5 years DS) and easy to travel to (no changing flights etc). Any ideas or are we daydreaming with this budget? Thank you!

we just went on a last minute half term 7 day break with Sunparks in Holland at Zandvoort. It cost us less than 500 quid for the accommodation and about 80 quid for the ferry. We neededd a three bed tho so youu should be able to get it cheaper...

sunparks used to be part of centerparcs (I think)- it's definitely not as genteel as cp, and the facilities aren't as good, but imo it's much much better value for money.

Check out their website...they've got sites all over Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. We really liked Zandvoort because it was v v easy to get off the site - there's a train station about 10 minutes walk away and it'll take you 30 min to get to Amsterdam and 15 minutes to Haarlem.

...pretty windy at this time of year, tho!

if you fancy it come back and I'll give you some more info

CitizenPrecious, thank you for veyr very useful information! That might be something what we are looking for! Especially if you could go to Amsterdam easily. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind asnwering: 1) where the ferry goes from? 2) are there enough indoor facilities (especially for a small child) taking into account that it will be winter time?

we did the cheapo crossing toja (Dover-Calais)-whole journey took us about 10 hours from London but we did tootle a bit. there are sites a bit nearer tho- we wanted to go to Amsterdam which is why we picked that one. As for indoor stuff, there's a bit called "indoor beach" or somesuch but we didn't have a look. There's an indoor swimming pool bit which is fun for littluns- (tho a bit boring for older kids according to ds 12- not enough slides!) but you might get cabin fever after a couple of days!

...there are lots of cosy things to do in holland in the winter- mostly involving drinking hot chocolate with whipped cream ...don't know how happy your ds would be with sitting around tho!

We are going to Holland in April with Eurocamp, £185 inc ferry.

This is where we are going:

www.eurocamp.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=Campsites.ResortOverView&ver=1&Mastercode=4 3

My parents always seem to manage to get amazing deals with Canvas Holidays and Eurocamp to France and Italy, even with fly-drive.

Ireland? .....not strictly abroad but felt very different there for us.

Agree, the Netherlands is very family friendly and I've always had lovely times there. We didn't mamnage to even find out about indoor activities (stayed with friends) But, we wrapped up very warmly. Take lots of layers and thick coats if you do go.

Your budget. We managed it v cheaply but that was without food or accomodation. Sorry, but you asked
Hope you find somewhere.
If it makes you feel any better our trip this year was to Wales....we're saving for another holiday year after next

Do not go to Ireland if you are on a budget. It is horrifically expensive. We have just come back from a family wedding and were shocked at how expensive it was - and I should know better, as my whole family live there and I was there previously in August. An additional problem at the moment is the strength of the Euro, a couple of years ago you would get 1.4 euro to the pound, now it's almost parity.

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Thank you for your all advices, indeed! I will check on all suggestions, but to be honest we have made up our mind for now ? we will try Sunpark in Holland, we just have to wait for last minute prices for our holiday date! I am already getting excited, as we never went on holidays with my hubby further than Scotland, and hopefully it will be great fun.