Eurocamp style holidays - beginners advice

[Notquitegrownup]

Sooooo excited, we are off on our first camping holiday with Canvas Holidays in August to the Vendee.

So, maybe a silly question, but do you take water containers to fill up each morning?

Any other handy advice welcome - what small items (apart from the dcs) would you not travel without?

Thank yoouuuu

There is very little that you NEED to take. Canvas provide a water carrier. Here are some suggestions for some things which may make things a bit more comfortable (I have assumed you are driving):

• Torches as campsites can get very dark at night
• Toilet roll - most campsites dont provide this in the toilets and though the campsite shop will sell it you may need a roll to get you started (IYSWIM)
• Bed linen, sleeping bags (easier than blankets)
• A sharp knife as the ones provided are normally fairly blunt (unless my husband got there before you in which case they will be sharpened to the point where they could be used for performing surgery)
• A couple of bottles of drinking water in case the campsite shop is shut when you arrive.
• Tea (if that is your preferred hot drink) as continental tea is blended to be drunk without milk.
• Make sure you have some cash so that you can pay for a takeaway in case you arrive after the shop has shut.

Other than that pack common sense and a sense of humour!

Have a lovely time

Towels:
tea-, bath- and beach-.

Cheap flipflops or similar for wearing to the pool - you usually have to leave them outside the pool complex, along with everyone else's.

Are you camping or in a mobile home?

If you do a search there are several threads about the Vendee.

Thank you. Would never have thought of loo roll but don't want to do a huge shop on the first day (not that we use that much loo roll, but we will arrive at lunchtime and want to start holidays straight away and then shop on day 2)

Any more good ideas?

Second taking flipflops to the pool. Can be worth putting your names in them so they dont wander off with another family.

If children are small then hooded towelling robes may be better than normal towels in the shower. Otherwise we always take really fluffy towels as these are a nice luxury.

Guidebooks - we use the michelin green guides and map books but there are plenty of alternatives.

We take a cd player/mp3 with stories. These are great for settling children (and grownups) to sleep.

A picnic set will be going with us this year so that we dont need to worry about breaking eurocamp's glasses (we have a track record).

Dont forget your EHIC cards (used to be e111). Most travel insurance will assume that you have used the French NHS and the insurance only tops up.

We do breakfast French style on a paper napkin rather than using plates - no jam or butter. We also sit outside for all meals if at all possible. Both of these are to minimise housework.

An extra cool box will be useful (canvas provide one already). You can use this to store food such as bread/biscuits out of sight of small creatures.

Clothes pegs are useful for pegging clothes to the airer. Stops smalls being blown over the campsite if there is a breeze.

Check out the inventory list on Canvas' website. They do provide an awful lot and there is no need to duplicate.

If the day you plan to do your shopping is a Sunday, most French supermarkets shut at noon on Sunday so you need to get going early - and it will be busy as everyone who arrived the day before will be doing the same! I would be tempted to do it the day you arrive....

never been with canvas but with eurocamp, well the ones we have been to anyway, there is always a little eurocamp hut where other kindly campers have left their too bulky toys / alrady read books - so we have been able to help oursleves to inflatable dolphins, chess sets, rubbishy magazines (that i love!), lego, dolls prams, you name it. So I wouldn't bother packing any of that stuff unless your kids have really treasured favourites. I've always been a bit jealous of the people who remember to bring fairy lights to put in the trees - my kids would love to have a mum who remembered those!

I know someone above said sleeping bags, but I wouldn't bother, we have always been warm and comfy enough with the blankets provided, and the staff have always been more than willing to provide more for us when needed.

we had an amazing time with Thomson Alfresco. Most of my recommendations have been mentioned - sharp knife, plastic plates etc for the kids, plastic glasses for us, pegs, tea towels, bathmat, corkscrew.

tbh, most of what we took to entertain the dds wasn't touched! They were too busy playing with all the other children.