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Original poster

Self drive eurocamp holidays...am I mad?

61 replies

MooMa83 · 25/08/2023 10:59

....with a toddler and 7 year old with ADHD?? We've just returned from a miserable and expensive weeks holiday in UK and I'm considering options for next summer that won't cost a gazillion pounds. I like the idea of self drive with overnight ferry but my husband thinks I'm mad. Has anyone else done this? What's the easiest route? I don't mind where we go, but I would like heat, nice accommodation, activities for the 7 year old and nice places to eat/visit. TIA

OP posts:
HelpaFriend85 · 27/08/2023 07:41

ElleDeeCB · 27/08/2023 07:32

Not sure, that sounds exhausting to me. Could you not find somewhere you can pick up cheap flights to and then take local transport? Stay somewhere self catered with a pool? We’ve holidayed in Ile de Ré and you can fly cheaply to La Rochelle and then v good public transport to the island, where you can also hire bikes to get around and good buses too. However weather can be a bit unpredictable. Budget wise our 1-bed apartment which slept 4 with (shared) heated pool was £675 for a week peak-time in August. The equivalent in a similarly nice area of Cornwall would have been 2-3 times the price.

That’s amazing price for Ile de Re!

OP we’ve done it a few times tbh it’s ending up costing us a lot, DH likes the best cabin on ferry we’ve stayed in 5 star hotels mixing it up with a villa for a week, but it’s an amazing experience and kids enjoy it. Although mine did get a bit of holiday fatigue, staying in too many diff places. The villa for the week was a good rest!

We’ve got Plymouth overnight to Santander worked out way through France then back into Portsmouth for Caen. Avoid Dover lol!

MikeRafone · 27/08/2023 07:50

The Vendee is your best bet for weather and short drive after ferry crossing Portsmouth StMalo

id suggest you book cheap over night accommodation in St Malo the night before your ferry. It’s much easier that way. I’ve done it both ways, and having to pack, put your car outside the campsite - as the camps often lick the gates and don’t open them until two hours after you need to leave, is more stressful. Plus st Malo is a great city to enjoy on your last afternoon

book camping Saturday to Saturday and get the Friday night ferry over and then the Sunday ferry back

there are many eurocamp type places on the Vendee and that area

Monstercarp · 27/08/2023 07:51

We decided to do this over 10 years ago after realising how much we were having to spend in the UK to keep the kids entertained on holiday when the weather was bad.
We're in the Midlands and found an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to either Caen, Le Havre or Cherbourg leaves a four and half to five hour drive to the Vendée region on the west coast. Beautiful beaches, and seaside resorts.Tend to get good daytime temperatures and cooler at night for sleeping, but nothings guaranteed these days! If you're not so fussed about the beach then the Loire area is a bit closer and is good for sightseeing. There are quite a few family sites with good pools in the area.
You can use Eurocamp to research for sites, but then check to see if the sites hire out their own accommodation because it can be cheaper. Also there's a camping in France Facebook group that might be helpful.
Overnight crossings do put the cost up but you need to balance it, as a shorter crossing will mean more fuel and tolls in France, as well as an overnight stay somewhere. Also the driving in France is so much better than here. Roads are better with nowhere near the amount of traffic.

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ElleDeeCB · 27/08/2023 07:52

@HelpaFriend85 Thanks yes I thought so too! I thought there must be something dodgy about it before we arrived but the place was really nice and suited us very well.

Louie998 · 27/08/2023 08:06

I’m not sure about the driving but absolutely love a Eurocamp holiday. Mine are 8 and 6 now and we go to one in the South of France every year. They absolutely love it, fantastic pools with slides, playgrounds, kids club and I don’t think it costs much more than it would to holiday in England. If you want to be able to explore at bit could you fly and then hire a car? If you go right to the South then you’ll hopefully get better weather but it would be a long drive. We hired a car the first year but now we don’t bother as we found the kids didn’t want to do much apart from go to the pool and beach.

Serendipitoushedgehog · 27/08/2023 08:08

We are doing this. They’re brilliant if you’re on a budget. We’ve opted for one in the north because we’re not very confident at driving long distances in France. Kids club for the 7 year old if they can manage it. Swimming. Is it the journey you’re worried about?

CoreopsisEverywhere · 27/08/2023 08:13

I would suggest you fly with the children (East Mids or B’ham airport) and dh drives and go further south. Eurocamp is no fun if it rains, and you’ll need to go further south for guaranteed heat.

Emzbee · 27/08/2023 08:27

Fellow midlander here!
we have for the last 2 hols crossed over to France. We did Portsmouth to st malo. From here we have drive to Brittany with a break in the middle for lunch and museum. We also have done eurotunnel and crossed over to Holland to go to the north coast (zeeland). We are planning a trip next to dordogne (driver longer but we will return to Normandy, France for a few days before we leave). It’s cheaper than U.K. and especially Brittany the beaches are lovely. Plus we bring some nice wine back. We have a toddler who is 3.5 (very active) and he copes quite well.
just to say the overnight ferry from Portsmouth works best we found. Literally go to bed and wake up and you are there!

ThePoetsWife · 27/08/2023 08:37

We did this most summers when DC we're young. Stayed on campsites rather than eurocamp though and saved lots that way.

These were our best holidays as a young family.

Meredusoleil · 27/08/2023 08:43

ElleDeeCB · 27/08/2023 07:32

Not sure, that sounds exhausting to me. Could you not find somewhere you can pick up cheap flights to and then take local transport? Stay somewhere self catered with a pool? We’ve holidayed in Ile de Ré and you can fly cheaply to La Rochelle and then v good public transport to the island, where you can also hire bikes to get around and good buses too. However weather can be a bit unpredictable. Budget wise our 1-bed apartment which slept 4 with (shared) heated pool was £675 for a week peak-time in August. The equivalent in a similarly nice area of Cornwall would have been 2-3 times the price.

Could you pm me the name of the site on Ile de Re please? Sounds like it could be just what I'm looking for, for next summer!

Pebblesandwaves · 27/08/2023 08:49

This is our holiday every year! We get the Portsmouth to St Malo overnight boat and book a cabin. Great night sleep, big spacious boat and restaurant serves a big choice of dinners and breakfast. When looking for a site if recommend Yelloh! Or Canvas. Brittany has some great sites and is only a couple of hours from st malo. I'll find a link to one we've stayed at several times. We head down to the south of France twice a year (summer holiday and then skiing) and do it in one hit, the children are fine if they've got books, film, colouring and we stop every couple of hours for a run about.

PurpleBirch · 27/08/2023 08:52

Upanddownthemerrygoround · 26/08/2023 22:21

Overnight ferry to st Malo, then it’s two hours to Carnac. We went to la grande metairie a few times when children were little, didn’t even use a tank of fuel.

for guaranteed heat you’d need to go further south though.

We’ve done this too. It was a great holiday and sounds ideal for what you’re looking for.

ScentOfSawdust · 27/08/2023 08:53

We used to do this a lot when the kids were small. We did overnight Portsmouth-Le Havre to get to the Vendee. We went to St Malo for Carnac and we’ve done Euro-tunnel for Spain and for Northern Italy. One child has autism/adhd, but was always fine with the journeys.

Icannever · 27/08/2023 08:53

We did it from Scotland this year and it was tough but not awful. We drove right down to the medoc area on the Atlantic coast and we loved it. Great weather and beaches and lakes, not overcrowded like home, better on site entertainment.
The overnight ferries I wouldn’t bother with as there’s not enough time in the ferry to get a decent sleep. Stay in a premier inn near the ferry instead and get the morning ferry.
We went Plymouth to roscoff on the way and Portsmouth to Caen on the way back. The kids enjoyed the ferries. If you book your ferry through canvas or eurocamp it works out much cheaper.
The middle of France seems to be a lot cheaper than the coast (and warmer?) and there are some great Lakes and lake beaches which would possibly suit small children better than the sea anyway.

keepingsanity · 27/08/2023 09:31

Fly into eindhoven and plenty of sites nearby

Or beziers has lots close by

Luckyduc · 27/08/2023 09:50

There's a euro camp outside of Paris which is close enough to disneyland .. drive to class and take the ferry. Think its even possible to put the car on eurostar for a faster crossing.

tara66 · 27/08/2023 10:37

Be aware driving through France is expensive with tolls on motorway. Driving adds up - cost of tunnel or ferry and petrol too.

angstridden2 · 27/08/2023 11:01

We did it for about 12 years when the kids were between 2 and 14 starting with tents but later to a caravan for the loo in the middle of the night! They were great holidays, used the ferry then Eurotunnel sometimes with an overnight stay in a cheap Campanile or equivalent if we went to the Dordogne. Vendee, Loire both great if you don’t desperately want it really hot. Fab pools, kids clubs and loads of other children to join up with. The now adult children still talk about it with great affection.

SkankingWombat · 27/08/2023 11:04

We've done this for 6 of the last 7 years (the missed year was due to Covid). When we first went DCs were 11mo and 2yo, they are now 7 & 9yo, and our eldest has ADHD and ASD. My favoured but pricier choice is the Plymouth to Santander crossing on the way there - around 22hrs, but the boat has plenty of entertainment including a pool and the opportunity to see whales and dolphins - a short drive into southern France to stay at a Eurocamp-style site for a week, drive up a few more hours to stay at another site/have a city break for a week to break up the long drive up to Caen, then get the ferry back to Portsmouth.
Over the years we've tried various combinations of ferry routes and times. I really liked the year our ferry arrived in Caen around 9pm and we drove through the night down below Bordeaux with DCs happily asleep in the back, but the lack of sleep broke DH (despite sharing the drive). We were able to stop when it suited us though, and we didn't have to constantly hear a little voice every few miles declaring they yet again needed a wee (because they'd worked out all the aires have some kind of play equipment!). The year we arrived in Caen about 7am and drove to la Rochelle for a few days city break before heading further south also worked well. Driving straight to southern France during the day was a nightmare with the neverending stops. Even cracking down on toilet stops and risking wee accidents, we found the drive would take us about 12hrs.

Taking the car is great, as you can take everything you might need (including your own nice sharp knives!). It's also better for exploring and the option to shop at a proper supermarket (the on-site shops are limited in what they sell and expensive). You do need to factor in the tolls as well as petrol though.

Eurocamp don't own the sites, but are often one of many operators hiring out their own chalets on a camp site. It is worth checking trip advisor as the company with the nicest chalets varies from site to site. We've found the reps with Eurocamp to be consistently poor, however. We've had some awful and great chalets with Eurocamp across different sites, despite booking the same level of accommodation each time. We are staying with Homair this year, as at other sites we've been to they've looked pretty good and our preferred company didn't have space at the campsite we wanted. I think it is safe to say we will not be booking with them again! The accommodation is missing a lot of very basic equipment (eg an oven! Plus BBQ, kettle, and even little expected things like egg cups), crucial things were broken and we were left in an insecure chalet overnight because their handyman doesn't do emergency call outs (apparently.). Al Fresco often had better chalets and reps, but they have now been bought out by Eurocamp.

Listofjobs · 27/08/2023 11:37

We did the Dutch sites - Beekse Bergen and Duinrell. The easiest crossing for us was Hull to Rotterdam. Also did Harwich to Hook of Holland once or twice . Go for it -kids had a great time & it was no more hard work than being on holiday here!

ScoobyDoNot · 27/08/2023 12:17

We have done eurocamp every year for 8 years, from Brittany to Aquitaine. We mostly book via the Sun holidays and have never paid more than £600 for a week including Portsmouth-Caen overnight ferry. Add about £100 for a cabin. Always in the summer holidays too!
You can always find the sun holiday codes online and you get a heavily discounted crossing with Brittany ferries.

Currently on a back to back holiday. We booked a park for one week in the vendee then moving slightly further south to Bordeaux for a week. It cost less than £800 inc ferry. Definitely worth it!!

Meredusoleil · 27/08/2023 12:27

ScoobyDoNot · 27/08/2023 12:17

We have done eurocamp every year for 8 years, from Brittany to Aquitaine. We mostly book via the Sun holidays and have never paid more than £600 for a week including Portsmouth-Caen overnight ferry. Add about £100 for a cabin. Always in the summer holidays too!
You can always find the sun holiday codes online and you get a heavily discounted crossing with Brittany ferries.

Currently on a back to back holiday. We booked a park for one week in the vendee then moving slightly further south to Bordeaux for a week. It cost less than £800 inc ferry. Definitely worth it!!

Can I ask which park you are staying at in Bordeaux please? Also, when do the Sun holiday codes come out?

Victoria3010 · 27/08/2023 15:31

We did European centre parcs this summer, half the price and better than UK CP plus SUNSHINE!! We did the ferry Portsmouth to Caen, I think it was about £500 return for all of us and a 4x4, then we did a 3 hr drive on to bois aux daims. Loads of activities, great swimming pool and slides, every activity under the sun, cheap wine in the supermarkets, vineyards, better food and then did the overnight ferry home, the cabin for 4 was about 90 euro, everyone slept then we headed home once we got off at Portsmouth. The journey is bit manic, but the day ferry had a cinema, bar with entertainment, arcades and restaurants so much easier than car trips or planes for kids and on the overnight ferry they slept

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