I need inspiration- we would like to go to Europe next Easter from 28th march till 6th April. We have 3 kids aged 13, 10 and 7 so needs to suit them too but I know most campsites are closed at this time. We really are open minded about where we go and open to any suggestions that are probably within 6-7 hours of Calais. It can be cities, countryside or lakes and mountains I just need some ideas so I can narrow my search down a bit please. Thank you
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
For just over a week have you looked at the possibility of renting a mobile/gite and not towing - saving fuel, ferry cost, tolls and site fees may cover the cost and also allow you to drive a bit further south for possibly better weather.
ValA recommended a great site on the banks of the Seine on the outskirts of Paris which facilitated a riverside cycle into Paris when I was looking for suggestions this Easter. I saved the details somewhere but can't find right now. Hopefully Val will pick up on this thread.
This year we ended up doing an Easter city break to Bruges (1-1.1.2 hrs from calais which is great for a few days and not too weather dependent at Easter.
it is very cheap to hire bikes, tag alongs or trailers for the kids and cycle along the canals. Bruges itself is wonderful and at Easter you get to see it both in daylight and in the Dark - in the dark it is just fabulous!! - Camping Memling is just a short bus ride away from the centre of town.
Otherwise i would suggest drawing up a shortlist of locations and not deciding a final destination until you know the weather forecast - unlike The UK sites will not be full at Easter nor will there be a minimum of 3 night stays etc.
Happy planning,
Guy.
------------- It's only an expensive hobby when it's parked on your Drive....use it, love it , live it.
Have a look at the ACSI Card website - where you may even find sites which offer 'children go free'. You can type in a date and see what sites come up. Type in the start date of your holiday and all sites open on that date will come up. You can then scroll through them and exclude any which don't have what you want. Sorry, having looked at the ACSI website they don't yet have details up for 2015 - but to be honest you really won't need to book at that time anyway. You can just see where the weather forecast looks reasonable and head in that direction, providing you've made a list of open sites in a few areas, of course.
The site I recommended in the other thread isn't really one you'd want to visit with smallish children - there are few facilities for children - and if I were going at Easter I'd want somewhere with an indoor pool at least because it may well be very cold! We travelled through France at Easter several times years ago, and though northern France was warmer than at home, as you go further south and higher the weather became very cold indeed, and in the Massif Central we drove through a very ferocious ice storm where all the trees turned into giant upwards icicles!
I would suggest the Languedoc but there are few sites which open so early in the year. It's not easy to use websites to search for next year's opening dates, so I would honestly leave it until sites start publishing their opening dates before I even thought about booking anything.
Post last edited on 01/07/2014 21:31:05
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
You might want to have a look at this website - where you can check back on 'historical' weather records, to see what the temperature and rainfall was like for a particular month for a particular town or city. Not every town is in there, but the one I've used as an example (Montpellier) is a reasonable temperature in 2011 - but flicking backwards and forwards through the years show a very variable temperature and rainfall.
However, some places you might think about going to are down into minus temperatures at night and not much higher during some days.
Le Paradis, in the Dordogne, was open at Easter this year, and now has a super indoor pool complex but it is perhaps too far for your drive, and may well be cold at that time of year.
Or what about Duinrell in Holland, which has a water park and all sorts of other 'Theme Park' attractions, and offers camping pitches for March 2015.
We've "done" Holland four or five times at Easter and have been very lucky with the weather and even managed beach each time (kids in fleeces admittedly). They are very well set up for bad weather and both Duinrell (which is noisy and big but with LOTS to do) and Koningshof have indoor pools and plenty in the local area. You can park and ride for very low cost into amsterdam where there is LOADS to do including the massive NEMO Science Museum, really interacive and hands on for kids of all ages.
------------- Amanda
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!