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Hi everyone,

In recent weeks I have been looking into possibly buying a mobile home, at one of the Southern France sites of SIBLU (haven europe). Does anyone have any experience of such a venture, or better still does anyone here have a mobile on the sites of La Carabasse or Le Lac Des Reves. I am particularly interested on everyones views on the financial issues and other issues, both short term and longer term. I am inexperienced in this field but view this type of 'park' holiday as something that the children would enjoy. The pitch fees start at approx £3k per year and then the mobile homes range from £20k to well the sky is the limit. Obviously there will be some opportunity to sub-let while I am not there but again the returns and problems are somewhat unclear at present.

Another thing I have considered is the thought of having a tourer, thus gaining flexibility from location to location. I am undecided at present, and don't really know how much a decent sized one might cost, or indeed how easy it is to locate these at parks around Europe.

To assist my family situation is that I have two children (2 & 4) , myself and the wife, and enjoy a mixture of sight-seeing, beach, and activity type holidays, and wish to holiday for periods in the summer of approxiamately 3 to 4 weeks (hopefully).

Looking forward to your thoughts regards, Ken

Hi Ken

We have had a mobile home at Holiday Green in Frejus now for 10 years + and are very happy,I think your 20k for a new van is far too much money,we can buy brand new for approx 15k or even less depending on what style etc..Our site fees this year were £2200 and our management fees £400.

If you'd like any help please e-mail me at:mandywilliams at dsl.pipex.com

Our on site managers are agents for IRM mobile homes ,so they would also be able to help you.Its definately a great idea,we love it.

Mandy

What facilities are the on-site at Frejus ? I have had a quick look at the web-site but it doesn't seem to be the most user friendly ever. In particular, I am interested in the pool activities, for kids (and child-like adults) ie waterslides, kids clubs, etc.

I have been looking at IRM mobiles (as they seem to represent better value than most).

I did think that there seemed to be a 'premium' on the mobile home costs, but I suppose they load the mobile cost on what facilities are on park. I looked at the ABI web-site to compare RRP with prices and there did seem to be a £4k ish difference, I put it down to transport costs, but you may be right in the fact that they should be that £4k or so cheaper.

The tourer option has gone round my head a few times, there are alot of plus points, ie primarily more flexibility, probably lower costs but also some negatives, once the tourer is your mode of transport,  then you have to go from A to B in the tourer when a 'normal' car would do and probably be better, which has the benefits of easier parking, say if you wanted to go into some of the main towns. I know from my experiences of roads in southern Italy (driving down to Sicily) that some are treacherous. So one minute I think the tourer option is the one for me and then the next I think about driving through in a tourer Rome, Naples and Palermo, and think it might not be so easy.

What are everyones views on tents ? I suppose these provide ultimate flexibility but facilities are not as comfortable ? Do the parks that allow this type of camping also have facilities such as pools, etc ??

Most french campsites take caravans or tents - and yes, the facilities are there for all to use. 

Castels and Camping website is a good one - all their sites have fantastic facilities, and I think they all take tents.  Some french sites also do 'storage' so you might think about buying a tourer and storing it on a site you like - and they will then get it out of storage when you arrive, but you're also free to take it off site, and tow it somewhere else for a holiday, then bring it back in for storage.  It's an option we've thought off.  Another is to book a seasonaL pitch, for a tourer, for a whole season, and use it more than a couple of times.  We were on a site near Ramatuelle on time, and two guys on the next pitch had their pitch for the whole season, but let the tourer out to friends and family to use, to provide something towards the pitch fees.  At the end of the season you could either store it somewhere, bring it home, or choose another area and another seasonal pitch for the following year.

Would perhaps an in between option be worth considering, Garage Mort! Basically you store a touring caravan near to your favourite campsite and when you want to use it the company that store it put it on site for you and take it away back into storage when the holiday is over. Rather than pay the very high sum for a new mobile you could perhaps by a larger, older, touring van to put into storage and of course the storage fees are not much and you only pay the the site whilst you are there.

David

Hi Ken

There arent any water slides at Holiday Green,I think the reason for that is because the same company own the 'Aquatica ' water park that is 3k from the site,but they do have 2 lovely pools,1 very large one and 1 for children which has built in toys .During the main holiday season they have lots of activities at the pool,eg:water polo,pool surfing,kids clubs games and activities every day.

They have kids clubs for all ages,Tennis courts ,boule ,archery,horseriding,mountain biking trips.

Why not get in touch with our managers and have a word about prices with them for IRM vans.If you want their contact details just mail me ok

Mandy

I have booked a 3 week stay at La Lac Des Reves (siblu) in south of france, (plus 3 day inspection visit to La Carabasse), courtesy of MR TESCO's clubcard vouchers.In the end I was suprised by what good value it was if you book the last week in August and first 2 weeks in september. £953 (would have been less except no discounts applied if you use tesco's vouchers think price in cash would have been £850) including travel insurance, personal insurance, ferries and accomodation, for 2 adults and 2 kids. One thing that I think that has become clear is that outside of the school summer holidays, the rental income from sub-letting drops drastically.

I am going to survey the situation, and check out the area and the finances. If I have time may pop over to Frejus to compare the 'value' between the sites. I think one of the advantages with having it on a Siblu park is perhaps the rentals may be easier and they can guarantee a certain level, but I shall have to do more reasearch. Looks like I am going to be taking my calculator on holiday.

I think that although I like the idea of the tourer, the overall issue of storage particularly at home is going to make it difficult. I  think that although at the start tents did not really enter my head, the flexibility and cost benefits make it an interesting proposition, particularly after reading other views on camping overseas.

I suppose one alternative is to spend more in Tesco's and pay for the annual holiday with the vouchers 

Hi

Would be really interested to hear how you get on. We have been considering buying a mobile home for a while and have had the info from Siblu. we could not quite work out how the renting would go and the annual fees seem quite high.  Have been looking at a few other French sites recently but still not sure if we will buy one or buy a new tourer . We are not really ready to buy yet, we have and oldish tourer at the moment. The idea of storing in France is quite appealing too. Decisions,decisions!!

Julie