20 hours ago
My Eurocamp family camping holiday with luxury
But when our eldest was a baby, we followed very wise advice from other parents to try a Eurocamp holiday, and we've been away with them every year - lockdown excepted - since.
The team there have thought of everything - from the option to borrow free travel cots, high chairs and baby baths to accommodation with gates on the decking, to stop little adventurers making a break for it. Whoever thought up the concept deserves a medal - but instead they can have the thanks of a grateful, tired, parent for thinking of it all, so I don't have to.
There's a parking space next to the pitches too, so you can get up close with the car-load of stuff we undoubtedly bring, and reps on site to help with anything we've needed.
(Image: Olivier NAVES)Booking is flexible, with no restrictions on arrival and departure days, and you can stay for as many nights as you choose - from a three-night family getaway to a 16-night super-stay with extended family or friends. We've been away with three generations before, and it's a great way to spend time as a family.
Over the years, we've visited lots of their sites, across France and venturing over to Corsica, with sea views, forest escapes and mountain adventures. Each has been different, but they've all been clean, well-run and safe, with swimming pools, play parks, restaurants, a pizza place, a little shop and a place to do laundry - the essentials for a trip with kids.
This time, we loaded up the car and together with eight-year-old Bea and three-year-old Lizzie, an enormous amount of snacks and visited La Vallée in Houlgate, Normandy - a five-star Village Plus that certainly lived up to its rating.
How's the Eurocamp accommodation?
You can choose from safari tents and holiday homes with various configurations and layouts. This time we had a three-bedroom premium holiday home with lounge decking. The quality and value were excellent - there's so much more space than we'd get in a hotel, for a fraction of the price.
It may be camping, but there are definitely creature comforts. We'd added linen hire (you can bring your own) and arrived to beds made up, complete with swans (beautifully made from towels) in the master bedroom.
Our room had a super-comfy king-size bed, and the girls' rooms both had twin beds. I slept better there than I do at home, getting a restful eight hours each night.
There was a separate shower room and toilet, and the kitchen was well-equipped with fridge freezer, dishwasher and a Nespresso machine.
Outside we had a large covered decking area, a gas BBQ and plenty of space for the girls to play.
What was the park like?
You could quite easily spend the whole week without leaving La Vallée.
It has a huge pool complex - with indoor and outdoor pools, a shallow pool with a spray ground for little ones (Lizzie loved the water squirters), and fantastic waterslides - the huge red one is breathtakingly brilliant, and we loved the wiggly blue ones.
The atmosphere is friendly and our girls made lots of friends with other families. It's a sociable crowd and great for meeting people from all over Europe.
There are sports and activities including badminton, tennis, mini golf, table tennis, a bouncy castle and a climbing wall, plus free kids' clubs and family activities in the evening.
There's a bar, restaurant and a takeaway pizza place, and the shop has fresh bread and pastries available every morning - you just need to remember to order before 7pm. Warm and fresh, they were a highlight of the trip for me.
(Image: Jade Wright)
What was there to see nearby?
La Vallée's location means it's well worth getting out and about, when you can tear yourself away from the pool (our girls insisted on a swim every day).
It's a mile or so away from the sandy beaches of Houlgate, a 20-minute walk or so. Just down the road, there's a wealth of genteel seaside towns, with gorgeous sandy beaches. We loved Cabourg, with its grand hotel, and the grand old twin sister towns Trouville-sur-Mer and Deauville.
Two side-by-side seaside resorts have a wealth of glamorous buildings and villas, upmarket shops and great beaches.
Flaubert and Proust used to hang out in Trouville, Monet and his Norman master, Boudin, painted the 19th-century bourgeoisie in their finery promenading along the beachfront. Hollywood stars head to the Deauville American Film Festival every year, and the biggest ones get a beach hut named after them on the boardwalk of fame.
Further along the coast, Honfleur is a real treat too - with its colourful half-timbered houses on the quays, with art galleries, bars and restaurants.
(Image: Jade Wright)
How did you get there?
Over the years we've tried various ferry routes, as well as the Eurotunnel, and the option of flying and hiring a car.
This time we chose the Dover-Calais ferry. This is the quickest - and one of the best-value crossings. At 90 minutes each way, and with a discount for booking through Eurocamp, we found it very quick and easy. It was about a three-hour drive on easy roads from the port to the site, or there's a shorter option if you go into Caen on the pricier Portsmouth-Caen route.
The roads were easy to drive on, and the tolls were straightforward to pay with contactless cards or online. I think it was about 25 euros each way in tolls. Fuel prices were slightly lower than in the UK.
There are service stations with fuel, toilets and surprisingly good food - or maybe, given it's France, that shouldn't be a surprise. They certainly put most UK service stations to shame.
The spray park at La Vallee (Image: Eurocamp)
Talking of food - what can you eat?
One of the great things about self-catering at Eurocamp is the plentiful availability of high-quality produce at local shops and supermarkets, which makes catering for all diets much easier than trying to navigate restaurant menus with limited vocabulary at your disposal.
All the camps we've been to are a short drive of a Carrefour, Super-U, Aldi or Lidl. For those for whom one of the best things about a holiday is eating the local produce, the supermarkets are full of the foods most popular with the locals. And if you're taking any picky eaters with you who can't bear to be apart from their home comforts, there is no shortage of the popular brands they will recognise from home.
One of my favourite parts of each trip is food shopping and there's nothing quite like buying a baguette from a local boulangerie or cake from a patisserie. Many look so stylish from the outside that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were going to be very expensive, but more often than not that isn't the case.
We are always pleasantly surprised by how cheaply you can eat really well in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria... well most places really.
And once you've got your shopping back to your holiday home, there is the pleasure of being able to cook and eat at your own pace, and not have to worry that someone wants your table.
Be prepared for breakfasts to last long into the late morning, lunches to last long into the afternoon, and dinners to last long into the night.
In fact, just be prepared to eat. A lot. And often.
Even the greengrocers' shops are stylish in Deauville (Image: Jade Wright)
What are the prices like?
Compared with most family holidays, it's a great value, affordable option. You pay per holiday home, not per person, and you can choose how to travel there and back, so there's options for every budget.
A quick look at the La Vallée website shows there are seven night breaks for under £250 for a whole family in September, or in school summer holidays that goes up to around £1400, so if you can book outside peak times, there are some great deals.
We travelled with P&O ferries, where rates start from under £100 each way for car and up to nine passengers. If you book through Eurocamp there's often a discount.
Discount, you say?
Yes. There are discounts for returning customers, which are boosted if you book two holidays in the same year. There's also single parents' discounts, special offers if you stay more than 11 nights and deals and sales through the year, so keep an eye out on the website.
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What are the essentials for a Eurocamp trip?
On the last few trips, we've picked up some tips from other families we've met. Here are my favourites.
Take soft lights or fairy lights. Our girls love a reading light left on at night, and the mains ones can be a bit stark, so we always pack some rechargeable ones for their bedrooms. We always include some fairy lights too, to make the indoor cosy and to brighten the decking when we sit outside for dinner, and usually long into the evening. Choose the lounge decking. We always try to get what Eurocamp calls 'lounge decking'. It means you get comfy outdoor sofas to relax on. It costs a bit more but it's well worth it. Inflatable pool toys. Not all of Eurocamp's sites allow them, but the last few we've been to have had inflatable pool toys for sale, or you can bring your own. For the last two trips we had a blow-up crocodile, which the girls named Jeff, and he was a lot of fun to take to the pools. He developed a puncture, so next time we will chose a new one. RIP Jeff. Bring scooters or bikes (and helmets). Our girls had lots of fun on their scooters (and the older one loved her Heeleys). Some form of wheeled transport is great for getting kids across the bigger campsites or out and about. Pack your kitchen gadgets. The kitchens are pretty well-equipped, but many no longer have an oven (to fit in the dishwasher), so if you're driving, you may want to pack your trusty air frier. Similarly, you might want to take tea towels or any favourite kitchen stuff. We didn't get on with the Nespresso machine, so picked up a cheap cafetière in Super-U. Next time we'll take it to be sure.
And that's the thing - as many times as we go, we know there'll always be a next time. With 400 parks across 11 countries, the hardest bit is choosing which one.
