Holidaying in France with the kids

DC9

I'm looking for advice on holidaying in France with the kids.

Preferably;

• Sailing from Rosslare or Cork
• West coast of france
• Self catering villa/mobile home
• Kids clubs
• In August 2011

Bugnug

Hi DC9,

Thats odd. I posted a very similar thread at about 7 o clock this eve!

If you get any usefull info would you mind sending me a PM?

Thanks,

J.

DC9

Will do. Just after I posted that request I found www.campotel..com

Some useful stuff there.

Regards

D

Bugnug

Hi DC9,

I see you are the same as me. People falling over themselves to help out! I have been looking on keycamp.ie and there are lots of very good British sites. A guy I know through work has to young kids and they regularly travel to the West Coast. He has done quite a few stays around Bordeaux. He is going to pull together some info for me next week and I will send it on to you.

Cheers,

J.

Mountainsandh

There's a very good site for mobile home hire in France : Homair.
Upmarket campsites : great facilities and the mobile homes or chalets are the classy types, not dodgy ones.

OH and I have camper and have been travelling in France the last 2 years, plus I'm French , and the best /most reliably clean and modern campsites I have found were the ones approved by the Camping Cheques organisation. You don't have to join or anything, just use their online site to locate good spots with brilliant pools for the kids etc... I had several campsites books but ended up only relying on this one, and I really like my comfort, good facilities etc...

We used Celtic Link for ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg, they sometimes get bad press as they don't have kids entertainment on board, McDos or whatever, but we found the cabins really clean and the trip enjoyable, most of it by night so entertainment not essential tbh, and huge difference in price. There is a restaurant on board, open for a few hours, and it's fine.

Only campsite I know in West is the Cormoran (or Kormoran can't remember), that's only about half hour drive coming out of ferry, and litterally across the road from Utah beach (D-Day beaches). Beach is great for kids, and it's only a few minutes drive to Sainte Mere L'Eglise, where the parachutists landed, interesting and gorgeous village, nice creperies and a plane/air museum.
There are mobile homes in the Kormoran, (we were in camper) they look lovely, and there are bouncy castles for the kids and a smallish pool. Playgrounds for the kids, a little pen with tame dwarf goats for kids to pet, horse-riding next door. There is a bar and pizzas on site, and a shop.
You'd need a car to drive to towns/villages though, but a brilliant spot for one night on way in/out, or great for exploring the D-Day spots.

melbmum

Thanks Mountainsandh for the tip about Homair. Hadnt heard about them before, lots of choice on their site. Was wondering about Normandy/Brittany -how reliable is the weather? Last year we went to St Jean de Monts in the Vendee in late June and weather and facilities were excellent. Downside is the 6 hour drive from Roscoff. Would consider Normandy/Brittany if I could be sure weather would be good.
Went with Kelair last year and while they cost more, the couriers/chalets/service/kids club was top class. Tempted to try a different operator this year as cash is a bit scarce. Someone mentioned a British operator called Carisma and they seem to get good reviews.
Campsite we went to last year was Les Genets and couldnt fault it. Great location 800mtrs from the beach and decent sized supermarket and a few miles to markets/restaurants etc

cucbuc

We went with Kelair campotel 3 yrs ago to St Jean de Mont. Were happy with everything, (except some very noisy neighbours at night, which you can get anywhere..) Le Bois Masson was the campsite.Great for kids club, pools and on-site facilities. The town is a bit far to walk, so you would need to drive back to site before having drinks. That seems to be the norm with campsite locations. We flew to Nantes and hired a car from there to avoid too long a drive. The town is lovely and lively compared to some of the other places in their brochure.

hondavfr

melbmum wrote: »

Thanks Mountainsandh for the tip about Homair. Hadnt heard about them before, lots of choice on their site. Was wondering about Normandy/Brittany -how reliable is the weather? Last year we went to St Jean de Monts in the Vendee in late June and weather and facilities were excellent. Downside is the 6 hour drive from Roscoff. Would consider Normandy/Brittany if I could be sure weather would be good.
Went with Kelair last year and while they cost more, the couriers/chalets/service/kids club was top class. Tempted to try a different operator this year as cash is a bit scarce. Someone mentioned a British operator called Carisma and they seem to get good reviews.
Campsite we went to last year was Les Genets and couldnt fault it. Great location 800mtrs from the beach and decent sized supermarket and a few miles to markets/restaurants etc

We also went to Les Genets last year and couldn't fault it either. A great location and beautiful beaches as well and the weather was also great. The year before we went to "La Grand Metarie" near carnac, a really nice campsite but about 3 mile from the nearest town. It is in brittany and we also got some rain during our stay. We used keycamp for both trips.

Davoe

DC9 wrote: »

I'm looking for advice on holidaying in France with the kids.

Preferably;

• Sailing from Rosslare or Cork
• West coast of france
• Self catering villa/mobile home
• Kids clubs
• In August 2011

You sure you don't want to try the East coast?
A very nice area is the coast of Normandy, Deauville & Trouville. Otherwise i'd advise La Rochelle!
You can check on Venere for accomodations since the only place I know of is the hotel Royal
Hope you find what you're looking for!

Mountainsandh

melbmum wrote: »

Was wondering about Normandy/Brittany -how reliable is the weather?

Yeah, Brittany does tend to be more like Ireland weather wise, although with more good days and better temperatures .
I think you probably have a better chance at good weather closer to Bordeaux/La Rochelle tbh.

sparkydave

hi last year we went to domain de Kerlann in brittany its only about an hour and a half from Roscoff to the site its a 4* siblu site and the kids and us had a brilliant time and weather was glorious.
One tip to help on price is if you find a site like siblu find a private renter we got it €500 cheaper and got exactly the same as if we had gone through siblu and Im sure its the same with all sites.Im not sure if I can give the web site address but pm me if you want to have a look!

faw1tytowers

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Yeah, Brittany does tend to be more like Ireland weather wise, although with more good days and better temperatures .
I think you probably have a better chance at good weather closer to Bordeaux/La Rochelle tbh.

Actually from what i researched it rains less there than anywhere else in france!

faw1tytowers

heading over in June.
got deal for 500euro thats ferry I irish ferries) for 2 adults 2 kids car and pitch http://www.campingsaintmichel.com/ . Bought a nice spacious luxurious tent hoping that will be an investment. the campsite has heated pool, animal farm, kids club, pub, restuarant etc etc. Couldnt believe my luck after days of searching for holidays i couldnt afford. Really looking forward to it.

Wondered does anyone know where is best to top up on petrol.. france or ireland?

Mountainsandh

faw1tytowers wrote: »

Actually from what i researched it rains less there than anywhere else in france!

Ehhhm... it's bound to be less than Ireland anyway, let's put it this way .
See there :
http://www.une-eau-pure.com/monde-de-l-eau/pluviometrie-france.html

For the petrol this site may help, closer to the date, it tells you the cost in the area of your choice for that day (max and min) :
http://www.zagaz.com/
if you're not too particular on the quality of the petrol, the Carrefour, Auchan, etc... petrol stations always have the most competitive prices.

faw1tytowers

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Ehhhm... it's bound to be less than Ireland anyway, let's put it this way .
See there :
http://www.une-eau-pure.com/monde-de-l-eau/pluviometrie-france.html

For the petrol this site may help, closer to the date, it tells you the cost in the area of your choice for that day (max and min) :
http://www.zagaz.com/
if you're not too particular on the quality of the petrol, the Carrefour, Auchan, etc... petrol stations always have the most competitive prices.

HeHe I think its an urban myth... about rain in britanny/normandy at least thats what im hoping when I get there in June! :P

Thanks for help on the petrol pricing, appears Ireland will be the cheaper fill.

dave1970

All

I can highly recommend this 4* Siblu Park in Brittany.

We've been twice (Sep 2009 & May 2010) and are going back again at the end of May.

I'd have to agree with "Sparkydave" about looking for Private Owners at the Park, as you can save hundreds of Euro by booking with a Private Owner, instead of with Siblu themselves. By doing this, you'll already see the Mobile Home you'll be using, rather than being allocated a Mobile Home and it being "Pot Luck", as to the age and condition of the Home.

You do need to buy your own "Fun Passes" to use the Swimming Pools & Kids Clubs, but even taking this into consideration, you still save loads of money.

Feel free to PM me if you want any info.

Thanks

Dave

dowtcha

dave - how does one go about making contact with private owners - curious to find out???

dave1970

Hi, i'm an owner myself at domaine de kerlann. However you can always google the park name and look out for the results to private owners adverts or websites. Hope this helps. Dave

alibabba

Hi

Im planning to travel by ferry to france and book into a resort for 2 weeks. This thread looks like a good place for discussion.

I found this site this morning, http://www.pv-holidays.com/gb-en/holidays-brittany_ge

I might check out Siblu today. Thanks for the info guys.