When my partner and I first got together, our first holiday was to Edinburgh for a weekend in a posh hotel. Then we took the family to Florida for two weeks, and then COVID hit for a little while. This year we looked at all-inclusive holidays in Crete, Greece, Spain, Gran Canaria, Minorce, the Dominican Republic, and anywhere else we could think of. In the end we took the kids to a campsite in central France! Huh!!?
You may hold the old stereotype of camping in France as loading up the car and taking a tent to an open field with a run-down toilet block being the only site amenity. Then the static caravan parks opened up, offering semi-permanent accommodation on the same fields, alongside the tent campers. EuroCamp was one of the companies offering accommodation in these static caravans, and they are who we went with. However, gone are the illusions that these are extreme budget holidays with nothing to do and no on-site facilities.
The caravan that we stayed in had three bedrooms and a central space large enough for all five of us to all live in laid out as a kitchen/dining room. Outside was a covered deck area with another comfortable six-seater sofa, another table and chairs, and a BBQ. The toilet room was small, but it had a proper toilet in it. On that note all the appliances were full-size domestic units, the same as you would see in your kitchen or bathroom. This included a tall fridge/freezer, hob and dishwasher, among others. The walk-in shower was large enough for two to use comfortably, and it was supplied by an electric boiler. There was heating in every room and a large, and very effective, air conditioning unit in the main room. In short, this was a small villa with as many amenities as you would expect if you rented a similar place in Florida. And this wasn’t the top-level caravan that EuroCamp offer on this site either!
EuroCamp own a whole bunch of these caravans, of varying sizes and trim levels, on a variety of sites, or parks, throughout France and a few other European countries. They don’t own the parks, but they select parks which offer what they believe their customers are looking for. The particular park we visited was in the Vendee, on the western coast of France, in between La Rochelle and Nantes. It was called Le Clarys-Plage, and is situated among a number of other similar parks in a quiet part of France a few hundred yards from a fine beach. The accommodation is not the only part of the experience which has had a transformation.
A far cry from the days of a tent (or caravan) in a field, these parks have everything you would expect from any self-catering aparthotels or holiday villages. They even have most of what you want from a hotel. The centre-piece of Le Clarys-Plage is the splash park. This is a fabulous water park on-site, with a large slide and several small ones, multiple pools of varying styles, a water-play area, a heated pool, and a flowing ‘river’ which you swim along, all surrounded by sunbeds, a bar, a restaurant and palm trees. The on-site restaurant serves take-aways pizza and fast food, crepes and waffles, ice cream, and meals. The bar is just like any hotel bar with beer on tap, coffees, spirits and everything else you need.
There is a large play area in the centre which our little ones played on every day. Added to this is another large area at one end, and at least another couple of smaller playgrounds spread around. There is a clubhouse for very young children, and one for the teens with computer games etc. in. On top of all this there are kids clubs every day, morning and afternoon, which take children from 1-4, 4-6, 6-9, 10-13, and 14+. In the evenings the staff put on a variety of entertainment, including a cabaret show, Bingo, a full-blown disco party, and other things. It’s different every day of the week.
Obviously one major difference between EuroCamp and a hotel is that it is all self-catering. At Le Clarys-Plage they have thought of this and a gate from the park leads directly into the carpark of an adjacent supermarket. And for those that don’t fancy cooking that night you just walk a little further around the corner and you’re presented with five or six types of restaurant.
So, was this holiday what we expected? Not at all. It was one of the most enjoyable holidays we’ve had with the kids. Was it dirt cheap? Not really, no. We could probably have got a hotel for a fortnight in Crete for around the same money, but it wouldn’t have had the same facilities, and we’d have had to fork out at restaurants each night. So EuroCamp is still pretty good value, particularly if you don’t travel a huge distance to get there. One major plus to us was having our own car there and being able to bring as much luggage as we wanted. We even brought our bicycles, which meant that both us and the kids could pop to the playground, pool or supermarket in a flash. We couldn’t do that to Crete!
Would we go again? Yes, indeed! We’re already looking at other parks to see where else we can go next year. Apparently there are around 180 EuroCamps in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Croatia, so plenty for us to experience. We’ll probably start close and move further out as we go, or perhaps visit two or three parks in one holiday, moving on from each after a few days. There’s even a special discount for short hops like that, and it means you get to travel further away without a massive car drive all at once.