Europe in the school summer hols???

[unclestinky]

Hi
As the wife works in a school we have no option of travelling outside school holidays.
We would like to get away for the 6 week summer holiday to Europe. It will be our first time venturing over the pond.
The van is quite well equipped for several days off grid at a time.
Does anyone have experience of travel in Europe at that time of year? Any particular country we should head for or avoid? Do we need to get the tunnel booked as soon as possible? Do we need to stay away from coastal area? Etc etc.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Grianan]

We’re also tied to school holidays. We’ve only tried France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. The only places we’ve booked have been Bruges and Ypres. We tend to use aires though and CCPs. If you want water park type sites or sites at the coast you may be better booking.

 

[cliffanger]

Hi
As the wife works in a school we have no option of travelling outside school holidays.
We would like to get away for the 6 week summer holiday to Europe. It will be our first time venturing over the pond.
The van is quite well equipped for several days off grid at a time.
Does anyone have experience of travel in Europe at that time of year? Any particular country we should head for or avoid? Do we need to get the tunnel booked as soon as possible? Do we need to stay away from coastal area? Etc etc.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

We had 6 weeks in mid July to end of August in France. No problem getting in to Aires. The only full one was in St Malo, but that was on a Saturday.

I’m thinking campsites may have been full with families, but we don’t use them anyway.

 

[Roby2008]

Italy is rammed in August; its full of Germans, Germany is good (They are all in Italy ) if you avoid the coastal areas on the North Sea and Baltic, the old East germany is beautiful, some great lakes, rivers and old towns.
If you go that far, Slovenia and Croatia can be very busy and expensive on sites, a €30 per night site becomes €60....Off-grid is illegal in Croatia (not sure about Slovenia).

 

[unclestinky]

We had 6 weeks in mid July to end of August in France. No problem getting in to Aires. The only full one was in St Malo, but that was on a Saturday.

I’m thinking campsites may have been full with families, but we don’t use them anyway.

That’s sound promising, we also don’t like camp sites. What’s your experience on booking the tunnel? Are the best deals to be had now?
Thanks

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[Googlebot]

We always book the crossing early, purely as they sell out of the ones we want as it’s busy. It does cost more but that’s true if you book early or late.

We always go to the French Alps.

It’s bizarre as it’s always really really busy at the start of August/end of July and then it just becomes deserted. Everything starts to shut at the end of August.

As others have said, we never have a problem getting a spot somewhere and never book but we always stay away from the coast.

 

[cliffanger]

That’s sound promising, we also don’t like camp sites. What’s your experience on booking the tunnel? Are the best deals to be had now?
Thanks

I think for the tunnel, the earlier you can book it, the better. Not sure, but I think it gets more expensive the closer you get to travelling.

We travelled as far South as the Loire valley, staying on Aires. There are many that are just outside of campsites, so you can use site restaurants etc.

We loved the Brittany Coast, finding beautiful little harbour villages.

I did find it really hot though, particularly inland. I didn’t think it would affect me, but it did! Coastal Brittany was far more pleasant.

 

[lorger]

Lorraine worked at our local school while our daughter was school age, this meant like you were tied to school holidays. During these years about 10 the only place we booked was Lake Garda for 3 weeks, in that time we always managed to get into where we wanted including a site on Lake Annecy in the 1st week of August. It actually turned out our daughter preferred some of the Aires we stayed on compared to sites, we also did a couple of years in France Passion which Sophie really enjoyed.

Unless you need to be somewhere on an exact date I wouldn’t bother booking.

 

[unclestinky]

Lorraine worked at our local school while our daughter was school age, this meant like you were tied to school holidays. During these years about 10 the only place we booked was Lake Garda for 3 weeks, in that time we always managed to get into where we wanted including a site on Lake Annecy in the 1st week of August. It actually turned out our daughter preferred some of the Aires we stayed on compared to sites, we also did a couple of years in France Passion which Sophie really enjoyed.

Unless you need to be somewhere on an exact date I wouldn’t bother booking.

Thank you, good advice.

 

[Hawkstone]

Ex school worker here so always tied to holiday times. Yes, a lot of places were busy so we often planned and booked ahead. We used Camping Car Parks last August, with the odd aire and only pre booked Mont St Michel because I could see online, it was very busy. Otherwise we just mooched around using CCP and All the Aires mainly. We had a lovely time.

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[The Wino]

Look on the bright side it's a pain being tied to school holidays but very few working outside schools could dream of a six week holiday!

 

[unclestinky]

Look on the bright side it's a pain being tied to school holidays but very few working outside schools could dream of a six week holiday!

Very true and being self employed means I can also take full advantage

 

[PlacidoD]

Late July for a week travelling Newhaven-Dieppe last year (travelling 22/07/24) was busy but not impossible. My understanding is that everybody in France is on holiday and on the roads in August so I wanted to avoid that! I was back for 2.5 weeks at the very end of August and again no problems finding places to stay overnight before moving on and then returning home mid-September.

I see that you live in Dorset. Do take a look at DFDS Newhaven-Dieppe. Their prices are very competitive and if either you or your wife are over 60 you can get 20% discount off the entire booking (You need to book by phone for that. Lots of us can supply details if relevant!)

 

[Hawkstone]

That’s sound promising, we also don’t like camp sites. What’s your experience on booking the tunnel? Are the best deals to be had now?
Thanks

We used to book the tunnel but go with Brittany Ferries from Poole now. Last years pricing was virtually identical to the tunnel without the 350 miles worth of diesel to get to Folkestone. so it’s a no brainer now. The downside is obviously only one crossing per day and it’s 4 and a half hours but we factor that in with our first and last stops and obviously depends which direction you want to start or end with. Worth looking at in my view.

 

[The Wino]

Very true and being self employed means I can also take full advantage

Depending on the nature of your self employment! We employed about 7 people but only we were qualified to do the job we did so it was very expensive taking holidays. We managed one two week holiday in 25 years the rest of the time a week or if we were lucky 10 days it was a lot cheaper to pay for peak price at Christmas as we were closed then anyway. We all have different pros and cons to our chosen jobs

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