Where to Go and What to Look For

Specialist Reports Holiday by Accommodation Camping - Ready Erected Where to Go and What to Look For 

Location

 The number one consideration in picking a site is how long it is going to take to get there. The south may be warmer but small children and long drives are not a happy mix.
 Seaside sites are particularly geared to children, especially larger ones, and a high proportion of four-star sites are beside or close to the water. However, as camp sites get more and more sophisticated the beach itself is less important than it used to be.
 If you are happy to provide most of your own entertainment you can opt for rural sites, near an interesting town, or for the more whizz bang experience near a theme park.
 France is the European country with most campsites and it is also the most convenient for visitors from the UK. In terms of numbers, the areas with most sites are the Lot and Dordogne. For Brits the sand beaches of the Vendee are popular, considered to offer a Mediterranean climate without the drive. Brittany offers good options for safe, sandy beaches and rock pools, and within a day's journey from the Channel ports. A drawback of parts of the French south coast mid-July to end August is busy local roads. If not staying by the beach you need to set off for it early and leave late, and parking may be a problem. The coast closer to the Spanish border is less crowded than the Riviera, but even there more so than inland.

Size of Site

Larger sites have more facilities but also more noise and more chance of a child getting lost and/or overwhelmed by older kids' rumbustiousness. Unless there are strict restrictions on traffic there will also be cars moving around.

As a rule of thumb small is up to 250 pitches; medium - 251-500; large - 501-1000; and very large - over 1000. Smaller specialist operators might rate small as 51-150; medium 151-250; large - over 200. However, farm sites are much smaller and at Featherdown Farms there's a maximum of five tents per farm.

Style

While camping used to mean a tent in a field, nowadays there's an ever-growing range of options. Broadly speaking, the larger the site, the more facilities, such as pools, water slides, and playgrounds for the children, and, to make life easier for you, laundries, cafes, shops, restaurants and sometimes even boutiques and hairdressers. There may also be child entertainment, though a bar and pool can be all you need for yours to meet and make friends with others.

If you feel a standard site will be too crowded an alternative is one of the camping a la ferme ones, on a farm where you can feed the hens, talk to the farmer and his family, and meet fewer other tourists. Municipal camp sites offer a few more facilities and can be very well run, but a good, uncrowded site with a pool for example, will be considerably more crowded the year after you discovered it, as word gets around fast.

Ratings

In France sites are graded for pitch size and amenities. For a four-star these would include at least one indoor restaurant, takeaway, and bar, washing machines, hot water, showers, toilets, shop (possibly more than one, including a supermarket, and late opening), lock-up for valuables, sports facilities such as tennis and volleyball, and if ‘grand comfort' grading with better landscaping and electric and water hook ups for all pitches.

Most four-star sites would also offer a swimming pool area, possibly with water slides and often a separate children's pool. There would probably also be play areas and adventure playgrounds, and other sports amenities. There might also be discos, phones, TV rooms and currency exchanges plus an entertainment programme.

A three-star would probably have slightly fewer amenities. At two star sites only lavatories, public phone, and usually hot and cold water can be expected, plus a shaving point, but they will be more rural and peaceful. One star site will be similarly peaceful and may only have cold water. Falling into this category in France are the small and seasonal terrains ruraux and aires naturelles with up to 25 pitches, loos, water supply, rubbish bins and somewhere to wash.

Note that these give little idea of the attractiveness or quality of service. For this reason you may find a guidebook more helpful than standard listings.

Size of Pitch

As well as the number of pitches, it's worth considering the size of each one ? including space for your car and the outdoor table and chairs.

The average pitch size in France is 110 square metres. In the south of France and the Alps pitches tend to be smaller, and pitches also tend to be smaller in other countries, particularly in Italy and Spain.

Pitches on sites next to the sea also tend to be smaller than those inland, especially on those next to the Mediterranean and smaller on three than four-star sites.

British or Local

To find a site where the visitors are largely British look for one featured in a number of brochures ? generally the larger sites. The result is a rather British atmosphere, plenty of other children and teens for yours to hang around with, and appropriately enough, something of a holiday camp feel.

Smaller operators sometimes make a point of offering sites where you can meet other nationalities and you can expect this at any site labelled exclusive, unless, as with Haven, it is operator-owned.