France-Holland-Belgium

This year was our first time in France. We loved it and so did our 9 and 11 year old.
The best advice given to me was, Europe is hugh and the choice of things to do and stay is overwhelming. Like yourselves we had travelled the lenght and breath of Ireland but from our base in Laois, we can hit about 70% of Ireland in about 2 1/2 hours.
Travelling in France can lead to 5 or 6 hour trips easily which is hard on the kids in the back.
My advice is to pick one destination for each week and book your campsite for 3 or 4 nights and plan the activities according. Most campsites in Europe belong to a group of some form. In our case, we have used "Les Castles" group. Sometimes you can hit an offer like stay ten nights over 3 sites and get free wifi or icecream, or similar.
Between the sites we have used aries to break the journeys between destinations. We ended up this year with an 7 hour run back to the ferry with 2 nights to spare but instead for sacrificing the day for driving, we done a 5 hours run at night with the kids strapped in at the table under a duvet. 5 hours later at 1 am we landed in Mont st Micheal and checked in at the aires. This gave us the next day to explore the area and we were only 2 hours from Cherbourg.
Trip adviser, Google maps are brilliant for finding activities and aires.
Try to plan the driving part of your hols without losing half on your trip to driving.
Malcolm

Thanks for that Malcolm. We are in Laois too! It really is great being so central and being able to get to so many places in a relatively short amount of time.

I should have said that we have done a lot of France over the last couple of years, although not in the motorhome. Next year we are planning on just kind of skipping across the north of France with a few short stops en route to Holland/Belgium. We all love France but hoping to maximise our time in the other countries.

I like your idea of putting in the long drives in the evening. We find that two hour stretches during the day work best for us with the kids but obviously when they sleep we can go further. We drove home from Ballycastle in Antrim this year. I think we left at about 8pm and we were home with the kids tucked up in bed by 1.30am. They were so confused when they woke up the next morning!

Mont St Michel is spectacular isn't it? There's a campsite there that we have heard loads about so we might try to fit that in.

Great tip about the Les Castels too. We've stayed in a few of those sites over the last few years. Domaine des Ormes in Brittany is one of them. I can't recommend it enough. Treat yourself to a treehouse for the night if ye happen to stay there. Worth every penny!

Thanks again.

The camperstop guide is good but not perfect. We are fine after the storms, thank you for asking. Enjoy where ever you go.

Have a look here

forum/topic.php?t=15542
also have a look at my website ,my blogs and a few tips on the useful links and going to France pages, don't often use campsites as my kids are all grown up (and never come with me ) so cant help on that. Campercontact I find is the best app about and includes campsites.

We've done a few times, and wouldn't be in any hurry to return to Brussels. There is a site right in the middle behind a ten foot wall at the back of a youth hostel. As for the rest of Belgium, the cities are worth a look but the people aint. Holland is probably the friendliest country in Europe and as long as you have the apps, there's no problem finding a place to stay. France is expensive, a bit more than Belgium, and holland is cheaper again.

You'd need a few days in Bruges, wouldn't you. Beautiful architecture, and great beer.