Unforgettable 5-Day Family Adventure in France for Under £500

I’ve always been a sucker for the Sun newspaper’s £9.50 holiday deal. For those of you who don’t know what this is, twice a year the sun releases codes that you collect, once you have collected 10 you enter them onto the website along with your preferred destination and date and if it is available you can book for £9.50 pp.

I did this for years travelling around the UK, then one year I decided to take the leap and book a Eurocamp in Paris called La Croix Du Vieux Pont. We booked a Monday to Friday during term time. There were 4 of us so the holiday cost £38, then Eurocamp added a service fee of £40. You can hire bedding and towels but it adds up pretty quickly so we took our own.

I had a lot of Tesco vouchers so I managed to exchange them to use on the Eurotunnel. It only ended up costing us around £15, instead of £190 from Folkestone to Calais.

The train takes no more than 20 minutes.

Taking a car to Europe is really easy and such a handy way to travel if you can. You need a driving in Europe kit in your car. You can purchase these on Amazon for around £20. They come with a UK sticker as well that you attach to the back.

We decided to book a room at the Holiday Inn the night before our early Train. It’s normally less than £100 for a family room, and breakfast is included. The Drive down to La Croix was roughly 3 hours and it’s a really straightforward drive. We stopped once to stretch our legs and have a toilet break. There is a toll along the way so be mindful of this as you may need to lean over and pay if you don’t have a passenger. We used our phones as sat navs whilst there and these seemed to work fine and let us know when a toll was near.

Once we arrived we found our way to the Eurocamp check-in, No one was there so we added our number to the check-in book and decided to explore the site. It was so much bigger than we were expecting. I couldn’t believe how nice the place was. I felt so grateful that I had managed to book this for so cheap. After a little while we received a text asking us to go back to check in as our accommodation was ready.

We were allocated a 3-bedroom lodge near the on-site beach. It had a bay for our car and covered decking with a BBQ and seating area. Inside was an open kitchen/diner, 3 bedrooms, a shower room and a separate toilet. It had radiators in every room and also an aircon. It was thoroughly clean throughout. We were all pleasantly surprised.

That first day we always just mooch about. Having a car we bring lots of food and snacks over with us. So my fussy kids settled on plain pasta the first night, while me and my partner shared a pizza.

The next morning we headed over to Reception to book a family archery lesson. My daughter at the time was 5 and my son was 11. Both of them loved it and were probably better than me. It was on for around 90 minutes. We then decided to visit the pool which was massive. 3 separate areas inside and then a big outdoor splash pool. We spent a couple of hours here. The only negative I have with the pool was the foot baths you had to walk through on the way in. They were FREEZING! They Literally took your breath away. Not to mention looking a bit grim too. So many people were trying to jump over them or shuffle along the wall. It was quite funny to watch!

That night we went to the on-site diner and they had a range of stuff but In true fussy kids style, mine ate chicken nuggets and chips! That evening we visited the arcades and played basketball(my boys' favourite)

The next day we headed to Paris for the day. We probably picked the busiest day of the year to do this as there was some sort of marathon on and everywhere was heaving! We managed to find some off-road parking near the Eiffel Tower. We spent the day touring Paris. A bit of shopping, eating. There was a market close to the tower that sold padlocks that you could personalise. The old wives tale goes that if you write you and your love's name on it, attach it to the love lock bridge and throw away the key you become unbreakable. Being the ever so romantic that I am we had to do this.

After a full day, we headed back to our accommodation for dinner. I did forget to mention the park had a shop that baked fresh pastries every morning so off I sent my other half every day for coffee and breakfast! The following day we hired bikes for the day. We rode into the local town, it was a bit hilly so be warned! The park had a lake so we hired boats, the kids then used the bumper boats and played on all the bouncy castles for a couple of hours. Was a lovely day before the big finale.

On our last day, we packed up and checked out by 9 a.m. We had pre-booked tickets for a day in Disneyland. We had been the previous year and had so much fun so decided whilst we were in Paris we just had to go again. My son has ADHD so we managed to get a discount on tickets. We also got a queue jump for him as waiting in lines can be a struggle for him, and us and anyone near us sometimes! This pass really is a godsend, and we managed to get on every single ride, some even twice before lunchtime. By 2 pm we were all disneyed out and decided to leave.

I had booked a night at a hotel 10 Minutes from Disney. We booked via booking.com it was called Domaine De Crecy and cost us £89 for the night with breakfast. I kid you not I was not expecting what we walked into. The hotel was on a golf course, and our room turned out to be a two-bedroom suite! It was absolutely gorgeous. We couldn’t believe it for the price we paid! The breakfast was delicious and set us up for our day of travelling home.

We made the 3-hour drive back to Calais for our late afternoon train. One thing that I love about the train is if you arrive early (standard with me) they always manage to get you onto an earlier train. From Folkestone, it’s a 2 hour drive home which we try to do in one run.

All in all we spent a fun packed 5 nights in France for less than £500.