Welcome to my first blog of 2024, it’s been a crazy few weeks but I’ve finally found some time to sit down to write.
I thought I’d go into the new year with a recap of our October half term holiday to Holland.
I wasn’t actually planning on booking anything for half term as we were trying to save money. But curiosity got the better of me and I randomly ended up browsing eurocamp as it had offers on for the half term. Normally I find going away in the school holidays is extortionate but as I’d just started working in a school I was tied to those dates.
Anyway I found a lovely camp in the Southern part of Holland near the German border. We hadn’t been to that part of Holland before and the offer was 5 nights in a
lodge for £236.
For half term that seemed too good to be true so I snatched it up(before I even priced up travel 🫣)
The park was called De Schatberg and there was so much for the kids to do there, pool, play area, parks,bowling & lazer tag.
We decided to book the eurotunnel. Prices have gone up a lot since the last time we used it and it cost us £251 which I found was pretty steep but that will teach me for being in such a rush to book 🤦🏼♀️
As we had booked an early morning train we then decided we should book the holiday inn in Folkestone, this cost us £79 for a family room with free breakfast.
Train takes around 30 minutes and your only actually under the water for 20 mins. Security checks are nice and easy. My kids have different surnames to me so I always travel with birth certificates as I’ve been asked a few times.
We always try and find somewhere to spend a few hours to break the drive up so this time decided to stop in Ghent. I booked a Boat tour which cost us £25 and I highly recommend this if you're ever in Ghent. We had a walk around the shops in the town then sat down with some Belgium fries as they are the best 🤤
From Ghent the journey to De Schatburg was just under 2 hours.
At check in we went to the main reception where they gave us directions to the eurocamp check in. The campsite is Huge!!
Eurocamp accommodation is situated at the end of the site. It had rained all week previous to our visit and outside our lodge was like a mud swamp so make sure you take wellies if it’s been raining!
Our lodge was lovely. We had 3 bedrooms, a toilet and separate shower, kitchen with all utensils, dining table and a small lounge part. Outside area had a big table and chairs and a barbeque on a covered terrace! We were pleasantly surprised.
One way Eurocamp do try and bump the price up is with Linen. They charge between £11-20 for bedding per bed!! I’m so tight I refused to pay it so we always take our own sheets and towels.
Before we went, I made a list of places we wanted to visit.
We crossed the German border to visit Irrland. It was £11 pp and was brilliant. The weather was not so brilliant though sadly but we still had an amazing time and I can only imagine how much fun people would have in the summer.
We headed into Germany again for a zoo day. It was an hour away from where we stayed and entry cost £50 for 4 of us. Now we wasn’t really impressed with this zoo. We try to go to a zoo in every new country we go to and this one was recommended. It wasn’t very interactive. There were loads of amazing animals, my favourite being Koalas. But the enclosures were not the best 😢 and don’t even get me started on the Dolphins 😭
Let’s move on to something a bit more positive
This has to be the best theme park I’ve been to in a long time. There are rides to suit every member of the family. The interaction and thought in every single ride is fantastic! It was 8 minutes from where we’re staying, entry was slightly more as we went to a Halloween scare day. It cost £139 but if I’d booked a week before I could of saved £7 a ticket 🫣
This was the highlight of our week, we want to go back just to do Toverland alone!! Highly recommend 🎢
For food we always take plenty of stuff with us for breakfast and lunch then buy cheap meals out or something to cook.
One evening we headed over to the ABC restaurant next door to the campsite. It was a bit pricey but for what you could have was well worth it. For 2 hours you could get as much as you like from any of the 12 restaurants in one building! The kids also loved it just as much as us!
One of the days we headed into Venlo town to shop and visit a huge indoor play named monkey town. This is perfect if you get a rainy day.
Even if you wanted to just stay on the campsite everyday you will always find something to entertain the kids!
So that is it from our Holland 2023 trip. We will be heading back there again at some point. It was recently in the sun holidays £9.50 pp deal but we haven’t booked it for this year. Maybe next, or maybe I’ll have a mad moment and book it last minute again. Who knows 🤣 I don’t even know 🤦🏼♀️
Thanks for taking the time to read this loooong blog! Hope you enjoyed it!
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