Dear all,
out of current occasions, does anybody have good recommendations and tips for reasonably priced family vacations?
For example any vacation appartments, locations, etc. that are less known and you had an enjoyful stay in the past?
Best regards,
A lot is very subjective for such a topic, and may even only be based on very few outlier experiences made.
Nevertheless, I’ve had good experiences with “other guests” at (Swiss, Dutch) campsites, in cabins, huts, pods, whatever they are called.
Everything that a hotel or apartment has, is supplied in such cabins, so it’s not “camping” in the classical sense.
And I would say, for a similar price, a fix installed cabin, hut etc at a campsite will give you & your family a better social experience than a hotel or apartment.
Also facilities for families are usually good (if the campsite caters for families & doesn’t focus on other clientele).
If your kids are somewhat older (from 9 years up), go on city trips by train to ITA, GER or FRA, depending on your preferences and language skills. Train tickets in these countries are usually much cheaper than in Switzerland and much more flexible that traveling by air.
Don’t book everything ahead. Take a reasonably priced AirBnB in one city for 2 nights, then decide to stay or to continue elsewhere.
Prefer medium-sized or lesser known cities over the tourist mega hubs (choose Marseille or Lyon instead of Paris… chose Trieste instead of Venezia, you get the idea…). Let the kids choose one of the destinations, maybe on a beach or something.
Nothing worse than to book a two week AI holiday and then find out on the second day that you hate the place and the other guests…
My child is not yet in that age, but that’s a great suggestion. I will definately keep that in mind.
I also made good experience with cabins or huts. Unfortunately, must of them need to be reserved a long time in advance. Additionally, if you haven’t been there upfront, it is a bit of a gamble, how it really is in real life.
Do you have any gems that you can recommend?
We did now twice a week in Tuscany in a house within the wine and olive region. It’s a bit far from the sea but you can get a bargain with a great pool. The beaches are about 1h away and in 30min you are in world class cultural places such as Sienna and Firenze.
That’s a great tip, thanks! We haven’t been to Tuscany yet. I will definately check it out.
You didn’t specify when do you want to do them.
It makes a big difference in prices.
That is a good point. So far, we made vacations during summer time (July/August), but considering the heatwave in europe, I am thinking of traveling during the spring vacation or in the autumn vacations.
If you have children, then you are bound by school vacations anyway, so not much flexibility in when to go on vacation. In some sense it is also an advantage, as you know in advance when you are going.
Children don’t care about how cool and famous a place you are going to. A cool trip to Iceland? They will probably rather complain that it is too cold to be in a swimming pool. So make it simple.
Otherwise it is the same as any mustachian purchase: define required parameters (sea, beach, mountains, nature; travel by car/plane/train/boat; duration; requirements to the accomodation such as a pool on site, close to the sea); look for options (Airbnb/booking.com/?) and compare expenses (accomodation + travel+ estimated spending on site).
these are some I’ve been at:
it’s focussed around the Neuenburgersee, i just like it for the “beaches” & “foreign language”.
https://www.corbiere.ch/index.html
kind of my favourite as not too huge
nice on the lake
there’s also a campsite at Yvonand beach itself, which I’m been wanting to try out.
wanted to check this one out. probably a good base for day-trips
My favourite was this one, just another level of coolness compared to anything you’ll find in CH, IMO (i guess the Dutch have camping in their genes 
)
De Laakens Camping , Netherlands
Great! Thanks a lot!
Hi Dr. PI,
all very true.
Dr.PI
If you have children, then you are bound by school vacations anyway, so not much flexibility in when to go on vacation. In some sense it is also an advantage, as you know in advance when you are going.
Our child is still in kindergarden. There are a couple of joker days on which the children can have additional days of. And in kindergarden there is no worry that they are missing important lectures. So, there is still some flexibility with the dates. But sure this will become less and less.
Dr.PI
Children don’t care about how cool and famous a place you are going to. A cool trip to Iceland? They will probably rather complain that it is too cold to be in a swimming pool. So make it simple.
Very true. We could go to the playground every day and our child would have the same joy. Just like in all things in live, it is the art of finding the perfect balance: joy for the children, but also some time away for the parents.
Dr.PI
Otherwise it is the same as any mustachian purchase: define required parameters (sea, beach, mountains, nature; travel by car/plane/train/boat; duration; requirements to the accomodation such as a pool on site, close to the sea); look for options (Airbnb/booking.com/?) and compare expenses (accomodation + travel+ estimated spending on site).
Exactly
“nice” site. white on white…
haha, the internet sites of camping sites are indeed mostly quite terrible. the non-french language options of french swiss sites are poor. i guess they look towards Le Grande Nation for inspiration. 
C’est la vie!
Travel change with kids a lot.
As mention above, kids do not really care about the place. Specially at kinder garden age.
Almost every place in the world will be great with the right activities.
In our case we try to divide the day in 3 blocks (1 block is for the kids and the other 2 for us) with some special day that this is changed so far it worked well.
Places:
Last year, I was in Lignano/Trieste: really nice beach area and plenty of small cities, villages to visit around.
Small/medium cities are also a great adventure since not crowded
Places to avoid: crowded spots like Florence, Barcelona, Paris…
I can tell where our family have been on vacation this summer in a private message.
We liked this apartment:
https://www.airbnb.ch/rooms/43665472?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&check_in=2022-09-20&check_out=2022-09-27&federated_search_id=48bdc661-5a5d-4b45-a4af-79cd8d3ad847&source_impression_id=p3_1660766899_lNfEtFxdN3%2BWshF5
If you have a car it’s not far to the beach at the lake. Nice and cool at night. Good ice cream in the village.
This apartment was great, too:
https://www.airbnb.ch/rooms/48777259?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&check_in=2022-09-14&check_out=2022-09-21&federated_search_id=2020c0c1-b9e9-4d38-877b-67a9018b6136&source_impression_id=p3_1660767057_Hq3838Dhov0YZ%2BOv
Old but cosy, inexpensive and very clean!
I can also recommend farms in the black forest due to short travel time and farms are great for young kids.
Thanks a lot, Schwarzpulver!
They look lovely!