Holland holiday panic - where to stay next week?

Lemoncurd

We're leaving our holiday planning a bit last minute! we've booked ferry crossings to Calais for next Friday and were hoping to drive to Holland and spend a week there (possibly in a couple of different areas).
I'm now struggling to find suitable accomodation, found something on Holiday rentals but it has just gone.

Does anyone have any Holland recommendations? from where to look for accomodation to must see areas/good places for a young family to stay? We're hoping to stay within 3-4 hours drive from Calais (at least initially) which kind of rules North Holland out.

For ease and availability I'm now considering something like Centre Parcs/Sun Parks. Has anyone been to any of these? what are they like? I'd not looked before because I didn't really want to pay a premium for facilities that we may not use - would rather be out and about seeing the country. There are last minute deals available for these but is there a good way of making more savings?

We are a family of 5, children are 6, 3 and a young baby, which is making hotel room searches difficult as most don't seem to advertise their family rooms online.

Thank you very much to anyone who has any ideas!

Zziggi

I've stayed in the Sunparks place at De Haan (also called le Coq) which is in Dutch-speaking Belgium. Can't complain, was great for the kids (aged 6 & 4), beach nearby, all staff spoke English, pool great for kids as well as playpark. etc etc. The Sunparks at Oostduinkerke further down the coast towards France is also ok but we prefer De Haan.

Just come back from a day trip (?!?) to Zeebrugge, weather was boiling hot, sunny. Spent all day on the beach at Dunkirk on Thursday (yesterday) sea was so warm people were swimming it it for hours.

PM me if you want more info about Sunparks De Haan re: location, which standard of accommodation etc etc

P.S. For a day out, I'd recommend Madurodam which is in Den Haag. it's a model village type thingy with scenes from all over the Netherlands. My 7 year old loves it. http://www.madurodam.nl/templates/mad/global/index.php

stw48

I only stay in Amsterdam and you would not want to drive there.

I just had a look and this site may help possibly.

http://www.booking.com/region/nl/dutch-coast.en.html

Lemoncurd

Thanks so much for the replies!

Madurodam looks good, had started widening the search to Belguim so good to hear about that park.

Thanks for the tip re driving in Amsterdam, we were going to avoid that area anyway but it seemed to be the only place I was finding anything in searches. Will take a look at booking.com

Have made a bit of a breakthrough with a site called www.novasol.co.uk there seem to be quite a few nice looking places available on there.

Poly,put_the_kettle_on

Take a look at Eurocamp, Keycamp, and Canvas...a van will accommodate you all, and depending on which company you can take £50 off the price for accommodation only.

judygarland

Lemoncurd wrote: »

Thanks so much for the replies!

Madurodam looks good, had started widening the search to Belguim so good to hear about that park.

Thanks for the tip re driving in Amsterdam, we were going to avoid that area anyway but it seemed to be the only place I was finding anything in searches. Will take a look at booking.com

Have made a bit of a breakthrough with a site called www.novasol.co.uk there seem to be quite a few nice looking places available on there.

I would recommend http://www.duinrell.com/ This is a campsite with static caravans and lots of other types of accommodation. We stayed in a static caravan a couple of years ago and you would not have known from the inside. It had a beautiful tiled bathroom and kitchen with oven and aall mod cons. From memory I think we paid £400 for the top end one which was a 6 berth.

It's a fantastic place for kids too with a huge indoor swimming pool complex with about 30 different slides etc. There is also a theme park which is attached to the park and gives free access to the rides to residents of the site.

You can hire bikes on site too and go off and explore the lovely flat cycle routes.

I just love Holland. The people are friendly, the food is great and there is loads to do. Maduradam is quite close to this site and there are loads of lovely towns and cities which are not too far away.

Hope this helps.

judygarland

Lemoncurd wrote: »

We're leaving our holiday planning a bit last minute! we've booked ferry crossings to Calais for next Friday and were hoping to drive to Holland and spend a week there (possibly in a couple of different areas).
I'm now struggling to find suitable accomodation, found something on Holiday rentals but it has just gone.

Does anyone have any Holland recommendations? from where to look for accomodation to must see areas/good places for a young family to stay? We're hoping to stay within 3-4 hours drive from Calais (at least initially) which kind of rules North Holland out.

For ease and availability I'm now considering something like Centre Parcs/Sun Parks. Has anyone been to any of these? what are they like? I'd not looked before because I didn't really want to pay a premium for facilities that we may not use - would rather be out and about seeing the country. There are last minute deals available for these but is there a good way of making more savings?

We are a family of 5, children are 6, 3 and a young baby, which is making hotel room searches difficult as most don't seem to advertise their family rooms online.

Thank you very much to anyone who has any ideas!

How did the holiday go?

gedebage

You could try Zandvoorte. Right on the beach and not far from Amsterdam. Leave your car at the hotel and get the train into Ams. Because summer is over you should be able to get a good rate and find a family room as well. Have a look at www.combinedhotels.com or www.activehotels.com and type Zandvoorte into the destination box. I am sure something to suit you will come up.

creased-leach

I know this is an out of date thread, but had to follow the Duinrell comment up. We got back from a 4 day stay yesterday- we almost had the place to ourselves! In four trips, it was the quietest I've ever seen it. Rides in the park & slides in the pool were walk on all day every day. There were several occasions on which our ten year old had the new coaster all to herself. All for the princely sum of around £170 for three adults, and three kids- inc. ferry.

judygarland

creased-leach wrote: »

I know this is an out of date thread, but had to follow the Duinrell comment up. We got back from a 4 day stay yesterday- we almost had the place to ourselves! In four trips, it was the quietest I've ever seen it. Rides in the park & slides in the pool were walk on all day every day. There were several occasions on which our ten year old had the new coaster all to herself. All for the princely sum of around £170 for three adults, and three kids- inc. ferry.

It's a great place to holiday. Quite busy when we went in August. We only paid about £400 for the accommodation for the week for 4 of us which is cheaper than what you would pay in Cornwall or Devon.

hollydays

I have stayed at the zaandvoort site and I would second not driving.