Information about cheap camping holidays in France.

Let's face it, camping holidays in France as in any other country can be cheap, or they can work out to cost more than staying in a mobile home. Sound odd to you? Thought so but the last time we were in the Vendee in western France we stayed in a mobile home for 2 weeks with a British company on a superb site called Les Amiaux in St Jean de Monts. Near to our mobile was a row of red tents, all occupied by Brits as well. Unfortunately that particular 2 weeks in June was quite damp in France and it was the year when the UK got all the floods, remember?

Well, we felt quite sorry for these familes who had taken their kiddies on what should have been for them a nice warm climate and beach holiday, but instead they were either just driving round in their cars or cowering in the tents for some days. Anyway, we got talking to one or two of these tent campers and found to our amazement that they were paying £20 more for the same 2 weeks as us just to stay in a tent! Now our deal was fairly cheap but we were, as aforesaid, in a mobile home and not a tent. When we let it be known that we were paying less than them there was a certain amount of uproar as you may well imagine.

Well, on one hand I felt sorry for them for being wet and ripped off, but on the other hand I though they were complete mugs who hadn't done any holiday homework at all, and so they deserved all that this very large British owned tent camping company charged them.

OK, so what are the main yearly one off expenses in your houshold? You may be about to change the car, so what do you do? Homework on what makes and models are available in your price bracket of course. You may move house, so you either do the homework on that or pay someone else to do it for you.

So does that mean that you should to throw good, hard earned money at a camping holiday in France or anywhere else for that matter and not delve into the why's and wherefores before you book? Doing the homework matters! And of course, this is just what we did when we were looking for apartments in Paris - you have to cast around to get the best deal! 

There are several types of camping holidays where you rent the tent from the siteowners or tour operators; Yurt camping is well established in France now, Tipi camping and just lately Pod camping have reared their heads. That leaves camping holidays in ordinary tents, which I believe are expensive compared to mobile home holidays if you hire them on site. There is an excuse for Yurt and Tipi camping holidays to cost a tad more than tents because the very units cost considerably more for the operators to buy.

So, if you want cheap camping holidays in France that leaves just one option, and that is to take your own equipment. Lots of people do so why not you?