Neuromancer11
VIP Member
Hi all, looks for some advice please, apologies for the length on this...
Basically I'm planning on doing a trip over to Italy with my wife and 2 kids (6 and 11), frankly I'm fed up of the crappy weather in the UK, we've done 2 weeks in Cornwall and both times the weather hasn't been great, we are unfortunately limited to school holidays, in fact of the dozen or som camping trips we've done in 18 months in the Cali i cant' recall one that hasn't had any rain!
Anyway, we've been inspired by ABAB's trip to northern France with Harvey and really like the look of the Sandaya type campsites (they seen decent value to compared to the UK "resorts"), our youngest is disabled - severe autism and is non verbal, plus ADHD and some other stuff
Having a pool with slides, play areas, bouncy castles etc are a must to keep them both occupied (and give my wife a break!). My concern with northern France is that its not that far from the UK and could still have inclement weather even in July. My wife is really keen on Italy, its one country the we've never visited despite some Italian heritage on my side (my dads mother was Italian). There is a Sandaya resort in Tuscany right on the coast with a private beach that looks perfect, however given school holiday restrictions my choices are the late May bank holiday/half term week or middle of July - we are in Leicestershire so luckily our kids breakup slightly earlier than the rest of the country, so my thoughts are this takes the pressure of the channel crossing disruptions somewhat, however I'm concerned about the July heat and the mosi's (more so the wife on the second one, she's a magnet for them). I've be really interested on people thoughts on this? its more the nights I'm concerned about.. Option 2 is end of May, but that would mean traveling out bank holiday weekend, traveling down and then traveling back the following weekend with the kids going straight back into school on Monday, put i imagine more pleasant from a weather perspective, downside crossing is more expensive, but the site is cheaper so balances.
I'm looking for advice on logistics too, we would travel from Leicester to Dover on the Friday night, stay in the Premier inn at the dock, get an early ferry to get to Calais mid morning, the travel south with a stop over Saturday and Sunday night somewhere... i have a bucket list type desire to drive through the mountains, Monday arrive in Italy, stay 4 nights at the Sandaya resort then, travel back Friday, stop somewhere Friday night to break the journey, continue north on Saturday then get a later ferry back Saturday evening say 7pm ish and arrive back home late Saturday night, giving Sunday to recover - does that sound feasible?
Anything I'm missing? also I'm maybe thinking, do both Italy in May and then northern France in July might be a good shout...
Basically I'm planning on doing a trip over to Italy with my wife and 2 kids (6 and 11), frankly I'm fed up of the crappy weather in the UK, we've done 2 weeks in Cornwall and both times the weather hasn't been great, we are unfortunately limited to school holidays, in fact of the dozen or som camping trips we've done in 18 months in the Cali i cant' recall one that hasn't had any rain!
Anyway, we've been inspired by ABAB's trip to northern France with Harvey and really like the look of the Sandaya type campsites (they seen decent value to compared to the UK "resorts"), our youngest is disabled - severe autism and is non verbal, plus ADHD and some other stuff
Having a pool with slides, play areas, bouncy castles etc are a must to keep them both occupied (and give my wife a break!). My concern with northern France is that its not that far from the UK and could still have inclement weather even in July. My wife is really keen on Italy, its one country the we've never visited despite some Italian heritage on my side (my dads mother was Italian). There is a Sandaya resort in Tuscany right on the coast with a private beach that looks perfect, however given school holiday restrictions my choices are the late May bank holiday/half term week or middle of July - we are in Leicestershire so luckily our kids breakup slightly earlier than the rest of the country, so my thoughts are this takes the pressure of the channel crossing disruptions somewhat, however I'm concerned about the July heat and the mosi's (more so the wife on the second one, she's a magnet for them). I've be really interested on people thoughts on this? its more the nights I'm concerned about.. Option 2 is end of May, but that would mean traveling out bank holiday weekend, traveling down and then traveling back the following weekend with the kids going straight back into school on Monday, put i imagine more pleasant from a weather perspective, downside crossing is more expensive, but the site is cheaper so balances.I'm looking for advice on logistics too, we would travel from Leicester to Dover on the Friday night, stay in the Premier inn at the dock, get an early ferry to get to Calais mid morning, the travel south with a stop over Saturday and Sunday night somewhere... i have a bucket list type desire to drive through the mountains, Monday arrive in Italy, stay 4 nights at the Sandaya resort then, travel back Friday, stop somewhere Friday night to break the journey, continue north on Saturday then get a later ferry back Saturday evening say 7pm ish and arrive back home late Saturday night, giving Sunday to recover
- does that sound feasible?Anything I'm missing? also I'm maybe thinking, do both Italy in May and then northern France in July might be a good shout...
