Family travel: Waterparks and Windmills
The winners of our Eurocamp competition, the Street family from Wolverhampton, review their trip to the Eurocamp campsite at Duinrell in Holland.
Our holiday adventure started back in March 2007 with an email from Raisingkids to say we had won a holiday at a Eurocamp site of our choice. It was our first time using Eurocamp and it was a difficult choice in choosing where to go. Joanne at Eurocamp couldn’t have been more helpful and managed to book us two weeks during the school summer holidays at Duinrell Wassenaar in Holland.
Duinrell lies within a nature reserve right next to the spectacular Tiki water park and has around 1500 pitches. You can stay in mobile homes, which we did, or Eurocamp tents, or bring your own tents and caravans.
Our home for the holiday was a Verona two bedroomed mobile home complete with decking. We did wonder at first how we and all our things were going to fit in! However, once we got underway with our unpacking, it became apparent that this was a bit of a Tardis! The Verona had two bedrooms, one with a double bed and the other with a single bed and then bunk-beds. It is amazing how you all get used to the space around you and we soon got into a routine. It also made a big difference having the decking, and on most days we were able to eat out on this.
Splashing Around
Armed with their photo cards, Daniel and Joanne went straight off to find the Tropical Tiki pool while we unpacked the car and came back two hours later tired but having had great fun on the spectacular slides, the wave pool, space bowls and the lazy river. As a Eurocamp guest we could use the pool for free between 10am and 2pm every day although even after that it was only €3.50pp for two hours.
For the first two days we didn’t leave the site - heading for the Tiki pool in the morning, back to the mobile home for lunch and into the Amusement park in the afternoon which was great fun for adults and children alike. Daniel and Joanne particularly liked the water splash ride where you could get wetter watching it than riding it!
Crossing the road was fun for first few days with cycle lane, then road, then cycle lane. We didn’t know which way to look and it was amazing to watch the locals whizzing around on their bikes. We took Daniel’s and Joanne’s bikes with us but we needn’t have because there was excellent hire facilities on site for bikes.
Old Amsterdam
Days out included trips to the Delft pottery factory, Amsterdam, where we used the excellent park and ride system. Great trains, double decker, clean and on time!, Rotterdam, again park and ride. The old university town of Leiden was only 6 miles away and we enjoyed a couple of trips there with its great shopping.
A particular favourite was our excursion to Kinderdijk where there were 19 windmills dating from the 1740s. As we visited this on a Saturday we were able to go inside one of the Windmills and ride on a boat up and down the centre waterway - a scene which captured for us just how we'd imagined Holland to be.
We found the local town of Wassenaar very good for shopping and eating out. It had a good supermarket, excellent butchers and delicatessens, really everything you needed. To be fair the supermarket on the site was good too, prices compared favourably with the C1000 in Wassenaar.
Two weeks seemed to go very quickly and before we knew it was time to come home.There is so much to see and do in the area that two weeks was never going to be enough and we hope to go again at some time in the future. We would certainly recommend Duinrell and Eurocamp, we had a great time.
Information
7 nights holiday staying in a two-bedroom Comfort mobile home with decking (as per Wendy's holiday) starts from £349 for 2 adults and 3 children and includes a return Dover to Calais ferry crossing. Staying in a luxury tent will cost from £248 again for 2 adults and 3 children and including a return Dover to Calais ferry crossing.
Eurocamp is offering up to 20% discount on holidays booked before 31st October 2007. Contact www.eurocamp.co.uk for information and booking.
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