Multi centre holidays: If you have a site relating to this topic and you would like to see it featured here then please email camp@campingmobilehomeholidays.co.uk

I guess it all depends on how long you are on holiday for, but if you value experiences over beach time then multi centre holidays could be the thing for you. Of course, there are normally extra costs involved, even if they are just for travelling from one centre to another. One of the favourites is to make your main holiday base in Cyprus and then pop off to Egypt for a few days to see the Pyramids or Cairo, whatever. This particular multi centre break is widely available and can either be booked before you leave the UK or when you hit Cyprus as there are no shortage of agents wanting to line their pockets by selling you trips when you're there.

We have taken a few multi centre holidays in France over the years - always self drive ones of course, and we found that it was less tiring to go to the furthest away at the start of the hols so that you hadn't got so far to drive at the latter end of them. Too much hassle and driving at the end of the hols can sometimes defeat the object of having a stress free holiday and make you feel as though you haven't had one when you get back home. One year we took the short ferry crossing from Dover/Calais and pottered down to the South coast near to Cannes. Coming from the Midlands we needed an overnight stop on the way, otherwise we would have been driving all night. We spent a few days in the South and meandered our way South West along the coast past Antibes, Aix, Marsailles, stopping at different places until we hit Perpignan.

After that we headed West and more or less followed the French/Spanish border to Bayonne and then we took in some wonderful surfing on the Southwest coast - some of the best surfing is to be had around that area, magic! Time constraints meant that we had to gradually head North to Bordeaux and beyond but always along the coastline. We then stayed a couple of nights just outside La Rochelle - a beautiful city if ever there was one! If you go there may I suggest that you take advantage of the most excellent Park & Ride scheme they have there? It runs every 15 minutes or so and the whole day only cost us a couple of Euros. We were amazed at the cost! We recommend la Rochelle to anyone, young, old or middle aged with a family as there is so much to see, and you can still walk round a great deal of the city walls which were most probably erected in the first place some hundreds of years ago to keep the Brits out. Ironic ain't it?

We wandered further up the Vendee coast and took in a few days at our favourite places of La Tranche and St Jean de Monts, and from there we had to zoom up to St Malo to catch the evening ferry to Poole. Whilst we have never actually stayed in St Malo we have spent many a full day there as we always try to get there around noon and take in the old buildings and the shops for a few hours. St Malo is another walled city like La Rochelle but I reckon that the city walls are a tad higher in Malo. You can walk round them with ease and it is a fair old drop to the other side. I certainly wouldn't have liked to be an invader all those years ago because it is one city which still looks to be impregnable.

That was a multi, multi centre driving holiday and it took us the thick end of three weeks from start to finish, with a night in Poole - and another tip here if I may - if you intend to have a night's stay in Poole then book early, and I mean early! I have doubts that if you booked in June that you would find an empty bed before the end of August.

So, how much did it all cost? Well, we went in the middle of June and came back at the end of the 1st week of July so we missed the high season charges, but had I known then that we would be setting up a holiday info site I would have kept a more accurate tally. The nights we had in mobile home sites were never less than 2 at a time and I admit to successfully haggling the price down whenever possible and making sure that we properly cleaned out the accommodation prior to leaving, so accommodation for three weeks wasn't so bad. We never count the cost of food because everyone has to eat anyway and it is only those meals out in restaurants which are dear. Fuel for the car wasn't really an issue either because we took my wife's diesel Fiesta which gives up to 70 MPG on a good run. Autoroute charges added up on the way down to the South of France, but if you don't drive on them going down then it takes forever.

Could we have done it cheaper? Yes and no. June is a good time to haggle with your tour operator for the type of multi centre holiday which we took in France because at the time of writing (March 2nd 2009) they are desperate to get orders at virtually any price, and quite a few companies are already offering 2 weeks for the price of one in their 2009 brochures. Wait until the middle of May if you can for the best offers and you could see even more money off. If you are able to take time off in June and take advantage of any multi centre holidays offers then you could have a superb holiday for much less than you thought.