Camping holidays abroad: France, Spain, ItalyIf you have a site relating to this topic and would like to see it featured here then please email camp@campingmobilehomesholidays.co.uk

Most of our camping holidays over the past 40 years or so have been somewhere abroad, usually France but at times we have been as far as the middle coastal areas of Spain and most of Italy. It's fun, there's no denying that, and we have enjoyed all our camping holidays on the continent just as much as the ones spent here in the UK, in fact more so because I love driving abroad, especially in France.

If you are planning a camping holiday this year and haven't quite sorted out where to go or what sort of accommodation you want it may help to break things down a little to help you decide. If you are tent camping abroad then are you taking your own camping gear or are you renting a tent and all that comes with it when you get there? Taking your own kit is by far the cheapest holiday you can have provided there is enough room in your car. Pack it all in, catch the ferry and stop at campsites along your planned route for just a few Euros per night + a couple for the car. Easy peasy and cheap as I said above.

Going up a notch you may be thinking of booking with one of the many companies which offer camping holidays abroad and which give you the accommodation and all the bits and pieces you need for a good holiday such as the tent for starters, which comes with cooker, fridge and freezer, cooking utensils and beds though you'd better liase with the company involved about bedding. Families like this sort of holiday because they have enough to pack into the car besides camping gear.

Other than all the above you may have given a thought to mobile home camping or even chalet camping for your holiday this year. Either of these offer far more in terms of comfort than tent camping and they have the added advantage of having tolilets and showers inside the mobiles or chalets. We have camped abroad all over the place but now we are getting a tad older we stay in mobile homes which are that wee bit better for the aching old joints. Mobile home camping abroad is the way things were going until the recession hit us late in 2008, but I can see that tent camping will be making a comeback this year and probably next as well because of the cost difference.

The next thing is: Where are you going to take this holiday? "Abroad" covers any and everywhere outside the UK, so if you haven't taken a camping holiday overseas before then you really need to temper your enthusiasm with a touch of practicality by choosing a destination not too far away for the first time. Our first one as a family was in the Vendee many years ago and did we get lost!! That was in the days before either Rennes or Nantes had proper ring roads and my "navigators" (wife, daughter and her girlfriend) took a great delight in pointing us in the wrong direction, or so it seemed at the time.

Since then we have had camping holidays both here and abroad many times and we wouldn't swap the wonderful times and experiences for anything.