Something Old, Something New: Back for More in Union Lido

Sunbathing Cambrils Park - Office Mum

“We’ve been here six times,” said the woman behind me in the queue at the bakery, “and now we’re afraid to go anywhere different in case it’s not as good.” This was in Cambrils in Spain, and she wasn’t the only one who said it. One family reportedly rented the same house in Cambrils every ...

Four Campsites in Italy: Comparison and Review

If you're a campsite person, you'll have had the conversation; the one where you chat with the people in the mobile home across the way about which campsites you've been to and which ones they've been to, and which ones were great and which ones were awful. Who you stayed with, the size of the pools, and ...

Union Lido Campsite Review: Going back for more

I need to preface this post with a caveat: we went to Union Lido campsite in Italy for the second part of a two-centre holiday, the first part of which was spent in Bella Italia. We had an incredible time in Bella Italia, and had agreed that it didn’t matter that our mobile was fairly ...

Bella Italia campsite review – what’s in a word?

"So where are you off to?" my child's teacher asked, as we chatted about holidays. “To a mobile home in a campsite in Italy,” I said. “Oh, is it Bella Italia? I went there when I was ten,” the teacher replied, and that was when I realised for the first time that Bella Italia had been around ...

Cambrils Park: Is it as good as they say?

Bonita Villa Cambrils Park - Office Mum

Have you ever been the last one to read the book everyone's raving about - The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl maybe? Going to Cambrils Park in Northern Spain was a bit like that for me - at least a dozen people had told me how fantastic it is, and I arrived worrying that ...

Family holiday in Italy: Review of Campsite Marina di Venezia

Marina di Venezia pool - office mum

Sitting on the deck at half past midnight, I can hear Killing Me Softly wafting across the campsite, to the background sound of waves washing up on the sand. I’m finishing a glass of red wine and thinking about closing my book. The candle flickers in the darkness, and I don’t want to blow it ...

Family Holiday in Italy: Review of campsite Norcenni Girasole

Pool - Office Mum

Two things we didn't consider when we booked our holiday this year: 1. Italy can be very hot in July (subsequent raised eyebrows and "Italy in July? With small kids? Really?" comments did hammer this home) 2. Our campsite, Norcenni Girasole, is inland - way inland - sitting prettily in the hills of Tuscany but nowhere near even a ...

Three campsites in France: comparison and review

Beach in Carnac

Recently, I asked my seven-year-old if she remembered Sequoia Parc, the campsite we stayed in, two years ago in France. "Of course I do - it had a dragon pirate ship thing beside the pool," she said. "No," I said, "That was Clarys Plage, last year." She was sure I was wrong. I was sure I was right. ...

Holiday in Sequoia Parc, France: Pirates, Mermaids and Disco Kids

We've just returned home from what has been our best holiday ever. We say that every year of course, and it usually takes a few months and a healthy dose of hindsight to admit that two weeks in a damp mobile home while it rained almost every day was not in fact the best holiday ...