Planning a family villa holiday in France

**In association with Clickstay

This summer we are going on our first overseas family holiday since Toby was 10 months old. Usually my mum and dad go to France and Spain in their caravan every summer but this year my mum wanted to go somewhere with a private pool and when she asked if we’d like to join them I wasn’t about to say no! The choice of villas available in France is enormous but with the help of a website like Clickstay finding the perfect one for your holiday is easy.

So, what do you need to consider when planning a family villa holiday?

Location

There are a few things to think about when it comes to location.

  • How easy is it to get to?
  • Do you want to be near the beach?
  • What is there to do in the area?

None of my family are massive fans of the beach so that wasn’t something we were bothered about. We knew that we would be flying out to meet my mum and dad who would be driving so being fairly close to an airport was important for us.  We also wanted to be somewhere with plenty of places to explore fairly nearby.

The Dordogne river in France - Planning a family villa holiday in France

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In the end we went for the Dordogne – it’s an area I know well having worked there for a whole summer back in 2003. It’s close to both Bergerac and Bordeaux airports and there’s tons to do in the area from kayaking on the Dordogne river to visiting one of the many caves, or even feeding the monkeys at Rocamadour!

Accommodation

Once you’ve decided on a location you’ll need to look at accommodation. There are over 1,000 Clickstay villas in the Aquitaine region of France which is the area we were looking at so there’s definitely plenty of choice out there.

Family villa holiday in France

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So what do you need to consider when booking accommodation?

  • Number of bedrooms and beds
  • Pool, or not
  • Other facilities
  • How far is the nearest shop / town / supermarket?

We have chosen a property for our holiday that is close to a little village – I don’t mind a drive to the supermarket but there’s nothing better than being able to walk or cycle to the boulangerie in the morning for fresh pain au chocolat and baguettes!

Baguettes in France

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Because we are going away with my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law are joining us too we needed somewhere with enough space for all of us. We’ve managed to find a villa with three double rooms and one twin bedroom which is perfect for us – it did take a bit of searching but there is bound to be what you need somewhere.

Part of the attraction of a villa holiday was having our own pool – Toby and Gabe are doing so well with their swimming now we wanted to make sure they have the chance to enjoy the water as much as possible.

The villa we have chosen also has an outside seating area with a built in BBQ – we tend to eat from the BBQ most of the time on holiday so that’s perfect for us. And lastly there is also wifi – not necessarily a deal-breaker for us but definitely something that will be appreciated!

We are so excited about our holiday this summer – I can’t wait to spend two weeks with my family in a part of the world that I love!

Do you have any holiday plans this summer? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below…

2 thoughts on “Planning a family villa holiday in France

  1. Do you know if its possible to do a general date search on Clickstay, rather than putting in exact dates?

    We are flexible over the summer holidays so it would be good to see what’s available over that period.

    Thanks!

    1. You do have to input specific dates but then once you have the results it shows you options for different dates either side of the ones you have selected. Hope that helps 🙂

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