Italian Family Fun

For the past few years our family holidays have taken us to Italy. We have returned 3 years now, I am not normally someone to go back to the same place but for Italy I would definitely make an exception, especially traveling to different areas.

The Italians do campsites on a scale like no one else, they can be very large, but this means excellent facilities and with 3 young children we loved the idea of a large site bustling with life and entertainment for all the family. Plus our eldest is a coeliac so this plays a big part in our location decisions, and Italy is amazing for coeliacs, so many choices and a really high level of understanding – it seems both Italy and Ireland have the highest rates of coeliac disease in Europe! (Check out the list of places to eat around Lake Garda at the end of the blog).

We stayed in mobile homes which are a great choice for families, more room than hotels, separate bedrooms, convenient cooking and an outside area for the kids to make friends. Eurocamp have some fantastic accommodation options in each of these sites. So here is a quick summary of where we have been and what we loved about each location:

Bella Italia, Lake Garda - Summer 24 Fantastic site with loads on offer. We flew to Milan and hired a car, but Verona is a lot more convenient and you could get a transfer, but we like to have a car. The site is large and has loads of family friendly activities and restaurants, as well as a pharmacy, supermarket and shop. Highlights for us included being able to walk into nearby beautiful Perschiera del Garda (there is also a little train from the site daily), pedaloes on the lake (only €10!), Gardaland trip (recommend the evening tickets in the very hot months, shorter queues and less heat!), a day trip to Verona (such a beautiful compact city) and an evening in Sirmione. Only downside was the pool doesn’t have enough sun loungers but chilling in the pool was needed due to the heat anyway. Definitely recommend 9/10

Union Lido, Venice – Summer 22 Union Lido is one of the biggest camp sites in Europe, now this may turn some people off immediately but I have to say we loved it. It doesn’t feel crowded and the large size means there are amazing facilities – but you are not queueing for things! Two big pool complexes, including one with great waterslides, keeps the kids happy and cool. There are also a number of restaurants, a supermarket, ice cream bar, bakery and pharmacy. Its located right on the beach and has easy access to near by towns by bike or bus. We took a day trip to Venice which was a huge hit, we grabbed the bus from outside the campsite and then a water bus right into Venice. We didn’t hire a car on this occasion, which was unusual for us but we didn’t miss it. Venice Marco Polo is an easy transfer to the site. Again definitely recommend 9.5/10

Park Albatros, Tuscany – Summer 21 This was the first of our Italian camping adventures and started our Italian love affair! For this site you will need to hire a car, its about an hour south of Pisa in the Tuscan countryside. Again it’s a large site but not as big as Union Lido or Bella Italia. The pool complex is really impressive with loads of space for everyone and great lagoon pools that are so safe for younger kids. The nearby town is well worth a visit and we loved our day trip to the wonderful walled city of Volterra. There is a huge stretch of beach across from the site, but to be honest the walk in the heat is tough so we stayed by the pool, but there are some nice restaurants along the beach you can walk to in the shade of the evening. We combined our camping with 2 nights in Pisa, which the kids loved too. Again definitely recommend, perhaps more so for families with younger kids 9/10

I could happily live on a diet of bruschetta, pizza, gelato and red wine, and I can assure you I did my best to! Get in touch and we can start planning your perfect Italian family holiday today.

Gluten Free favourites around Lake Garda

Bella Italia Campsite - La Terrazze Restaurant

Perschiera del Garda - Bella Vista Restaurant (almost the whole menu is GF!) and Dolci Sogni bakery 100% gluten free with fantastic bread, cakes and pasta

Verona - La Costa in Bra (“best pizza ever” according to my little coeliac) and Grom, a fully gluten free gelato shop

Sirmione - Restaurante Pizzeria Modi

Useful tools for GF travellers in Italy

FindMeGlutenFree app and the AIC app, the Italian Coeliac Society, you can join for 2 weeks, really handy for shopping and restaurant suggestions.