'I found an amazing indoor beach for families with a castle and climbing ropes'
Dutch holiday park TerSpegelt may be 100 miles from the North Sea coast but it’s still wise to pack buckets and spades for a family visit.
Because a sandy beach with a swimming pool and water slide awaits your kids – along with a guarantee of no rain. That’s because one of its amazing attractions, Sterren Strand – or Star Beach to Brits – is inside a massive greenhouse and also features a huge adventure playground for youngsters with ropes and a climbing castle.
It’s noticeably warmer inside there too - and is a great place to warm up after a dip in the ‘wild’ swimming lake, which is just 30 yards away in the grounds of TerSpegelt which lies southwest of Eindhoven near the Belgian border.
The outdoor lake is surrounded by sandy beaches and has two water slides and stand-up paddleboard hire to keep the children entertained on sunny days. A neighbouring water sports lake is home to pedalo hire and also the only activity at the park I was too scared to try out.
‘The Blob’ is a huge inflatable floating pillow - lashed in place beneath a metal dive tower. The idea is that one tourist shuffles along the pillow before being launched into the air when a second jumps on to the other end from the tower.
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TerSpegelt has everything you need for a fun family holidayI suspected the laws of physics - specifically mass and gravity - had an important part to play in this activity. My fears were confirmed when I heard the shrieks of one woman hurled 20ft into the sky by her gleeful - and heavier - partner.
In search of a more sedate activity, my wife and our three children aged nine, seven and five took advantage of the on-site bike hire and set off to explore the local area. The Dutch love bikes and it’s easy to see why - they are blessed with an incredible network of cycle paths.
We enjoyed exploring the beautiful forests of the ‘Natuurpoort’, which is just a stone’s throw from the holiday park’s entrance. Gliding in between the trees while enjoying the shade and dappled sunlight will live long in the memory.
It was also only a short ride to the nearby town of Eersel where there are shops, supermarkets and a good selection of restaurants. The sit-up-and-beg hire bikes were surprisingly comfortable and had handy rear wheel locks.
After all that exercise you have a choice of two restaurants and two takeaways. The TerSpegelt app let us order food - delivered by bike, of course - directly to our holiday home. Our air-conditioned ‘Azure Lounge’ had plenty of space for us all, with three bedrooms. The kitchen/dining room was fully equipped with a fridge/freezer, gas hobs and a microwave oven. We spent most of our time outdoors on the covered veranda, which had a sofa seating area, gas powered BBQ and table for family meals.
The park’s well-designed app was also handy to keep up to date with the full programme of free daily activities provided by the friendly team of camp reps. These included: craft workshops, bouncy castles, discos, football, tag, basketball, face painting, den building, zumba classes, movie nights and even a swimming pool aqua disco.
For a small fee we tackled the park’s 18 hole mini golf course - where I managed to card above my age on the two most challenging holes! The on-site ‘pump track’ - a series of rolling hills and jumps - proved to be a huge hit with the kids too.
From early morning until late at night skateboards, scooters, BMX and mountain bike riders could be seen whizzing around the track. Scooters and bikes were available to hire - as well as a few sets of wrist, knee and elbow pads.
But it was definitely worth finding space in the car for helmets because these were a requirement at the track. After a ferry crossing from Dover the journey from Calais to TerSpegelt was smooth, taking three and a half hours with no tolls to pay on the roads.
The family in the accommodation next door to us made the longer crossing from Hull to the Hook of Holland, which is less than a two hour drive from the park. Our return journey also went without a hitch. And like any day at the beach we arrived home happy, tired and with a car full of sand.
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Book the holiday
Get there: P&O Ferries offers up to 15 daily sailings on the Dover-Calais route with returns from £50 per car. poferries.com
Stay there: Eurocamp offers a week’s self-catering at TerSpegelt, North Brabant, Netherlands, from £990 staying in Azure Lounge holiday home (sleeps six), for arrival on August 28. Saves 14%. eurocamp.co.uk
More info: Head to holland.com
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