Camping Le Lignon

If you’re the type who likes to travel on two wheels, bring bikes or hire on site to glide off into town or take riverside rides to get to local fishing spots and sandy beaches. For something a bit more challenging, strap the bikes to the car for the 15-minute drive to the Monts D’Ardèche Regional Nature Park for some fab mountain bike trails (or hikes, if you’d rather roam on foot). Bike skills not up to that? Try the pedal-powered contraptions on an old railway line at Vélorail du Velay (half an hour’s drive). And if the thought of even that makes you shudder, recline and watch the scenery go past on a Velay Express steam train ride, five minutes’ drive from the site. Active alfresco days are a cinch round here – there’s a golf course and an adventure park 10 minutes’ drive away, and a lakeside leisure centre within 20 minutes for watersports, fishing and miniature golf. And the history’s easily doable too: Château de Montivert is 20 minutes away and there’s an excellent model village (complete with its own mini château and steam train) 15 minutes away at the Blue Lake Park.