We spent a week nestled deep within a forest of tall trees and away from the noisy city life. This is our second trip to a vacation home. This time we spent the week at the Belgium/Netherlands border. If you recall, we went to Oosterhout a few years ago. That trip was a much shorter one though. This time we were away for a week. We went along with Sander’s parents and split the cost of a two bedroom cottage.
This vacation home was like the last one. Most are located in the heart of a National Park. Our park boasted around 100 modernized houses. The trip down there and checking in were easy enough. But there are some tips I would love to pass along for anyone interested in experiencing a vacation park.
Bring the essentials
You’ll find a lot of things to use at a vacation home but toilet paper is not one of them. You’ll need to bring towels too! Come prepared with a few rolls so that you won’t have to run to a store. I need to note that most grocery stores do close early. Our local market closed 7pm each day. Play it safe and do a little research before hand. So far, 2 out of 2 vacation homes required the customer to bring both toilet paper and bath towels. Food and soap is also not provided. What is provided are utensils to cook and eat with, and pots and pans. There was also a BBQ pit but no coals. If you can’t find any information on what will be waiting for you at your own vacation home, call ahead and ask.
Keep the place clean
A good rule of thumb when it comes to vacation homes is to keep the place as clean as possible. Most parks ask that you clean up after yourself, and I don’t mean making sure the bed is made up. We had to vacuum and sweep the place down because we had so many dogs with us. We also stripped the beds, left the sheets in an easy to collect area and washed all the dishes we had used. The “keep the place clean” is open to interpretation. But Sander’s mother takes it to the extreme each time. It’s better to be safe than sorry though. You don’t want to be charged a fee for not washing the dishes.
There are curfews
Our park had a car curfew. One night we came home close to 10pm but the gates were closed to cars. We had to park in the front parking area and walk the rest of the way back to our home. Since cars tend to be loud on the gravelly roads, there is a curfew on their usage. Know the general information of your park so that you don’t end up locked out of where you need to be!
Know your limits
There were so many hiking and biking paths to choose from but we only got to take two. The weather can be a bit spotty at times so we didn’t want to get caught out in the rain with no protection. European weather can be a bit hard to predict. When we started our last ride of the holiday, it had been sunny and warm. We had to head home early because thunderstorms rolled in out of nowhere. We were prepared for this though and made it home safe and dry. It’s best to get a heads up on both the weather forecast and the time of sunset.
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