Family Surf & Yoga Week in Montalivet, France

Everyone eats together at long tables: breakfast is fruit, muesli, fresh bread and yogurt; lunch and dinner are vegetable-heavy, with pasta or a plain kid option always on the side. Breakfast is served all seven days, lunch five days and dinner six — you're on your own for the Friday meals so you can go into town. There's an on-site chef and team (guests keep naming Lena), and vegan and vegetarian options are standard, not a special request.

Surf school is run by licensed coaches with lifeguard qualifications, and equipment (board and wetsuit) is yours for the whole week. Beginners get four 1.5-hour sessions; improvers get two. Afternoon free-surfing happens daily, with boards shuttled to the beach by the camp. One week each summer the camp also runs adaptive surfing with an on-site therapist, one hour of physio a day plus adapted lessons, for children and adults with conditions like cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, amputation, acquired brain injury, MS or autism.

Yoga runs four classes of 1.5 hours each, mixing Hatha, Vinyasa Flow and Yin. The teacher has 15 years of practice, an RYS 500 Yoga Alliance certificate, and has trained in workshops with Janet Stone, Shiva Rea, David Swenson and Simon Park. Classes suit complete beginners through daily practitioners, from age 10 up, and the teacher checks in with you before the first class to work out what you actually need.

Accommodation is in TIPI tents — one double bed, up to two singles and a free crib. There's electricity, hangers, shelving, rugs, lamps, a small table and two chairs. Bigger families can add a small second tipi next to the main one for up to three kids on mattresses. Toilets and showers sit about 50 m away, with two shower blocks and a toilet per tent. Bikes are worth hiring: the beach and Montalivet are both walkable (about 800 m), but in summer heat guests consistently say the bikes made the week.

The camp sits inside a large pine-tree resort area shared with neighbouring surf and yoga camps, with bathroom blocks, showers and a volleyball court. It's roughly equidistant between the ocean and the town of Montalivet — small, walkable, with the local market that guests keep raving about. Bordeaux and La Rochelle airports are each about an hour's drive; Lesparre is the nearest train station, a €40 taxi away.

What sets this apart from a standard surf-and-stay is that it's genuinely built around families with different-age kids. There's a free kindergarten for 2-6 year olds running alongside surf school four days a week, and children not surfing are entertained during the parents' lessons. Reviews come back again and again from families on their second or third year, and the guest mix tends to be international — Slovenia, France, Austria, Germany, England, Bulgaria, Canada, Australia.

What's included

- 7 nights TIPI tent accommodation (bed linen included) - 7 breakfasts - 5 lunches - 6 dinners - Snacks between meals - Free use of surf equipment (board and wetsuit) for the whole stay - Kindergarten for children aged 2-6, four days per week, 4 hours per day - Kids' entertainment during parents' surf lessons - Access to resort facilities: volleyball court, playground - Weekly outdoor cinema night - Weekly cartoon night - Welcome and camp orientation

What's not included

- Travel to Montalivet - Airport or station transfers - Surf school lessons (€169 beginners / €119 improvers) - Yoga classes (€69 for four classes) - Bike hire (€40) - Lunch on arrival day - Lunch and dinner on Fridays - Drinks outside of meals - Travel insurance - Personal expenses and souvenirs