We spent the Easter weekend at a FarmCamps in Noord Brabant. It’s our second Farm Camps experience and it didn’t disappoint. I, once again, had three upset boys for two evenings after we packed up and left our holiday tent. They’re on a promise of a return visit.
We’re Not Camping People, But Farm Camps is More Glamping than Camping
I’m not a camping type of girl, and my husband is not the camping type of guy but Farm Camps is a whole other story. It works. It’s glamping – so there’s a toilet, a shower and heating in the tent. Heat is vital for my cold blooded husband and not having to hobble over a field in the middle of the night to go to the toilet with three kids is a sure win for me.
Home Comforts in a Farm Camps ‘Tent’
We stayed in a six persons Lodge tent – and it’s roomy. There’s no crawling around on hands and knees to get into bed (which are proper beds by the way, with duvets) and no danger of waking up in a huge rain puddle. There’s an equipped kitchen area with a hob, fridge and sink. There’a a BBQ with a table and chairs on the terrace outside each tent, and a hammock to lounge around on in good weather.
But for the rest it’s camping. When the wind blows the tent blows (a little – the tents are sturdy constructions) and when it rains you hear it loud and clear. You open the tent up and you are outside.
Activities for the Kids
There are activities for the kids. This time around the emphasis was on the ponies – which my boys LOVED! They are not experienced riders by any means, in fact this was only their second pony riding experience (the first one also at a FarmCamps) but they were hooked completely. They loved the individual attention, fetching the ponies out of the wei, and brushing them and helping saddle them ready for riding lessons.
Carolien and Huub run Breehees and its Carolien who is passionate about the ponies and horses there. She takes in animals with a story, ponies who have not been treated well by their owners, and she helps them.  And she gives riding lessons.
There are two alpacas living in Breehees with a similar story. This duo incidentally likes to spit chewed up corn at guests. Ask me how I know. There are rabbits and chickens on site too.
There’s a playground with an air trampoline and a zip-line, a climbing frame and slide and swings, go-karts for the kids to tear around on, a field with goals to football on, and space to throw a frisbee around.
Fresh Bread
There’s a cafe/ restaurant too. Huub bakes his own bread (which is extremely tasty). And every day there are baked goods (baked by Maria) to try. You can have breakfast delivered to your tent in the morning. Or you can place a bread order and pick it up at the restaurant.
And not to forget the tramsafari trip that sets off from Breehees. It stops at a nearby dairy farm (run by Carolien’s brother) and the local woods. There are lots of stories along the way. The tour in our case was given by Carolien’s father, who used to run Breehees and was a farmer himself. He had lots to say about the sorry state of farming in the Netherlands these days, probably worthy of a separate blog post in the future.
In short, FarmCamps is a brilliant experience and we’ll be back!
*This is NOT a sponsored post. FarmCamps was such a positive experience (twice) that it is worth spreading the word!*
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