My husband and I stayed at Del Garda Village for 11 nights in mid-August with our teenage daughter (16) and son (14). We'd previously been to Lake Garda six years ago and loved it so much we decided to return, but it was our first time at this park.||||Previously we've stayed at Altomincio Family Park which is fantastic for younger children (and their parents), but the location is quite far from the lake. We picked Del Garda Village for its proximity to Peschiera, which proved to be a good decision. I'd also looked at Bella Italia, which has more bells and whistles, but more expensive and worse reviews than Del Garda.||||Del Garda Village is very family orientated and perhaps not the most obvious choice for a family with teens, but we hired a car and used the park as a base for days out and walking to Peschiera in the evening. My two aren't looking to hook up with other teens on holiday or join in with sports tournaments, so the park facilities weren't the most important thing to us.||||Getting there: We flew into Verona with Easyjet and hired a car from the airport. On leaving the airport we were quickly reminded of how bumpy the Italian roads are. The main road along the lake itself is in pretty good condition though. The drive from the airport is only about 20 minutes. ||||Check in: We arrived about 11.30am. You can't check in with Eurocamp until 4pm, but fortunately the park reception is open for check in from 11am. The friendly lady on reception gave us our wristbands so we could use the park facilities and a code to log on to the free Wi-fi. We also got a key for the two pedestrian gates for €10 deposit. We left our luggage in our car boot, but you're also able to leave your cases in reception. Eurocamp have a separate caravan opposite the main reception where later in the day we met one of the reps and got the keys to our mobile home. The Eurocamp caravan has things you can borrow such as books and table tennis bats.||||Mobile home: We rented a 3 bed Comfort XL which had the usual pros and cons of a mid-range mobile home. It was starting to show some signs of wear and tear, for example the shelf inside the fridge door was cracked, one of the kitchen cupboard doors was loose and there was a dent on the inside of the main bedroom door. More importantly though it was clean and the decor was bright and modern.||||Eurocamp provided a complimentary cleaning kit with mini washing-up liquid, sponge, cloth, mini multi-surface cleaner, bin bag & a loo roll. The mobile home was geared up for us Northern Europeans. Many of the other guests are Dutch, German, Irish & British. ||||The inventory included electric kettle, oven with grill, cafetiere (rather than, say, a moka pot) mugs (not the cappuccino cups and espresso cups we've had elsewhere), and was generally well equipped. The kitchen had a reasonable amount of space. In fact, the storage throughout the mobile home was good. There were plenty of hooks, mirrors and plug sockets. ||||There were a few niggles as you might expect. The shower swung back and forth from boiling to freezing. The air-con didn't seem to get as cold as in other caravans we've stayed in and would switch itself off after a while. The beds obviously weren't as comfy as our beds at home. The main bedroom was the stupid design where it's difficult to squeeze along the far side of the bed, which makes it difficult for things like getting dressed and applying sun cream. The side of the mattress where the bedroom door was (the more accessible side for a bigger person) had gone saggy. Not great if you suffer from back trouble. ||We only had one pillow each. The children were able to use the pillows from the spare beds. After a few days I went to the Eurocamp reception and asked for another couple of pillows, which the Eurocamp rep helpfully dropped off at the end of her shift. We'd hired linen, but you only get one pillowcase per person, so we had to put the pillows with no pillowcase underneath.||||Outside we had a good sized fully covered deck with plastic dining table and chairs and a couple of plastic sun chairs. We had a brand-new charcoal barbecue too. The weather was too hot for a lazy lunchtime barbecue, but we did have one on a couple of evenings. We had an east-facing deck, so had to eat breakfast inside with the air-con running as the sun was so hot. By evening the sun was off our deck so we were able to eat evening meals outside (it was still hot though). I was a bit late applying insect repellant the first couple of evenings. We all got a few mosquito bites. The mobile home had mosquito blinds so that was a good thing.||||Wi-fi: The free wi-fi worked all round the park. It was a bit slower than we're used to at home in the mobile home but faster around the pool area.||||Car Parking: You're not able to park your car next to your mobile home. There's a big car park near the entrance or there are a few streets through the park where you can parallel park. Luckily for us our mobile home was near to one of those streets otherwise it would have been a bit annoying. I assume they've done it to make it safer for little ones by having pedestrianised areas around the mobile homes, which isn't a bad thing of course.||||Swimming Pools: There are two separate pool complexes. The main one is near reception. This has a frenetic atmosphere with daytime mini-disco, disco, aerobics. Loads of kids throwing balls around, splashing about and generally having fun. We didn't go to the pools every day but when we did, we always managed to get a couple of sunloungers, although it's obviously busy in August. There are some slides suitable for primary school children and a shallow toddler pool. This pool has a reasonably priced bar for snacks and drinks. The crema di cafe (like a melted coffee ice cream) was delicious! They also have a selection of about half a dozen reasonably priced spritz to try. There are tables and chairs at the snack bar and adjacent to that a large grassy area with deck chairs and parasols and a few big trees for shade.||||The other pool, in the section of the park with the bungalows, is much quieter, so better suited to relaxing with a good book. And there was usually more sun loungers free. There's a small slide for younger kids, a toddler pool and a big rectangle pool with enough room to swim. There are toilet facilities but nowhere to get refreshments.||||Entertainment: We didn't get involved in the sports activities at 30+ degrees but it's all there if you want it. There's a different sports tournament each afternoon, such as ping-pong, football, tennis, beach volleyball, as well as football school or tennis school in the mornings. There's also a kids club run by the park; I believe the kids club building is at the main swimming pool. ||The stage for the evening entertainment is over by the supermarket and restaurant and there's also an outdoor bar with limited seating. There are chairs lined up in rows in front of the stage or you can get a partial view of the entertainment from the bar area. Mini disco is at 8.45pm followed by the evening show at 9.15pm. The evening entertainment was wholesome family shows, for example one evening the entertainment staff put on a Peter Pan show and people's kids joined in with dances I assume they'd learnt and hats they'd made during the kids club that day. Another night was an oriental dancing show by the entertainment team. Wednesday night the entertainment took place at the main pool, a pool party combined with some fire juggling by the entertainment team! Quite daring of them when you think about it.||The bar staff were really kind and friendly. Drinks prices were reasonable. I don't remember exactly but I think spritz was €5 or €6, beer was €3.50, slushies were €4.50. Gelato was excellent value at just €1.50 a scoop or €2 for 2 scoops. ||||Grocery shop: was stupidly expensive even just for a few bits. We just used it for breakfast. The male member of staff on the pastry counter was a bit grumpy and the female staff member with the dark hair liked you to be bright and brief with your order and not dither! You have to tell them the whole order in one breath and you'll get on alright! The other lady in the shop was more happy. The croissants were nice at €1.70 each for plain, or filled with either chocolate, apricot conserve or crema (a slightly lemony custard). Pistachio croissants were €2 each, as were donuts. Thin baguette was €1.90 or fat baguette €3.20. They also do a selection of rolls. My son had a white one once, but it was a bit hard. There's also a bazaar shop opposite the restaurant that sells flip-flops, etc.||||Laundry: I think there were about half a dozen washing machines and a few tumble dryers. €4 each.||||Restaurant / Pizzeria: We only ate at the restaurant once as all the restaurants of Peschiera were on our doorstep. We had pizzas for lunch when we first arrived. They were nice and good value at about €8 to €10. It was very quiet at lunchtime but got busy in the evenings.||||Location: For us the location of the park was the best thing. There are two pedestrian gates to exit the park - one to walk to the lake and the other to walk into town. You can litterally be in the centre of the old walled town within 20 minutes' walk. When you leave the park via the pedestrian gate in the car park you come out onto a fairly safe, quiet-ish road with what can only be described as a pedestrian lane - like a cycle lane - painted on the road. Then in no time at all you're at a road with proper pavements then the bridge to cross over into town.||||Peschiera del Garda: is very pretty with plenty of restaurants, bars, tourist shops, clothes shops, ice cream parlours. The town was full of tourists from all over Europe and had a real buzz about it when we were there in August. Some nights we went into town for dinner and other nights just for an ice cream or a drink. One restaurant we visited twice was Pasta Salame. They squeezed us in both times without a booking, and the pasta was phenomenal.||Then there's the port area where you can go on a boat trip (although not something we did) ||The station is 16 minutes' walk from the park. We used the train for a day trip to Verona. It was just under £30 return for the four of us. I purchased tickets using the trainline app.||||The lake: is a short walk away via the pedestrian gate at the other end of the park past the bungalows. It's about 8 minutes' walk from the park to the promenade at Lido Campanello. Here there's a beach bar, a grassy area to lay towels and somewhere to rent sunloungers, umbrellas and SUP boards. There are steps at intervals to get down to the lake for swimming, but no actual beach! If you walk another 6 minutes to the right along the prom there's a small pebble beach with pedaloes to rent. Or if you walk another 8 minutes or so to the left there's a pebble beach, Lido ai Pioppi, with some nice looking pedaloes to rent and a beach bar. We went to this beach the day we arrived and enjoyed drinks at the beach bar but didn't like the actual beach much. It didn't live up to our memories of swimming in Lake Garda six years previous as the water wasn't very clear or cold, but we were comparing it our beloved Torri del Benaco about 40 minutes' drive further north up the lake.||||We tend to prefer days at the beach rather than staying around the pool (although it's nice to have the option of both). We benefitted from having a car to travel further north up the lake as we've not yet found a beach we like in Peschiera del Garda. In Peschiera, in addition to the beaches next to Del Garda Village we tried Lido Cappuccini (the beach outside the park, Bella Italia) one afternoon. It's about 10 minutes' drive, but wouldn't recommend it. The water was cloudy and warm with bits of weed in it, like swimming in dishwater. Previously we've tried Braccobaldo and weren't overly keen on that either. The stones really hurt your feet. Beach shoes are needed for most of the beaches on the lake to be fair.||||Supermarkets: On the roundabout just 2 minutes' drive from the park there's a Migross superstore and a Famila side by side. If you don't have a car it looked like a safe walk with pavements and would only take about 10 minutes I reckon. The Migross is the larger of the two and good for stocking up, so you don't have to shop on the park.||||Trips out:-||Lazise: we had a nice day sunbathing on the sandy beach. Again, the water is warm and shallow here, not in a good way. We had fun hiring pedaloes and Golden Beach bar does nice pizzas for lunch. ||Torri del Benaco: we went a couple of times. In our opinion it's worth the 40 minutes or so drive as we absolutely love the cool, deep, turquoise water of Baia dei Pini and the beach has tiny pebbles that don't hurt your feet as much. We love the laid-back authentic vibe there and love a lazy lunch at Baia Stanca Beach Bar.||Garda Town: we discovered has a nice pebble beach with clear water, Corno di Garda. The setting is picturesque, and Bikini Beach Bar is nice. We parked at Parco degli Albertini, then the beach is 10 minutes' or so walk to the right along the prom.||||Monte Baldo: Before we left the UK I'd looked into a trip up Monte Baldo but decided against it because of the logistics and the mixed reviews. Once we were in Italy though the weather was too hot to do anything except go to the beach or pool or, as it turns out, go up a mountain where it's 10 degrees cooler for a change of scene. I booked tickets online the day before. We left the park at 7am and were at parked at parking 2 in Malcesine by 8.10am. We got to the cable car station at 8:20am and pretty much got straight on although our tickets weren't until 9am. It was so peaceful at the top of the mountain except for the tinkling of cow bells. The views over the lake were beautiful. We then spent a pleasant afternoon on the beach at Malcesine. It was one of our best days, so worth the early start and hour and a half's drive back in the traffic.||||Gardaland: We got the night tickets for €29 each for admission between 6pm to 11pm. This worked well as meant we avoided queuing in the sunshine. We got there about 6.30pm and did 6 rides in four hours, which I thought was pretty good. And as it's only 5 minutes' drive from Del Garda Village we were back sat on our deck with a cold beer and late-night pizza slice in no time at all at the end of the night.||||Weather: We had fantastic weather when we stayed in August. We arrived to a heat wave. The first week was clear blue skies with temperatures of 33 to 35°c. Then we had some rain on the 7th night and the following couple of days it was sunny again but cooled to a more comfortable 31°c. The penutimate day was cloudy with thunderstorms but enabled us to walk around Verona without being uncomfortably hot. Then the final day was rainy and down to 23°c. The morning we left the sun was back out.||||Check out: You're expected to tidy up, which of couse we did, but there's no longer the requirement to sweep and mop the floor or remove every last crumb from the oven in preparation for the dreaded cleaning inspection. I think it's a good move by Eurocamp to include the final cleaning in the price of the holiday as it leaves guests free to enjoy the final day. One of the Eurocamp reps came to visit us the evening before we were due to leave and told us to just leave the keys on the table in the mobile home, so it was all very straightforward.||||For me Lake Garda is still one of the best destinations we've been to as a family and Del Garda Village provided a good, well-located, affordable base for our holiday. I'd happily recommend it for a family holiday, whether you have teenagers or toddlers or somewhere...
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