9 Cool Ideas for Zone B School Holidays

First day of school holidays!  Here are some suggestions for things to see and do to keep your kids entertained for the next few weeks.

1.  Take them to Top Marques Monaco held the second week of school holidays. Any child into supercars, cool gadgets or hover boards will love it. Saturday and Sunday have the cheaper tickets and kids under 6 years of age are free every day.

Top Marques Monaco – supercars and more

2. Head to Gonfaron and see the tortoises at the Village des Tortues.  The best way to get there from Cannes/Nice is to go on the A8 until Le Luc en Provence (exit 57) and follow the road to Toulon until you get to the Village.  There is a playground onsite and picnic areas.

Village des Tortues at Gonfaron

3. Discover some playgrounds in other towns on the French Riviera that you don’t always go to.

One of our favourite playgrounds – Parc des Loisirs in Opio has playground equipment plus cycling tracks

4. Visit some art museums on the French Riviera – many are free entry for kids so if your kids get bored you haven’t wasted your money.

5. Parc Phoenix is one of our favourites because it has a good mix of everything and covers a range of ages from toddler age upwards.  There is a playground, musical fountain, greenhouse with flamingos, beautiful tropical plants, mini aquarium and alligators, small animal enclosures with birds, meerkats, otters, snack kiosk for ice creams etc and you also get free entry to the adjacent Musée des Arts Asiatiques.

Car parking is free for up to 2 hours at the underground facility next to the park; entry is a bargain at €3 per adults and kids under 12 years are free of charge.

Parc Phoenix, highly recommended for families

6. Go cycling – the promenade from Villeneuve Loubet all the way to Nice is perfect for some time on the bike, the pathway is flat and paved all the way and there are enough cafés along the way especially at St Laurent du Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer to stop for a drink.  Or visit the bike park at Mougins for some off-road dirt track action.

7. Act like sleuths and follow one of the many family-friendly treasure hunts across the French Riviera and Var, some of them have prizes to win from the Tourist Offices year round.

8. The adventure parks at Villeneuve Loubet are all excellent and reopen for the year from Easter school holidays – try Bois des Lutins for toddler age, Pitchoun Forest for over 3 years, Le Village des Fous for 4 years upwards and Canyon Forest for 8 years upwards.

9. Take a trip to the Alpha Parc des Loups.  A ‘Pass Famille’ is great value for 2 adults and 2 kids (€30); kids under 4 years are free year round.  Situated at 1500 metres there’s still snow in the park so dress appropriately; it’s a pretty cool experience for kids to see the wolves in the snow.  Nearby, the Lac du Boréon is a pretty spot for a photo or two and adventurists types can visit the Centre Nordique to climb the 15-metre high cascade de glace, an artificial ice-climbing waterfall (from 10 years old).

Alpha Parc des Loups

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Treasure Hunts for Kids on the French Riviera

What child doesn’t love a treasure hunt?

I’m not talking about just geocaching either where you find the ‘cache’ by using GPS coordinates, but good old-fashioned treasure hunts using maps, clues and riddles to find answers to questions or a secret code word (perhaps in exchange for a prize).

Treasure hunts are a fun way to allow history to filter into a learning experience and they are great motivators to get kids outside and exploring.   I love treasure hunts because they are very educational supporting development of a child’s imagination and problem-solving skills and fostering team work – adults can join in  too and sometimes are more competitive than the kids!

TREASURE HUNTS ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA

I’ve done some research into treasure hunts for kids on the French Riviera (and a handful reaching into the Var) and there are quite a few which I had never heard of before.  There are a few companies that offer paid experiences for birthdays or groups, however I’ve tried to include free or low-cost options as much as possible:

Antibes

Treasure hunts (rallyes pédestres) are run by the Tourist Office in Vieil Antibes, 32 boulevard d’Aiguillon (not the main Tourist Office on ave Robert Soleau) every day at 3pm with advance reservation to follow clues around Old Town and fill in the answer form for the chance to earn a prize.  The cost is €5 for kids / adults are free when accompanying their children.

Cannes

Available in French and English, Les Trésors de Cannes is a treasure hunt facilitated using a comic book to find clues in Cannes.  You can purchase the comic book with clues for €10 from the Tourist Office at the Palais.

Les Trésors de Cannes – treasure hunt in Cannes incorporating a comic book to find the clues

Dracénois towns – Bargemon, Callas, Claviers, Figanières, Les Arcs

Super fun free treasure hunts taking in historical places of interest in each town themed around La Route des Chevaliers.  Available in French, there are 5 different towns to explore; download is here:  http://w3.tourisme-dracenie.com/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=16

Route des Chevaliers treasure hunts in Bargemon, Callas, Clavier, Figanières and Les Arcs

Fréjus

Mysteres dans Frejus is a free 11-clue treasure hunt in Fréjus centre (French language only) and when you have completed the code you can give your form to the Tourist Office in Fréjus to enter quarterly draws for gift vouchers to redeem on workshops.   The download is here: http://www.ville-frejus.fr/images/pages/upload/fichiers/pdf/pdf_temporaires/mysteres_dans_frejus.pdf

Mysteres dans Fréjus – free treasure hunt for kids in Fréjus

Nice

Aventures sur la Côte  offer treasure hunts by request so it’s a good option for groups of friends, family or corporates.  The hunts leave from the Apollo Fountain (Fontaine du Soleil) at Place Massena and cover the history of Nice as well as the pirate Black Morgan with disguised characters along the way handing out scrolled clues to participants.  I’m yet to test this one but it sounds like fun!  Price is by request dependent on group size.

Pays de Fayence

Available in French, Trésors du Pays de Fayence comprises a free separate treasure hunt for the 4 towns of Fayence, Callian, Seillans, Mons and at the end the codes from each town combine to form one overall answer. The download is here: http://www.paysdefayence.com/documents/tresorsenpaysdefayence.pdf

Year round free treasure hunts in Callian, Fayence, Mons and Seillans to win prizes including weekend getaways

Roquebrune sur Argens

The Tourist Office of Roquebrune-sur-Argens organises a variety of fun treasure hunts :

1.  Rocabrunae 1249 is a geolocalised treasure hunt aimed at kids from 8 years old.  It incorporates using a GPS Pocket to follow clues in the village related to the Templiers knights and when you reach each ‘stage’ a question pops up onscreen to answer. Once the treasure hunt is complete (approximately 2 hours duration), pass your form to the Tourist Office to earn a prize.  Hireage of the GPS is €10 from the Tourist Office, 12 avenue Gabriel Péri, 83520 Roquebrune-sur-Argens.
2. For something a bit different, try a treasure hunt by canoe! Hosted every Wednesday in July and August, the hunt takes around 3 hours tracing clues by foot in the medieval village and canoe along the Argens river.  Reservations necessary via the Tourist Office of Roquebrune – Adults €20 / Kids aged 8-12 years €10 / Kids under 8 years are free of charge.

Saint-Raphaêl / Grasse

Piste et Trésor is a free iPhone app with loads of treasure hunts in locations including Saint-Raphael (Enigmes et Secrets), Pays de Fayence,  and Pays de Grasse.

Enigmes et Secrets – Saint Raphael free treasure hunt

Available in both French and English, it covers many other French destinations such as Paris, Château de Versailles, Lyon, Brest and the Alsace region – plus more – so it’s a brilliant one to take on family holidays.

Download it on the App Store here: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/piste-et-tresor/id371295938?mt=8

Piste et Trésor offer lots of free treasure hunts throughout France including towns in the Var and on the French Riviera

Villeneuve Loubet

Jeu Mission Melba is a free interactive treasure hunt using smartphone and compass coordinates to follow the trail to find Melba (the little frog who is the town mascot) in the village, Rives de Loup, Parc Vaugrenier and Baie des Anges marina.

The target age is suited to kids 6-10 years; duration is from 1.5 – 2 hours.

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