Description:
Ardeche Adventures offers your family an opportunity to have fun and create lasting memories with our multi activity holidays. With activities such as canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking and high ropes, our holidays encourage your family to share new experiences and learn together.
We aim to give you the time and space to enjoy being together whilst challenging yourselves as individuals. No experience is necessary for any of our activities and you have the choice to make your holiday as active or as relaxing as you like.
With over twenty years experience of organizing and running trips in the Ardeche our team of instructors are well equipped to lead you and your family safely through a whirlwind of exciting adventures guaranteed to leave you with a lifetime of special memories!
Ardeche Adventures site is located in the stunning region of Planzolles in the Cevenne mountains and is surrounded by acres of natural beauty with a panorama of mountain views and pine forests.
The site is near the local towns Lablachère, Jouyeuse and Les Vans. The medieval town of Balazuc and the tranquil Valgorge are a 30 minute drive up the windy roads running along the Chassezac river, and a little further on is Villefort and its magnificent lake.
Families will sleep in fully equipped, spacious modern chalets each with a terrace for you to sit and relax in the Ardeche heat. Each chalet has a fully equipped kitchen and the site has a communal barbecue area with individual barbecues.
We have a child friendly restaurant and bar area as well as a beautiful 25 metre pool, tennis courts, mini golf course and a petanque court.
These packages are offered as self catering. The local towns have supermarkets, so it's easy to stock up your chalet with goodies, and market days are common too. There is a restaurant and snack bar on site as well as many wonderful local spots less than 10 km away in Joyeuse and in Les Vans.
We will design your itinerary with you before you arrive making sure your family get the maximum enjoyment out of your stay with us.

Typical Itinerary
Day one - When you arrive at the Ardeche Adventure site you will be greeted by our staff who'll guide you to your chalet. We understand that traveling can be exhausting, so after a short staff introduction and a brief site safety talk, you will have the day to relax and enjoy the sites many facilities! bask by the pool with a cocktail, or perhaps a game of tennis? we also offer guided walks most evenings in the stunning Planzolles hillsides, a lovely way to walk off the supper!

Day two - This is the first day of canoeing and is designed to prepare you for the full descent. You will complete a mini descent of 7 km in which you'll learn basic river safety and boat control whilst taking many opportunities to swim and rock jump along the way. The first day takes you through some of the rivers most exhilarating rapids and to top it all off you'll be paddling through the simply spectacular Pont D'Arc itself. On the way home we'll stop at the beautiful town of Vallon were you'll be able to sample the greatest ice cream in the world, or purchase an alarming number of cricket shaped souvenirs for your friends back home. When we return to the campsite you'll be issued with your barrels and after a quick river talk, we recommend an early night in preparation for the 27 km decent of the Gorge!

Day three - After an early breakfast, we return to the river to pick up from where we left off, now entering the gorge proper, fully equipped for the two day descent.
Its no turning back from here and once on our way you really begin to appreciate the magnitude and beauty of the Ardeche gorge!
As well as negotiating the many rapids along the way we have time to swim and have lunch on the rivers edge. By late afternoon we arrive at the bivouac site, prepare our sleeping area and light the BBQ. The site is fully equipped with a shower block and toilets, and loo roll too, very civilized! After eating, and a few river tales, its lights out when the sun drops, just the inky black sky and its millions of stars to gaze at as we slip off to sleep.

Day four - After sleeping out under the stars we rise to the smell of hot chocolate and croissants lovingly prepared by our instructors. Once we have loaded our barrels we set of for the final day of the descent ready to face more rapids and stunning scenery, oh, and nudists! (Thought it would be best to warn you!) We arrive, (exhausted), at the bottom of the gorge! Over the three days we will have paddled 31 km of this amazing river, snoozing in the bus on the way back to site is tempting, but don't miss out on the wonderful views from the road, we will stop to take some snaps from the view points.

Day five & six - These are custom days in which you can pick and mix from a vast number of activities. You can be as relaxed or as active as you like, whether its soaking up the sun by the pool or taking advantage of the absolutely riveting landscape by going on hikes, mountain biking, abseiling or climbing with your instructors. If you fancy a day off then why not head out for some sight
seeing, you could visit the beautiful city of Avignon, go to a water park or make a trip to the near by crocodile farm!
You can always combine adventure and exploration of course! There's the magnificent, a site so stunning you feel absolutely compelled to swim in it (even though it's ice water!) or there are high rope activities in the traditional market town of Les Vans, you can even visit some of Europe's most famous caves including Aven Marzel. Your wish is our command, we'll adapt your holiday to make it everything you desire!

Day seven - Departure day, hopefully a relaxed and sad farewell where we will see you on your way and hope to see you next year, maybe you have caught the canoeing bug and make it back in later in the year for one of our adult kayak and adventure weeks!

Costs - Family of 5/6 deal - Email now for the best deals - ardecheadventures@yahoo.co.uk

What we do include:
Fully equipped chalets with sun terrace.
Use of all activity equipment.
Instruction by fully qualified staff.
Use of campsite facilities.
Travel from final day of Ardeche descent back to your own transport.
Final day family and group photos.
What we do not include:
Travel to and from our site.
Travel between activities (usually 30 minutes.)
Insurance. (available on request.)
Food and drink.

SAFETY
Ardeche Adventures are responsible for overall safety of every family whilst they
are in our care. We operate to the highest standards and conform to European National governing bodies' code of practices.
We work to National Governing Body ratios (one qualified instructor to six
participants).
We pride ourselves on our selection of staff as we hand pick and train our teams
personally. Our instructors are chosen ultimately for their maturity and
professionalism, but we insist that they are blessed with a sense of adventure and
fun. We operate a policy of transparency, and all staff/instructor details will be available to our guests upon request.
Note: Although some of the activities may be instructed by French instructors all
activities will be supervised by UK instructors at all times.