We are normally a villa and private pool family. Book somewhere quiet, lie by the water, come home rested. De Schatberg is not that, and we spent the first evening quietly worrying we had made a mistake. By day three the children were asking if we could stay longer.
One night at HUP before we arrived
We flew in the day before and stayed at HUP, a sports themed hotel in Mierlo about twenty minutes east of Eindhoven, and it was the best possible start to the trip. There is a huge sports hall with free mini golf, cornhole and table tennis, and a swimming pool that runs a pool disco in the evening. Next door is an enormous soft play, free if you are staying at the hotel, and the kids lost hours in it.
The hotel leans all the way into the theme. There is a Lego area, an outdoor park, bikes to rent, and a slide that drops from the first floor into reception, which is a novel way to get down for breakfast. Some of the connecting rooms have table tennis built into the connecting door. The bins are basketball hoops. Breakfast was a big buffet with everything you could need.
Arrival at De Schatberg was rocky
We arrived about half an hour after the check in point closed. It does say you can arrive later, but there was nobody to explain anything to us. What we got was an envelope with our names on it and a vague map, and it took us a while to find the cabin. The envelope said the key would be at the cabin. It wasn't.
Then the linen supplier had run out of double sets, so all we were left with was singles. A phone call sorted it and they brought the doubles over, but it would have been nice not to have had to make the call at all.
If you do one thing differently from us, arrive while the check in desk is staffed.
The cabin
We booked a premium cabin and it was still fairly basic. It had everything we needed and the deck outside was a good place to sit after a busy day, but it wasn't the cleanest when we walked in. Cabins can be self cleaned by the previous guests, so be prepared for that.
It is about a ten minute walk from the cabins to the facilities. We quite enjoyed the walk and looking at all the different accommodation on the way. Most people get around on rented bikes, which we didn't do but probably would next time.
The pools
The indoor pool was the thing the children wanted to do every single day. It is heated and has a river rapid running through it, and they loved being dragged along by the current. Children need to be at Swim Stage 5 or wearing a flotation aid to use it. There is also an indoor slide and a separate baby and toddler area. It gets extremely busy, but the lifeguards were genuinely on it and it never stopped us having a good time.
The outdoor pool is not heated and was a bit chilly for our two, though fine once you were in. The outdoor slide has disco lights inside it, which went down very well, and the outdoor splash park was brilliant: lots of spraying on a climbing frame and a very fast slide into the water.
The lake
The man made lake with its beach was one of our favourite parts of the site. There is a big shallow section that is perfect for paddling and our son dug trenches in it for hours. There is a fountain in the middle of the lake which is a good swim out to and fun to swim underneath.
Take a sun shelter. There is no shade and no umbrellas. We ended up buying a sun tent from the on site Spar, but take one if you already own one.
High ropes
The high ropes course is on site but run by a separate company, so it is an extra cost. It was worth every penny. There are four levels so there is something for every age, and the staff were fantastic. We were there for hours. The cafe next to it does hot snacks and drinks and sits beside a small pier where you can rent kayaks and pedalos. After our climbing session we spent the evening jumping off that pier and swimming, which was one of the best evenings of the week.
Everything else on site
There is soft play, an outdoor park and a long list of organised activities, some free and some at extra cost. Our daughter had an Ibiza hair wrap done, they made sand rockets and painted their own umbrellas. There is a mini disco, and the children can join in putting on a show if they want to. One evening a circus turned up. We didn't go, but it looked like a lot of fun.
De Schatberg is a Landal site with Roan, Eurocamp and private pitches all mixed in, so there is a real range of accommodation including some very nice looking lakeside villas.
Where we ate
We mixed it up. Some nights we cooked in the cabin, one night we did a barbecue on the deck. The on site Spar is well stocked and there is a takeaway, which was a lifesaver on the days we couldn't face cooking.
We ate at the site restaurant for lunch and for dinner one evening and the food was good quality both times. We sat on the terrace overlooking the lake. The children's meals come with a token they can swap for a coin for the toy machines, or save up for something bigger from reception, which they loved.
After a long day at Toverland we went to the McDonald's just across from the site. Everyone else had the same idea so it was busy, but the outdoor play area kept the children going while we waited.
In Sevenum we ate at De Sevewaeg. The food was delicious if a little expensive. Everywhere we went had a children's menu with the usual things: pizza, pasta, toasties, pancakes.
The area
We felt completely safe everywhere we went. You need a car to explore off site, but if you never left there is more than enough to fill eight days.
Sevenum is a five minute drive and a lovely town. We did our supermarket shop there and ate out one night, and people were welcoming and friendly.
Toverland is also five minutes away and was absolutely brilliant, with rides for every age. The app has an interactive map with live queue times, which was a real bonus, and the staff were lovely. It is an expensive day out but worth it. The children still talk about it as the highlight of the whole trip.
Brüggen, Germany. The border is close, so we crossed over for an afternoon. We had lunch in a riverside restaurant where children under 8 ate free, then a gelato while we walked round the town centre.
My one regret is not researching more before we went. There were several places I only found out about once we were home.
What it cost
Eight days at the Eurocamp came to about £1,700, booked directly through Eurocamp. Flights and car hire were booked separately.
We were unlucky that the only week we could both get off work was the most expensive one. The cheaper weeks were around £1,000, so book early if you can. The Netherlands was generally expensive, but we found it so interesting to explore that it didn't put us off.
The car hire warning
We booked with Alamo, which turned out to be Enterprise on arrival. We picked up a nail in a tyre in the site car park. They fixed it quickly at the time, which was great, but they have since charged us a hefty amount to replace the tyre now we are home. Looking back we would have replaced the tyre ourselves or taken the extra tyre insurance. It was an unnecessary expense.
Would we go back?
Yes, one hundred percent, and we would recommend it to anyone. If you like a quiet, relaxing pool holiday then the sheer busyness of the site is a shock at first. We all had such a good time that it stopped mattering by about day two.