Euro-Roadtrip 2026 Day 1: Dunkirk and Ghent with Kids
- Aug 7
- 5 min read
As set out in the Lapland summary, we have had a hell of a year, which sadly reached its grisly conclusion with the death of my father in January and, just six weeks later, the loss of my best friend and housemate of 21 years, Jebs, at just 39 years old. The toll taken by providing their end-of-life care, the emotional loss, the trauma of witnessing every detail, and the ongoing administration of both estates has been utterly devastating.
On top of the time demands, the cost of all the travel involved, coupled with the general cost-of-living crisis in the UK, had all but sealed the deal on there being no trips this year. However, a last-minute boost of work meant we suddenly found ourselves with around £2,500 to play with!! Nowhere near enough for a hotel holiday in the Mediterranean – but then that’s not really our thing anyway!
Since my 40th birthday in Lapland – and with the fleeting nature of life now firmly and daily in my mind – I had resolved to see whether I could squeeze in all the countries of Europe before my 50th birthday. I’ve always dreamed of a Balkan road trip, but I just didn’t have the time or headspace to throw myself into planning that properly this year. A brief look at Albania and North Macedonia also suggested that perhaps we didn’t quite have the money for it either!
Andrew suggested we go back to our cheaper 2023 trips for inspiration, so we started looking at Eurocamp. We immediately came across a multi-stop discount and managed to get Duinrell in Holland and Hu Birkelt in Luxembourg for around £1,700. We thought this was excellent considering we were booking only a few weeks beforehand, travelling in mid-August, and both sites have enormous water parks alongside beaches, forests, cycling and loads of other things to do.
We got the Eurotunnel without a hitch. It was pricey, at around £500, but overall still cheaper than flying when you consider the ridiculous amount of stuff we had packed, no car hire and no airport parking. It would be our first self-drive with our own vehicle! We paid for the second tier of flexibility, so when we arrived an hour early we were able to hop onto an earlier train, which was excellent. The kids loved it – so smooth and exciting!
We then drove to Dunkirk and had our homemade packed lunch for free in the sculpture garden of the art museum, before quickly popping down to the historic beaches and then visiting the Operation Dynamo Museum. One of the sculptures in the garden was made from riveted anchors from boats lost during the operation, which we all thought was very cool.
The museum was small, cheap and really interesting. Every time we do anything involving European warfare I learn something new, which is perhaps surprising considering both Jebs and Andrew are/were war-history obsessed!
The displays showing the encirclement of 1.8 million French troops, and descriptions of soldiers retreating into the water only for ships to then be bombed and run aground, were stark. However, it was all very well done, so our younger girls weren’t completely aware of the devastation we were actually reading about. There was also a good children’s trail that kept Willow and Quinn engaged, while Max was well absorbed in the displays having learned a fair bit about the war recently at school.
Children under 12 are free, which was fab, so we only needed two adult tickets for a total of £12.88 (€15).
At around 2pm we drove on to Ghent – about 1 hour 20 minutes – through sunny, parched and incredibly flat countryside.
It had been quite confusing working out whether we needed to pay anything for Ghent’s Low Emission Zone with our Euro 6 diesel, but we had registered the car beforehand and hadn’t been charged anything, so we drove straight into the medieval centre and parked in the Sint-Michiels underground car park, right in the thick of it all.
We then proceeded to walk straight to Gent Watertoerist to explore the ridiculously romantic city by canal. We almost never do things like boat trips, being such budget-conscious travellers, but I was concerned about both time and trapesing the insane temperatures of the heatwave. We couldn’t seem to find anywhere to fill up with free water either, so sitting on a boat for a while seemed like a good option to avoid dehydration/heatstroke!
The boat trip was £38.21 (€44.50) for all five of us. I believe you can get a discount if you opt for the Ghent CityCard, but we knew we wouldn’t be doing enough paid attractions this time to make that worthwhile.
Our tour guide, David, was funny and informative. Among other things, we learned:
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, one of the most powerful rulers in European history, was born in Ghent. At various points his territories encompassed an enormous chunk of Europe and the Americas, and our boat trip passed the site associated with the palace where he was born.
Belgium is a surprisingly young country, only becoming independent in 1830. I had absolutely no idea!
There is a long-standing rivalry between Ghent and Bruges. We were told that Ghent missed out on UNESCO World Heritage status because of a modern block of flats built in the historic centre in the 1960s!
After the tour, we embarked on our pre-planned mission for a cheap dinner of Belgian delights. During our research phase, we learned the Belgian version of the history of “French fries” – i.e. that frites are very definitely Belgian, thank you very much!
Cheap street-food-style frituur places selling sausages, fried chicken, Belgian beef stew and all manner of loaded/topped chips can be found throughout the streets, with the street-food-style eateries generally just off the main canals, so they’re a great option if you want to eat relatively cheaply.
We were pleasantly surprised with ours from Frituur Frans Hooia – and the kids loved the slightly terrifying-looking giant chip statue outside! Four different portions of chips with various toppings came to £19.49 (€22.70).
The main spend of the day was also the main treat: House of Waffles, just around the corner from the boat stop.
Between us we had various combinations of custard, chocolate sauce, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and hot cherries across four Liège- and Brussels-style waffles for £38.64 (€45). Expensive, but the kids were delighted and they were extremely tasty!
After dinner we did a self-guided street-art walk using the map and information from Ghent’s Kids Street Art Trail; Stop 13, "Graffiti Street", was a particular highlight for the kids.
By this point we'd already packed an awful lot into our first day in Europe, so we headed back to the car and out of the city.
We hadn’t been able to find an Airbnb, apartment or hotel in central Ghent that would accommodate a family of five for less than about £350 (what?!), so instead we opted for two rooms at the Holiday Inn Express, around 15 minutes outside the centre for a total of £180 including a buffet breakfast. This actually suited our onward travel plans perfectly (as well as the fact we couldn't self-cater until we had a kitchen, store any food and needed to nab some lunch/snacks from the all-you-can-eat!); although it was rather loud with the main road immediately outside.
Still, we all slept well – and breakfast the next morning was really good.
Day 1 total for the five of us, excluding accommodation, fuel and Eurotunnel: £109.22 – including a museum, canal tour, dinner and an extravagant quantity of Belgian waffles.
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