Family adventures in Alsace

The beautiful French region of Alsace has always been the perfect holiday destination for active families with a love of the great outdoors. The regions’ majestic Vosges Mountains, the sweeping Alsatian plain and the intricate network of rivers and canals combine to provide the ideal natural playground.

This autumn half-term active families will have even more choice of things to do with the opening of two new attractions and the refurbishment of a family favourite:

The Alsace Adventure Park

The Alsace Adventure Park in Breitenbach (Parc-alsace-aventure.com) is guaranteed to delight anyone who enjoys open-air and forest activities. The park includes rope ladders, hanging barrels, rope slides, monkey bridges and Tarzan ropes. In addition to its traditional forest trail, the park also offers an attraction that is unique in Europe: the “Vallée des Tyroliennes” (rope slide valley). Eight rope slides offer a rope slide ‘safari’ with a combined downhill slide of 3000m at up to 40m off of the ground!

Visitors to the park can also take a trip to the top of a 35m high lookout tower which provides breathtaking views across the wooded valley. The tower is also the starting point for another giant slide and a bungee jumping platform. The park has specially designed activities for children over the age of four although some of the slides are limited to children over the age of eight and others to over twelve’s.

All of the activities are expertly supervised and use the most modern safety equipment. “Passports” for all of the activities in the park can be purchased: an Adventure passport, for example, costs €21 (£14.20) for over 16’s and €16 (£10.80) for over twelve’s.

Lac Blanc Bike Park

The ski resort of Lac Blanc is situated at the heart of the Vosges Mountains in the Ballons des Vosges National Park. Before the snow arrives cyclists can enjoy the countryside on over 250km of marked tracks. The area has something for all abilities and this autumn the opening of an exciting Bike Park will add an extra dimension. The Bike Park has a range of jumps and pipes and an incredible cross-country trail through the woods with a variety of tricky obstacles to test even the most experienced Mountain biker.

Lac Blanc Bike Park (Lacblanc-bikepark.com) has a restaurant and snack bar on site as well as showers and a well equipped bike shop which offers a range of equipment and supplies as well as bike hire and repairs.

Wild Water Park

The Parc des Eaux Vives (Wild Water Park) in Huningue near Strasbourg offers a wide range of white water sports for all ability levels. Opened in 1993, the Wild Water Park has been refurbished this year with new equipment, restaurant, changing rooms and an onsite lodge for those wanting to stay longer than a day. Rafting, canoeing and kayaking are all available at the specially designed 350m river and coaching is available for beginners, intermediate and advanced paddlers. Specialised junior classes are also provided.

The Parc des Eaux Vives rents kayaks, canoes and hydrospeed boards as well as wetsuits, helmets and other equipment. An all day pass costs €13.80 (£9.40) for adults and €12.40 (£8.40) for children under eighteen.

Travelling to Alsace is very convenient for families. Most major budget airlines service the region – EasyJet fly to Mulhouse-Basel-Freiburg airport and RyanAir to Karlsrhue in Germany which is 20 minutes drive from Strasbourg. The TGV Est high speed train link now operates between Paris and Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse and has halved the journey time.

The popular iDTGV service is available on some journeys which allows families to choose to travel in a relaxing “Zen” carriage or a fun “Zap” car – whether the whole family chooses the same one is up to them!

For more information on all that is happening in Alsace visit Tourism-alsace.com.