Camping

We've camped a lot in Canada over the years, and have just spent a month in French, Italian, Belgium campsites (as well as Spanish in the past), so we've had a lot of debates in the car about comparisons between the two.
There really are big differences between camping in Europe and Canada.  The Canadian experience, at least in the provincial / national parks that we camp in, involves campfires on a big, usually private, site surrounded by trees.  The focus is on the outdoors and swimming is usually in a lake or the ocean, toilet and shower blocks tend to be functional and clean, and there may or may not be a camp shop selling ice cream.

In contrast, European sites provide little privacy - there might be a little hedge around your area, but often it is just open to the next place, and campfires are definitely forbidden.  But the campgrounds themselves can be amazing.  They are rated on a star system.  Two star sites (we never saw a one star) are pretty basic, maybe with a small swimming pool.  However, the four star sites are more like resorts - like those you find in the Carribean, but with people sleeping in tents instead of hotels.  Four star sites usually have several pools, sometimes inside and outside, nice restaurants, bars with big screen tvs (to watch the Euro Cup games when we were there....), big shops, really nice shower / toilet blocks with whole separate areas for kids with small showers, etc, big playgrounds - two places had bouncy castles, often shuttle buses into town/sites of interest.  It was incredible.

Camping in Canada you do to be outside, camping in Europe is a cheap alternative to a hotel.  The cost in both countries is about the same (once you navigate Canada's silly reservations fees and added taxes), but there is a big difference in how you pay.  In Canada you pay for the site and put whatever you want on it.  In Europe you pay per person as well as for what you use on the site.  Typical fees would be about 7 Euros per adult, 4 Euros per child, 5 for the tent, and 5 to bring the car in.  We usually paid between 30 and 40 Euros per night, or 20-30 in the two star sites.  When you think that in many of the cities we visited - Venice, Rome, Florence, Paris, etc, the most basic hotel room might cost 200 Euros, camping is a great option, plus you get to cool down in a pool every day.

Our favourite campsites on our recent trip were Camping Tiber in Rome, Centro Turistico Baia San Nicola in Peschichi, and Eurosol Camping in St. Giron's Plage.  Here are all the campsites we stayed at in the whole trip:

• San Remo, Villaggio dei Fiori  http://www.villaggiodeifiori.it/  Not a great site, we were camped on concrete right next to the tennis court. Nice pool and restaurant, but quite noisy. One of our least favourites - don't go unless you know you have one of the "gold" sites overlooking the sea, although even then you'd have the noise from the bar and the road all night long.
• Florence, Camping Intenazionale http://www.florencecamping.com/en/Certosa_Home.asp This was a great site on the edge of Florence and a shortish walk to the bus into town.  We camped on a really nice grassy and terraced area surrounded by olive trees.  The pools and bar restaurant were nice, but the shop overly expensive.  This site was a base for Contiki 18-30 holidays, who stayed in a bunglaow complex near the pool, so there were lots of young people wandering around flirting with each other, but that was OK...
• Rome, Camping Tiber http://www.campingtiber.com/ We enjoyed this place so much we decided to stay longer than planned.  It was just outside the ring road, but with a regular free shuttle to the train into town, and had everything we wanted.  A nice swimming pool to cool down in after long days traipsing around Rome, a fun bar and restaurant, and loads and loads of space for tents.  Definitely one of our favourites.
• Amalfi Coast, Camping Neptune, http://www.villaggionettuno.it/  Wouldn't recommend this place for tents. Camping was right by the sea, but really cramped and on astroturf rather than real grass.  We had a nice cheap breakfast buffet, but the place was set up for staying in bungalows, with space for camping as an afterthought, one of our least favourite sites.
• Peschichi, Centro Turistico Baia San Nicola http://www.sannicola.it/ . This place was awesome!!  We were really close to a lovely beach, but had loads of space around our tent.  We really liked one of the restaurants on the beach which did great salads for very cheap, and they basically had everything we needed.  They were geared for German tourists and didn't have any English speakers at reception.  Our Italian is pretty useless but somehow I managed to check in in German!
• Perugia, Camping Badiaccia http://www.badiaccia.com/en/camping-badiaccia-villaggio-umbria.php we didn't enjoy this site much, mainly because the tent area was right next to the bar so we had people traipsing past us all night.  it was also getting a bit old and the kids playground in particular was not in great shape.  The really good thing here was the brand new, hi-tech and spotlessly clean toilets. 
• Bologna, Citta di Bolgna, http://www.hotelcamping.com/en/content/categoriaprodotti/Piazzole_4_11.aspx This site was  really sterile, everything was functional and OK, but it had a little bit of the air of a prison camp about it somehow.  Not sure really how to describe it, but one of our least favourites for sure.
• Venice, Camping Ca' Pasquali http://www.capasquali.it/index.aspx This site was overwhelming.  By far the most expensive site we stayed in (I think over 50 Euros a night), but everything to do with Venice is expensive so I guess it stands to reason that campsites would be too.  It is on a strip of land a boat ride from Venice (part of the regular Venice water-bus system so the day pass can be used), that had dozens and dozens of campsites - apparently there are 60,000 pitches in total on that stretch of land - though the site we stayed at wasn't huge.  It was a site with everything - fabulous pools, playgrounds, entertainment, right on the beach, everything, but somehow here it was all a bit much.  We had to wear bracelets to identify us as staying there, and there was a security guard walking around - it just lacked the friendliness and laidback-ness that other equally large sites (such as Baia San Nicola (above) and Eurosol (below) managed). 
• Cluses French Alpes, Camping Corbaz, http://www.camping-lacorbaz.com/ the wireless here didn't work on a day when we really needed it (I can't remember why we needed it, but it seemed important at the time). Just a basic little site, for a night on our big journey from Venice to the Atlantic Coast of France.
• Montignac (Lascaux caves), Camping Moulin Bleufond http://www.bleufond.com/campsite-dordogne-france.html This was just a quick one night sleep on our journey across France, but it seemed just fine.  The managers were super nice, doing everything, manning reception, cooking and waiting in the little restuarant, and loaning us their personal ping pong rackets.  
• St. Giron's Plage, Camping Eurosol, http://www.camping-eurosol.com/ Another of our favourites.  A short walk to a wonderful beach and right on cycle / running paths.  It had everything you could possibly want - four swimming pools, great kids playgrounds, bar, cafe, restaurant, take away, good grocery store, and nice camping places in the trees.  Was so nice we extended our stay from 2 to 4 nights.
• Paris, Camping Le Park, http://www.campingleparc.fr/campsite-paris-france.html  A bit smelly.... the shower block was mouldy and dirty, no amenities except a big children's playground, but it was in Paris, and I guess you can't have everything.
• Bruges, Belgium, Kompas Camping, http://www.kompascamping.be/nieuwpoort/home/en  It rained and rained and rained here, so we didn't get a very good impression of the site, but it had everything.  a pool with a massive waterslide, fantastic shower blocks, indoor badminton and table tennis, a big ball room and adventure playground for the kids, a deer (and chicken!) park, and a brand new soccer and basketball area.  I think it was probably a really really nice site, but in the rain it is hard to judge...