You are invited to the largest week-long board gaming event in Europe.
The Board Games Holiday gathers over 100 UK gamers along with other guests at Le Pas Opton, our four-star holiday park in Western France. Whether you’re new to the hobby or have been enjoying board games for years, you’ll love the range of games available – over 300 – and the opportunity to play them with many different friendly people.
The guest speaker this week will be Chris Sinkinson, who as well as being a gamer is an author, archaeologist and lecturer at Moorlands College in Dorset. He will be giving talks and leading discussions throughout the week as part of the Christian programme (all of which is optional).
Games and Tournaments
From casual to ‘serious’ gamers, everyone is welcome! Throughout the week there’ll be opportunities to learn new games and to play old favourites. Whether it’s popular games like Ticket to Ride and Wingspan, heavier games of Terraforming Mars or Great Western Trail, classic games of Risk or Cosmic Encounter, group games like Just One, or something light like Camel Up or Rhino Hero, there’ll be plenty of choices to suit all tastes and preferences.
Over the course of the week you can really test your competitive edge, taking part in a number of free tournaments – all with a friendly tone! You can expect:
- three-round tournaments of Catan (including a team tournament!), 7 Wonders and Splendor
- mini-tournaments of Dominion, Carcassonne and others
- head-to-head knock-out tournaments including Star Realms, 7 Wonders Duel, Hive and Chess
- team knock-out Codenames
- the Hexathlon. For two days, all results are recorded and the player with the best six results is declared Hexathlon champion: the ultimate gaming accolade!
Prices and Booking
The holiday is self-catered, with most accommodation consisting of mobile homes. You can come on your own or with a group. Mobile homes have two or three bedrooms, with the cheapest two-bedroom unit (Firgrove) costing £320, and the simplest with three bedrooms (Ashglade 3) costing £400 (see other options here). A mobile home booking is eligible for Early Booking discount (£100 by 27th Nov, or £50 off by Feb 14th) and Tell a Friend discount (£50 off for new guests who’ve been recommended by someone else on another booking), so you can bring the price down even further!
Alternatively, a room to yourself in a shared mobile home is £175, with the option of an en suite upgrade for £50. Travel is not included with this option, but we can book your ferry at discounted rates, or even try to help you find other people to travel with.
Getting There
A mobile home booking includes a free Dover-Calais return ferry booking. You can upgrade this to a more convenient crossing (see routes & supplements here), or if you would prefer to fly then we’ll give you £50 off (the Own Transport discount). Nantes airport is just an hour’s drive away, with a number of low-cost routes serving it (see here).
Travelling by ferry is generally the cheapest way of getting there, especially if you can travel with 3-4 in a car. To join the Facebook group and see if anyone’s travelling from near where you are, and ask any other questions you may have, see here.
Click here to download the 2020 flyer
FAQs
I like games, but I’m not sure about a whole week?
Not many people can play back-to-back games for seven days, so the programme and facilities also include opportunities for swimming, wine tasting, pool, trips to the beach…in fact, everything that sees guests come to the site year after year for their holidays!
What kinds of people will be coming?
This holiday sees all sorts getting involved! Different ages, different backgrounds, guys and girls, families, hardcore gamers that have played every game from the Boardgamegeek top 100 (see here) and people new to the world of modern board games who just want to have a fun time and meet new people!
What if I don’t have anyone to come with?
We have options for coming and staying by yourself, or we can connect you with a group for driving over from the UK, and/or staying with others to share cooking etc. – just get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.
So it’s a Christian site – what if I’m not interested in that?
All aspects of the programme are entirely optional, with no pressure to participate in anything you don’t want to. Some people (Christians or otherwise) prefer to just play games the whole time, and that’s fine!
