[nai]

Off to Chamonix for a week in July and need somewhere for a second week.  I'm happy to stay in Cham or at least the Alps for two weeks but the kids fancy sea and beaches. 

Any decent places 3-4 hours south from Chamonix, I can see plenty of nice looking towns, including Finale Ligure but wondering what they're like for families, can't see much to do beyond beach life and culture.  Anywhere with some climbing/bouldering nearby would be a bonus.

[Fultonius]

Off to Chamonix for a week in July and need somewhere for a second week.  I'm happy to stay in Cham or at least the Alps for two weeks but the kids fancy sea and beaches. 

Any decent places 3-4 hours south from Chamonix, I can see plenty of nice looking towns, including Finale Ligure but wondering what they're like for families, can't see much to do beyond beach life and culture.  Anywhere with some climbing/bouldering nearby would be a bonus.

Finale might be a bit hot for July climbing - I've only been in Spring. Also no idea about what to do with the kids. Nice enough town/ice cream/pizza/coffee.

[Coops_13]

There's some nice looking deep water soloing near Marseille, and you pass several world class crags on the way, Ceuse etc... Also heard the beaches there are nice.

[Dolly]

Finale is great.Theres not much bouldering there if any ( I had a 90 min session once) and I looked around quite a lot. its about an hour from Varazze but I think it will be too hot in July there. Some great riding and restaurants though

[nai]

Cheers guys, I appreciate it'll be hot and not much good for climbing, anything just to tick over is good though. 

The Marseille DWS sounds interesting, I'll look into that

Main concern is stuff to keep the kids interested.  They will be bored day after day on a beach and there doesn't look much else to distract them whereas Chamonix has enough to keep us all busy for well over a week. Plus there's a swimming lake at Combloux

http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/water-sport/ecological-mountain-lake.html?obt=sitraLOI281200


And the beach at Lac de Passy looks like it might pass as the sea to me

[Fultonius]

If you're passing Annecy at any point on your trip - the lake is much nicer than Lac Passy!

The Cinque Terre near Genoa is worth a day - but it depends how much your kids like nature/tourist walks? Could be terrible... nice ice cream!

Not sure about Varazze in summer-  never been at any time of year but July can get brutal. Nibs would have better info on that.

[galpinos]

There's some nice looking deep water soloing near Marseille, and you pass several world class crags on the way, Ceuse etc... Also heard the beaches there are nice.

Sod the DWS near Marseille, if you're going that far surely the Calnaques is the place to go? Climbing, cool beaches, water based fun?

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/les-calanques/introduction

[Fultonius]

I've been myself, but only heard bad things about Marseille. Is this still true?

[Wood FT]

second Annecy, beautiful lake and if you hire a pedalo you can pull on and try some of the DWS, I'd like to think it's myself and James Pearson who have explored here, tireless developers that we are...

[Wood FT]

second Annecy, beautiful lake and if you hire a pedalo you can pull on and try some of the DWS, I'd like to think it's myself and James Pearson who have explored here, tireless developers that we are...

Watch out for gangland murders though if you're on the bike track word

[bigironhorse]

Finale is great, climb in the morning, beach in afternoon. We were there in July and it was hot but there are plenty of shady spots. There is also a free campsite at monte cucco, its really basic so maybe not a great site for families...

Grotta dell'edera is a pretty unique place to climb and you have to walk through a cave to get to it: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3622/3564685184_70d1da0452_b.jpg

[SA Chris]

There's some nice beaches / Lidos / on Lac Leman too. Big enough to pass off as sea, and even a few small waves when the big liners pass.

Not sure what your plans are, but head up to Les Contamines for the day with the family. There's a great swimming lake, loads of leisure activities and an OK crag with routes from piss easy for kids (rocks glued onto a slab to make holds) to some 7 ish stuff in the upper crags. Gets a fair bit of shade too. There are a few lakes with beaches in and around grand massif / portes du soleil area too.

[nai]

Cheers all, good stuff, place on the coast all look stunning, Calanques is very tempting.

Thinking there's probably enough swimming lakes and beaches around Cham to be able to pass it off as the seaside and justify staying there for a second week, though.  So much else to do, I'm sure the kids will love it.

[SA Chris]

You can't see the end of the lake so call it an inland sea. Tick the box, less driving!

[lagerstarfish]

I think a fair bit of the Calanques gets closed off during Summer due to fire risk

[nai]

Cheers for all the responses guys, after careful consideration we've decided to just go to Chamonix for a fortnight, loads to do there and the kids are super excited.

Little bit 

[joel182]

I've been myself, but only heard bad things about Marseille. Is this still true?

I really liked my time (only a long weekend) in Marseille. The Vieux Port area was lovely, the view from Notre Dame de la Garde really impressive, the MuCEM building really cool, ate good burgers, good good marseillaise food.