A holiday with children usually plays out as a parade of near-identical days. The children’s hunger is the alarm clock, breakfast becomes a negotiation over how many biscuits are allowed, and the sun cream goes on in three rounds over little bodies that won’t sit still for a second. Then you set off for the beach, loaded down with a parasol, buckets and that mesh bag slung over your arm that seems to hold half the house. You glance at your watch: it’s barely eleven and you’ve already burned through the energy of a full morning at the office. And, as a rule, the same script repeats itself right up to the day you head home.
At Camping Village Rubicone, though, you discover there’s another version of the holiday. The one where you realise you’ve finished a chapter of the book you brought with you. That you’ve drunk your coffee from start to finish, while it was still hot. That you’ve chatted for twenty minutes straight without being interrupted. Those small signs that tell you the holiday has started to be about you again, and not just the children.
It doesn’t happen by magic, but because here in Savignano Mare, on the Riviera Romagnola between Rimini and Cesenatico, we’ve built a village around this second chance: services that actually help parents and safe, enclosed spaces where children genuinely have fun, leaving the grown-ups time to breathe.
Ruby, our mascot, has seen it happen: over the years he’s watched plenty of parents’ faces soften. And together with him, we want to tell you about the holiday with you firmly in mind: the mums and dads who look after their children every single day.
The Mini Club, where your child discovers there’s a world beyond you
The village’s Mini Club welcomes children aged 5 to 10: our staff look after them, and to sign your child up, you just need to pop into the entertainment office. The days are packed with treasure hunts, craft workshops, group games and the mini disco. In the evening your child will come back knowing the steps to a dance and will practise them on the veranda so relentlessly that after a few days you’ll know them too.
For them it’s the place where the hours fly by without them ever asking to leave. For you it’s the reassurance that they’re being looked after and having fun, the one thing that lets you switch off your parent radar, the one that’s been on since the day they were born.
And as their days fill up, you find yourself holding something you don’t usually have: free time. The first day throws you. You bring your book but don’t open it; you check your phone too many times; you wonder whether they’re all right even though you already know the answer.
It’s a sort of withdrawal from constant monitoring: nobody warned you, but you feel it, and it lasts more or less until the evening. The next morning you go back to your spot under the parasol with the same book: you read two pages with one eye still on the Mini Club, then another ten without looking up. By the third or fourth day you realise you’ve finished it, that you’ve treated yourself to a long swim in the pool, that you’ve exchanged a few words with another mum.
The Junior Club, for the “I’m not a little kid” stage
At some point, usually between ten and eleven, it happens. Your child looks at you as you’re about to sign them up for the Mini Club and says, a little affronted, in the tone of someone explaining the obvious: “Mum. I’m not a little kid.”
And they’re right. They aren’t one any more: treasure hunts and the mini disco with six-year-olds would feel like something they’d outgrown. What they need, in a village where they don’t yet know anyone, is a chance to make friends their own age.
That chance is the Junior Club, for 11- to 14-year-olds: sports tournaments, team challenges, and social time designed for those who are happier among their peers, as is only natural.
For you, those hours become free time, the kind that on a holiday with children is usually counted in minutes: an aperitivo, a conversation you actually get to finish. And meanwhile your child finds their crowd: in the morning they get up on their own to go and join them; in the evening they ask to have dinner with their friends.
It’s the kind of independence you struggle to build at home, between school and other commitments, but here it happens on its own.
The whirlpool, the gym and sport while the children are at the clubs
With the younger ones at the Mini Club and the older ones at the Junior Club, a whole afternoon opens up. You can spend part of it in the adults’ whirlpool area, available for an extra charge: massage loungers, neck-jet fountains, water jets and bubbles, plus a second saltwater whirlpool. Put like that, it sounds like something straight out of a brochure. But picture yourself slipping in and surfacing an hour later with your mind finally empty.
Another day you might have energy to burn, and then you take your pick: the gym kitted out for fitness and bodybuilding, the free archery and canoeing sessions, the golf practice range, the tennis courts with equipment for hire, plus the football pitch and the basketball and volleyball courts in the green area. The weekly timetable shows which activities are on during your stay; in low season some are scaled back.
And at any time of day you can walk to the beach: a few minutes along a path that’s safe for children too, in your flip-flops, towel in hand. Having the sea this close changes how you enjoy it: you head down early while the parasols are still closed, come back to the village for lunch, then go down again for a last swim in the late afternoon.
The evening when you don’t want to cook but don’t want to go out either
At seven in the evening the children have the appetite of anyone who’s played all day; you’ve only just claimed the deckchair on the veranda, and, right on cue, just like at home, up pops the question: “What’s for dinner tonight?”
The best answer takes a minute: you open the app or call GR-EAT!, the village’s restaurant and pizzeria, which offers takeaway dinners every evening, and you order, choosing from pizzas, fish dishes and Romagnol cuisine.
You collect it, lay the table on the veranda and eat as the village lights come on. The children tell you about their day between mouthfuls, and within half an hour you’re ready to head out again, because in the evening the entertainment starts up again with the mini disco and shows. You sit a few rows back with an ice cream, clap when your children clap, and at the end of the night it’s only a few minutes’ walk back. Time for one last story and they’re out, their minds already on tomorrow’s games.
Can we come back next year?
On the last day, as you pack your bags, you think back over the week. The days have been full for everyone: the younger children between treasure hunts and the mini disco, the older ones with their Junior Club friends, the evenings split between dinners on the veranda and shows. And in among it all, the moments you haven’t had in years: the unhurried coffee, the finished book, the aperitivo for two, the sea in silence.
Then, on the way home, your child asks you out of the blue: “Can we come back next year?”
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a beach parasol included in the price?
Yes. The private beach is reserved for guests. Every accommodation unit or pitch comes with a parasol in the white-and-blue area, and you’re free to choose it each day when you arrive at the beach. Sunloungers can be hired from the lifeguard for €5 a day; if you’d rather keep the same parasol every day, with loungers already set out, you can choose the white-and-green area, for an extra charge.
Are the evening shows on all season?
The evening entertainment runs throughout the season, and from 29 June to 4 September 2026 the show cast also takes to the arena stage, with live musicals, shows, singing contests and themed evenings. Evening activities carry on until 19 September.
Are there age limits for the sports courses?
Yes. Football and basketball are open to children aged 5 to 12, children’s tennis runs from 6 to 14, canoeing starts at 13, archery at 15 and golf at 16.
Is Wi-Fi available in the village?
Wi-Fi is free across the campsite. You can also get online at the GR-EAT! restaurant and pizzeria, the arena bar, the beach bar, the Ciao Mare restaurant on the beach, the pool bar and across much of the sports park.
Can you have lunch on the beach?
Yes. On the private beach you’ll find the Ciao Mare bar and restaurant, with a terrace over the sea, and the Beach Bar kiosk for breakfast, lunch and sunset aperitivi.
Book your summer at Camping Village Rubicone
If a holiday like this is what your family needs, this summer you can give it a try. Our family campsite is in Savignano Mare, on the Riviera Romagnola between Rimini and Cesenatico: choose from pitches, bungalows and mobile homes with a veranda for dinners in your pyjamas, take a look at our offers and lock in your dates. And when you pack your case, add a book: this time you’ll finish it.
Ruby will be waiting at the entrance, and promises not to tug at your sleeve even once.
📞 +39 0541 346377 | ✉️ info@campingrubicone.com
