Depending on your situation, you can benefit from help to finance your family vacation or send your children to the colony. Here is everything you need to know to enjoy it.
While the sun timidly points to their nose, everyone is quietly starting to organize their summer vacation – you have to go about it to take advantage of the best offers! However, not everyone has this luxury. Each year, 40 % of French people do not go on vacation, often for lack of financial means, according to a study of the observatory of inequalities published in August 2024. A social injustice which is particularly felt at the level of children, who will have nothing to tell their classmates at the start of the school year.
To remedy this problem, the Family Allowance Fund (CAF) offers, in addition to its usual aid and under certain conditions, a boost so that the most modest households can also go on vacation. It can be family stays or colos for children. However, these aids are often overlooked, while many households can however benefit from it.
CAF offers two types of aid: Help in Family Holidays (AVF), which covers part of the costs for a family stay in a campsite, a holiday village or a Vacaf labeled accommodation, and help for children’s vacation (AVE), which partially finances stays in summer camp, camps, discovery classes or language stays for children and adolescents.
To take advantage of this boost, you must already receive a family service from CAF – family allowances, complement to free choice of childcare, shared child education service, etc. -, having one or more dependent children – Please note, the age -based attribution criteria are specific to each department – and have a family quotient not exceeding a ceiling defined by each department – generally around 700 to 850 €. As the criteria vary according to the departments, it is recommended to find out directly with your CAF.
The amount of aid depends on the resources of the home, the family composition and the age of the children. In general, CAF covers between 40 % and 80 % of the cost of the stay, with a maximum ceiling of € 850 depending on the departments. Sometimes, additional aid for transport costs can be granted – it is calculated according to the distance between the home and the vacation spot, as well as the departure period.
The vacation assistant campaign for the summer of 2025 began on March 11. The good news is that there is no specific approach to take to take advantage of it. Eligible homes will be directly and automatically informed by mail, e-mail or notification on their personal space.
There will only be to select the vacation spot on the vacaf.org site – there are more than 4,000 destinations in France and abroad – and to reserve directly with the structure, specifying its status as a beneficiary of financial assistance from the CAF. The aid is paid directly to the holiday organization, reducing the final bill. It will only pay the difference between the cost of the stay and the amount of aid. It would be a shame to miss this boost!