A family sleeps in a tent a lot cheaper than in a hotel. There's plenty to occupy children, including playgrounds that come fully equipped with European kids. Nature becomes a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. Camping, like hosteling, is a great way to meet Europeans. European campgrounds have great showers and washing facilities.
European tenters appreciate the in-camp grocery store.
The store, while high priced, stays open longer than most, offering late-comers a budget alternative to the restaurant. Silence reigns in European campgrounds after the ten or eleven o'clock curfew. Noisemakers are dealt with strictly. Campgrounds, unlike hostels, are remarkably theft-free. They are full of basically honest middle-class European families and someone's at the gate all day.