I hope you can help. I have a couple of boys (12 and 10) who I’d like to take on an adventure type holiday. I've heard that in France they have holidays where you canoe and raft from location to location, staying in tents or hotels along the way. This sounds great, but I can’t find any web sites that give me this information. Can you help? - Tony Tugulu, via email

Our Family Travel Expert Emma Mahony replies: The idea of young boys canoeing from location to location is quite a specific request – particularly when the exhilaration of a canoeing holiday is enough to make one crave the familiarity of the hotel bedroom at the end of the day.

I have found one break in St Lary in the Pyrenees which would suit your boys well. The participants need to be over 11 (or a good swimmer) so hopefully both should qualify. The break is suitably adventurous with “hot dogging”, or racing down white-water torrents in a two-man canoe, and costs around £275 per person for a three-day break.

For the tent option, to spend a night in a bivouac with a fireside dinner, the French Tourist board have a recommended tour operator who ventures into the Loire valley for two days and a night from as little as £70 per person.

This trip also promises adventure, but will not be as high-octane as the activity break above. If your boys want to start soft and build up to something a little more challenging, then you can’t go wrong with a trip down the Loir river starting in the canals of the “little Venice” area of the Bonneval, and kayaking down to the 16th Century inn at Le Saint Jacques, with some white water en route.

Again, this trip is no more than £80 per person for two days and one night. Finally, as you seem to be a man fully conversant with the web, may I direct you to a special “white water ahead” section of the French Tourist board site where over 50 recommended tour agents are listed by region offering kayaking breaks. All can be booked online, if your French is a little rusty.

It's also worthwhile reading an article by Mark Hodson a couple of years ago about camping, canoeing and cycling in the Dordogne with his eight-year-old son. He travelled with Explore on its Dordogne Adventure package.

It can be done - bon voyage!

Got a question about family travel? Email our trio of experts at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk- Chloe Bryan-Brown takes care of questions for the 0-6 year olds, Emma Mahony handles the 7-12 age group and Jane Owen the teenage and single mother groups.

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?