Recommend a French campsite

Phoebas

Or a Spanish or Italian one...

I'm thinking of a French campsite type holiday next summer, but it'll be my first time and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the choice.

* Family of 4, two kids aged 12 and 8.
* I'll fly (and drive) rather than a ferry, so I'm not limited to Normandy, Brittany etc.
* Looking for a bit of sun, so maybe something southerly would be best.
* Will be going around end July / start August. Around 10 days.
* The kids will want good waterslides and bike hire, but apart from that we don't have any specific requirements. For me, maybe somewhere with a couple of nice restaurants in the vicinity would be nice.
* Price isn't a barrier (within reason). I'd pay that bit extra for quality, but obviously still want value for money.

If anyone has personal recommendations that would be great, or just general tips to help me research a French camping holiday.

Thanks!

manshay

Phoebas wrote: »

* Family of 4, two kids aged 12 and 8.
* I'll fly (and drive) rather than a ferry, so I'm not limited to Normandy, Brittany etc.
* Looking for a bit of sun, so maybe something southerly would be best.
* Will be going around end July / start August. Around 10 days.
* The kids will want good waterslides and bike hire, but apart from that we don't have any specific requirements. For me, maybe somewhere with a couple of nice restaurants in the vicinity would be nice.
* Price isn't a barrier (within reason). I'd pay that bit extra for quality, but obviously still want value for money.
If anyone has personal recommendations that would be great, or just general tips to help me research a French camping holiday.
Thanks!

We are a family of 5, 10,8 and 6. We have travelled by air and ferry to Brittany and the Vendee for 5 of the past 6 years. We have travelled with Campotel/Kelair(based in Ballinasloe) every year except our first year when we travelled with Eurocamp. I can't recommend Campotel enough, their mobiles are cleaned to a far higher standard than Eurocamp(in our experience) There are many other companies (alfresco, canvas, siblu, camping france, hello france, matthews holidays)
Flying is expensive for our family of 5, might work out differently for 4!
We have travelled to the Vendee(coastal area just south of Nantes) for the past 2 years, it has significantly more sunshine and is at least 2degreesC hotter than Brittany. The Vendee is the coastal french area with the most hours of sunshine excluding the Mediterranean cost, it has more sunshine than further south, eg Bordeaux, Biarritz)
You mentioned about quality.... I love my camping/mobile home holidays however it is important to bear in mind you are sleeping in a mobile home! We had a brand new mobile this year, last year the one we were in was 5-6 years old, they difference in quality was huge. We didn't pay extra for the newer one it was the one we were allocated.
We stayed at Camping Le Clarys Plage, near Saint Jean de Monts this year and will return next year.
Pros: Swimming pool and slides area was fantastic
Beach was 5 minutes walk away
Proper supermarket(ie not an onsite shop, which are usually rubbish and expensive) was next door
Bar showed gaa matches and soccer
Cons:
A touristy area(which can also be a positive)
Bar showed gaa matches and soccer(if you don't like that!)
Large funfair was noisy till 11/12 at night(never stopped us sleeping but..)

The Vendee is only 4/4.5 hours drive from Cherbourg or Roscoff via relatively quiet and toll free roads(no tolls in Brittany; the toll from disneyland paris to Vendee is €40!)
The Irish ferries, Brittany Ferries and Stena lines ferries are all pretty good, book early and watch for offers over the next couple of months. If you bring the car you can bring the gear the kids want for the beach and the bikes etc.

A family that holidayed beside us flew into Nantes and got public transport to the site; they did't hire a car at all.

There are 3 bike hire places within 5 minutes walk, we used www(dot)cyclop(dot)fr to hire bikes this summer, they were very efficient to drop off and collect. Their website is down as I write!

Saint Jean de Monts is very touristy but travel in the opposite direction, south to Saint Hilaire de Riez and you'll find more authentic french restaurants.

A lot of reviews complain Saint Jean is like Blackpool with all the British and Irish tourists; it's not. The French tourists outnumber our islanders by at least 10:1.

We haven't travelled further south, so can't comment. Whilst we were in the Vendee we had 3 days in a row of 30C+, it can be hard to sleep in that heat without air conditioning, which needs to be considered if you go further south.

Enjoy your holiday!

Dodge

Thinking of this for next year too (me, wife and a 6 year old) so interested in any replies

eviltwin

We stay in Croix de Vieux Pont every year. Its just north of Paris. We drive and its a bit of a trek - 5 hours - but its such a great campsite we think its worth it. If you fly its about 2 hours from CDG and about the same from Beauvais.

Its close to Disney and Paris and all the main sites in the region and the site have buses twice a week that you can use otherwise the main train station is 20 mins drive away.

The park has everything, including an artificial beach which was amazing!! We actually don't use the pool anymore and just stay here. Bars and restaurants on site but all the accommodation is far enough away that you aren't hearing noise all the time.

The local village is just that, a rural French village but it has a supermarket and bars and things. The big town is about 15 mins away and has the hypermarket, train and buses etc.