France Ferry & Campsite info (use Search function) mod warning post 1

BlazingSaddler

sillysu wrote: »

Totally agree blazing saddler, we have four boys from 5 to 12 and want to keep them entertained, so a kids club is priority. What is the main difference in Eurocamp and Yelloh kids clubs? Was actually looking at Les Mouettes, so might rule that one out. Also looking at La Baume campsite, South of France. Ever heard of that or can you recommend any good parks with waterslides? Thanks so much, my heads melted!!!!!!!!!!

Hi sillysu, I've actually stayed in the 3 sites mentioned in recent posts, Les Mouettes, La Baume and Domaine Des Ormes. In our experience the yelloh kids club in Les Mouettes was ok but my kids were the only English speaking children in there so they struggled to make friends. Great campsite however, fairly small and the short drive was Roscoff was a real bonus. I went to La Baume in 2017, 3 very good pools but incredibly busy, incredibly hot in July and very little space between the mobiles. Kids club was Eurocamp though and kids enjoyed. Domaine Des Ormes has excellent facilities, very big park (hilly) but the boys would love it. If my memory serves me correctly it got quite expensive with the zipwires, climbing walls etc. If I had a choice of which to go next year would probably go for Les Mouettes - did have a good vibe to it, although my all time favourite is La Croix du Vieux Pont just outside Paris. Just love that place! and handy for Disney.

redmissb

sillysu wrote: »

Booking a camping holiday in France for the first time for two adults and 4 kids. Looking at a particular campsites with two different agents and the prices are a few hundred Euro in the difference, so I'm sceptical. The agents are Eurocamp and Yelloh village????? Has anyone ever used Yelloh Village? Any issues with them? Thanks

We booked with Yelloh last year, stayed in Port de Plaisance. They are brilliant to deal with, highly reputable company and great value for money. Our mobile was top class and they also have a loyalty programme where you can get free nights on future bookings. They had a kids club onsite, not really important in our case as my kids are never that interested in going more's the pity!

wall

sillysu wrote: »

Booking a camping holiday in France for the first time for two adults and 4 kids. Looking at a particular campsites with two different agents and the prices are a few hundred Euro in the difference, so I'm sceptical. The agents are Eurocamp and Yelloh village????? Has anyone ever used Yelloh Village? Any issues with them? Thanks

Hi, we stayed with Yelloh in Aloha Camping on the south coast of France this summer. They were good to deal with and the mobile was very nice. However, if i was going to a site like that again, that didnt have that many irish visitors, i would book with eurocamp, as you would be with the few irish there, which the kids would prefer, and they would find it easier to make friends.

murt101

If you had 1 week only at start of June where would you recomend? I'd like some warmth! I think having only 7 days makes flying the best option, kids range from 3 to 14.
Thanks!

molly dolly

we always went eurocamp to access clubs. But recently I've found the standard has dropped. They used to do a soccer camp that my boys adored. (we booked the campsites it ran in to access it). Mine had no interest in the other camps and the younger boy listened to their scepticism and refused to do camps. Thus this year we booked kelair as they came in cheaper then eurocamp and we ended up in better quality mobile. Still not sure what to do but watching IF to see when its released. We booked on the 29/09 last year. No decision for 2019 yet

Juggler101

sillysu wrote: »

Booking a camping holiday in France for the first time for two adults and 4 kids. Looking at a particular campsites with two different agents and the prices are a few hundred Euro in the difference, so I'm sceptical. The agents are Eurocamp and Yelloh village????? Has anyone ever used Yelloh Village? Any issues with them? Thanks

Yelloh owns the campsites as far as I know, it's the likes of Eurocamp and Kelair that are the "agents". This summer we couldn't use Eurocamp as we were renting pitches, not mobiles, so we had to use the campsites own kids clubs, not Eurocamp. The kids loved them actually, there was usually a mix of nationalities at them.
We stayed at one Yelloh site and absolutely loved it - Le Ranolien in Perris Guirec, North Brittany. There were really good morning and afternoon activities most days, and a couple of days a week there was an evening pajama party. They also have a free cinema room which was a real bonus for rainy days. Maybe 3 movies a day, one of which was in English, two in French.

Ps , my kids are 7, 5 and 3

sillysu

Thanks for all the replies. It seems people have both positive and negative experiences with different holiday companies.
I was onto Eurocamp about why they didn't have a kids club in some resorts and she said that their kids club programmes have reduced over the years due to the sites running there own kids clubs anyway and customer being able to use those.
Please excuse my ignorance, as it's my first time booking this type of holiday, but how do the different kids clubs work within one campsite, do they use different buildings for eg kiddi discos, arts and crafts etc or have them at different times? And is there entertainment for adults and children in addition to this provided by the camp itself.
Also, if we do go to Brittany, is it nice weather there at start of July and would you recommend flying or going by ferry?
Thanks again.

SusanC10

sillysu wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. It seems people have both positive and negative experiences with different holiday companies.
I was onto Eurocamp about why they didn't have a kids club in some resorts and she said that their kids club programmes have reduced over the years due to the sites running there own kids clubs anyway and customer being able to use those.
Please excuse my ignorance, as it's my first time booking this type of holiday, but how do the different kids clubs work within one campsite, do they use different buildings for eg kiddi discos, arts and crafts etc or have them at different times? And is there entertainment for adults and children in addition to this provided by the camp itself.
Also, if we do go to Brittany, is it nice weather there at start of July and would you recommend flying or going by ferry?
Thanks again.

Eurocamp have their own Kids Tents for their Kids Club. The Campsite will use the site buildings usually.

Personally, we would go further south than Brittany in an attempt to have nicer weather. And we prefer to go by Ferry.

mr_edge_to_you

Brittany is lovely but the weather can be hit and miss. If in Brittany I’d definitely recommend bringing the car so you can go for trips when if the weather is crap.

ShamoBuc

I would drive a couple hours further down the coast, Vendee is a fine area with plentiful campsites, beaches etc and generally the weather is nicer and more consistent than Brittany.

MorganIRL

sillysu wrote: »

Booking a camping holiday in France for the first time for two adults and 4 kids. Looking at a particular campsites with two different agents and the prices are a few hundred Euro in the difference, so I'm sceptical. The agents are Eurocamp and Yelloh village????? Has anyone ever used Yelloh Village? Any issues with them? Thanks

Hi we have booked with eurocamp, yelloh, and this yr directly with a site, all have had kids clubs on site which our eldest kids aren't 2 pushed on to use. This yr there was language issues from our perspective but kids all still played together, universal language I guess,
Vendee region is a good area for ur 1st time doing it, only 4/5 hrs from Port if ur driving. We stayed with Les eccuriels with eurocamp in vendee, small site and had a very good kids club, good access to beach and good pool on site. Plenty to do within an hour drive if weather poor.
Yelloh have bar far had the best units to stay in, I even saw this yrs site yelloh units looked very new.. yelloh are cheaper than eurocamp, and gap seems to be increasing every yr as these types of hols become more popular and eurocamp increase there price.
Whatever u choose you will enjoy.

sillysu

Anyone heard of "Lifestyle Holidays"??? They're another holiday agent, which are coming in a lot cheaper than Eurocamp and from their pics, the mobile homes look lovely and have an oven which a lot of others don't. Also saw "Alfreso Holidays" and "Canvas holidays"? Any experience with these?
Also, do campsites tend to have shuttle buses to the nearest town or beach or are we better off hiring a car? Expensive for us as we'll require a 7 seater!!

molly dolly

sillysu wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. It seems people have both positive and negative experiences with different holiday companies.
I was onto Eurocamp about why they didn't have a kids club in some resorts and she said that their kids club programmes have reduced over the years due to the sites running there own kids clubs anyway and customer being able to use those.
Please excuse my ignorance, as it's my first time booking this type of holiday, but how do the different kids clubs work within one campsite, do they use different buildings for eg kiddi discos, arts and crafts etc or have them at different times? And is there entertainment for adults and children in addition to this provided by the camp itself.
Also, if we do go to Brittany, is it nice weather there at start of July and would you recommend flying or going by ferry?
Thanks again.

eurocamp tends to run in some bespoke tents. colour coded for ages. We always booked them to access. Had the learn to swim, cycle, soccer. OUr last time to access the soccer camps were brilliant. Team of guys were good craic and vry inclusive of all the kids. Really made our holiday. Very dissappointing to see them scale it back. On site would possibly tend to run in french. One plus is sometimes they did pizza parties in the evening which allowed parents eat out. However our big boys are passed them all at this stage.

flangemeistro

redmissb wrote: »

sillysu wrote: »

Booking a camping holiday in France for the first time for two adults and 4 kids. Looking at a particular campsites with two different agents and the prices are a few hundred Euro in the difference, so I'm sceptical. The agents are Eurocamp and Yelloh village????? Has anyone ever used Yelloh Village? Any issues with them? Thanks

We booked with Yelloh last year, stayed in Port de Plaisance. They are brilliant to deal with, highly reputable company and great value for money. Our mobile was top class and they also have a loyalty programme where you can get free nights on future bookings. They had a kids club onsite, not really important in our case as my kids are never that interested in going more's the pity!

Hi I'm actually booking today for next year and I'd really like to hear what you thought of Port de Plaisance, we go for three weeks and we spend a week each in our favorite campsites Des ORMES and Les Mouettes and we try a different campsite for the middle week.

Last year we tried Domaine De Kerlann which is a siblu campsite and we rented privately, the mobile was absolutely stunning we actually couldn't believe how clean, modern and equipped it was but the site itself wasn't great,
Our 6 year old daughter loved the kids camp and the playgrounds were really good but the thing that would put me off going back was the pools would close everyday day from 12-2 which was absolutely ridiculous as 12 is when the kids club would finish and 12 is when everything shuts down in the nearby towns, I couldn't make sense of it and even the Scottish barman who arrived to work there the same time we did also said he'd never seen that in any of the sites he'd worked in through the years.

Two years ago we stayed in La Pointe St- Gilles in Benodet and we loved the area but the something about the bar entertainment area wasn't right, and it was the same rubbish entertainment every night, the eurocamp kids camp was really poor also.
On a good note the pool facilities indoor/outdoor were some of the best we've experienced in France and the shower and WC were exceptional.
So we really want to go back to Benodet but not that site so I'm interested to hear what anyone has to say about Port de Plaisance, we'll be traveling with a 7 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old.
Thanks

Ninesell

sillysu wrote: »

Anyone heard of "Lifestyle Holidays"??? They're another holiday agent, which are coming in a lot cheaper than Eurocamp and from their pics, the mobile homes look lovely and have an oven which a lot of others don't. Also saw "Alfreso Holidays" and "Canvas holidays"? Any experience with these?
Also, do campsites tend to have shuttle buses to the nearest town or beach or are we better off hiring a car? Expensive for us as we'll require a 7 seater!!

I have used Lifestyle Holidays, Canvas, Alfresco and Eurocamp. I tend to pick the one that has the best price/mobile home combination! Just to note, Lifestyle do not run their own kids clubs which may or may not be important to you. On some large sites like El Delfin Verde, kids clubs are operated centrally by the campsite owner and not by individual operators.

flangemeistro

Just off the phone with Canvas and was informed that the indoor pool, wave pool and slides will be out of action for the entire time we were planning on because of the dome they're building so we either need to change our dates or look at alternatives which is a bit of a disaster because the ferry is booked.

One of the alternatives the canvas rep suggested was CAMPING LA GRANDE MÉTAIRIE.

It looks great on the website but all of them do to be fair so you can't beat some first have experience.
Has anyone here stayed there or even better stayed in both and could compare.

Thanks.

talla

flangemeistro wrote: »

Just off the phone with Canvas and was informed that the indoor pool, wave pool and slides will be out of action for the entire time we were planning on because of the dome they're building so we either need to change our dates or look at alternatives which is a bit of a disaster because the ferry is booked.

One of the alternatives the canvas rep suggested was CAMPING LA GRANDE MÉTAIRIE.

It looks great on the website but all of them do to be fair so you can't beat some first have experience.
Has anyone here stayed there or even better stayed in both and could compare.

Thanks.

Been to Le Grande Metarie a couple of times.
Good site, decent pools with a couple of slides( outdoor pool not heated just in case thats a requirement), good entertainment (although probably wouldnt start until high season in July).
Plenty for the kids to do on site, most of the campsite is a highwire course (costs extra), petting farm, pony rides, football, crazy golf, Seqway(costs extra - outside company comes in once a week, cheaper to just arrange directly with the company in Carnac).
Plenty to do in the surrounding area, Carnac Plage, Carnac town, Vannes, Lorient, Quimpers etc.
Only negative I would have to say is mobile signal is terrible and camp wifi is just as bad (which you have to pay for) just in case you need to keep connected.

Irish Ferries sent me a pm on Twitter to say it will be late October for the ferry schedule and fares to be available.

SusanC10

Dónal wrote: »

Irish Ferries sent me a pm on Twitter to say it will be late October for the ferry schedule and fares to be available.

They keep pushing out the timeframe by a couple of weeks each time. They last said mid-October before now. Very frustrating 😡

Flippyfloppy

Dónal wrote: »

Irish Ferries sent me a pm on Twitter to say it will be late October for the ferry schedule and fares to be available.

Am I the only one who has absolutely no faith in anything they say anymore??

I was told early October when I asked in September.

They gave me a link to register for when the details will be available:

https://www.irishferries.com/ie-en/offers/France2019-register-interest

Newonhere

I got exactly the same information from them, I have always used Irish Ferries but in September I couldn’t get on the Oscar Wilde due to them withdrawing the sailings from new bookings due to the cancelled WB Yates sailings, I used Brittany Ferries from cork and I found the timings of that service more than compensated for the extra travel to Cork so I bit the bullet a couple of weeks ago and booked Brittany Ferries for next May having got fed up of waiting for Irish Ferries.

Bahanaman

flangemeistro wrote:

Just off the phone with Canvas and was informed that the indoor pool, wave pool and slides will be out of action for the entire time we were planning on because of the dome they're building so we either need to change our dates or look at alternatives which is a bit of a disaster because the ferry is booked.

flangemeistro wrote:

One of the alternatives the canvas rep suggested was CAMPING LA GRANDE MÉTAIRIE.

flangemeistro wrote:

It looks great on the website but all of them do to be fair so you can't beat some first have experience. Has anyone here stayed there or even better stayed in both and could compare.

La Grande Métairie is a really good campsite just outside Carnac. It has really good facilities and is really clean. There's loads to do on site with things like the zip line, pony rides, soccer pitches, tennis courts, and the pool is very good. There's also a mini zoo/pet farm that the children love.

GeneralSherman

skibum wrote: »

Have a look at http://www.yellohvillage.co.uk/ , they have some great sites in Brittany, and Normandy.

We stayed at les-mouettes (booked with the campsites website, got a better deal than through the yellohvillage site), and found it to be brilliant. very close to the ferry (about 30 minutes) and plenty to do and see in the immediate area. Another highly recommended site in the area is Le Ranolien again it was cheaper to book directly with the campsite than through yellohvillage.

Further south in brittany is Benodet, This site was the business.

Would you recommend any of these campsites in particular for a family who want to get out and about on our bikes. Kids are 12, 14,15,17 so we are looking for quietish roads or cycle paths along the coast.
Anyone any recommendations for cycling anywhere in Brittany please ?

SusanC10

Flippyfloppy wrote: »

Am I the only one who has absolutely no faith in anything they say anymore??

No, you are not the only one.
If we didn't have so much in Tesco Tokens, we would strongly consider Brittany Ferries even though we are a long way from Cork.

loyatemu

GeneralSherman wrote: »

Would you recommend any of these campsites in particular for a family who want to get out and about on our bikes. Kids are 12, 14,15,17 so we are looking for quietish roads or cycle paths along the coast.
Anyone any recommendations for cycling anywhere in Brittany please ?

Ile de Re is a bit of a longer drive but is a cyclists paradise.

Duffryman

Hi all,

I'm a newcomer here. I've been having a bit of a scout around over the past few days for ideas here, but I have to say it looks a bit like that the beauty of this forum (that's it's so widespread and comprehensive) is also its downfall (it's hard to find a specific answer to something when there's almost 300 pages to go through!). So, here goes...

Am just looking for suggestions/recommendations for a campsite in Normandy for a week's holiday in early June 2019 for me, my wife, and our son (who'll be five years old then). No particular specific requests other than within an hour or two's drive from Cherbourg, and that they have mobile homes or cabins or similar available. Anybody able to help?

Thanks in advance.

flangemeistro

Thanks for all the info on CAMPING LA GRANDE MÉTAIRIE guys I'll definitely book it for my middle week.
Still in a bit of a predicament though as we normally do our last week in Les Mouettes because we absolutely adore that place & it's only 20 minutes from Roscoff but with the pools & slides being out of action in Des ORMES until the 1st of July due to the construction of the new dome it means we'll have to do our last week in Des ORMES and first week in Les Mouettes which isn't ideal but still doable,
the only issue is that we're traveling back on the Connemara on a Tuesday but Canvas don't allow arrivals or departures on Tuesdays so it will mean I have to pay for 9 nights until the Wednesday even though I'll be leaving on the Tuesday which will bite my backside.
Other option would be to check in a day earlier to Des ORMES & leave on the Monday and stay somewhere else for a night on the way back to Roscoff, I doubt and campsites will rent me a mobile home for a night though.
Would anyone here have any other solutions or recommendations of a campsite for a night on the route from Des ORMES to Roscoff.
Thanks

54and56

flangemeistro wrote: »

the only issue is that we're traveling back on the Connemara on a Tuesday but Canvas don't allow arrivals or departures on Tuesdays so it will mean I have to pay for 9 nights until the Wednesday even though I'll be leaving on the Tuesday which will bite my backside.
Other option would be to check in a day earlier to Des ORMES & leave on the Monday and stay somewhere else for a night on the way back to Roscoff, I doubt and campsites will rent me a mobile home for a night though.
Would anyone here have any other solutions or recommendations of a campsite for a night on the route from Des ORMES to Roscoff.
Thanks

How much would you save by leaving on the Monday and staying overnight somewhere and would that saving be worth the hassle of losing (more or less) a day of your holiday through the additional packing and unpacking plus you're unlikely to do much or enjoy staying in some random hotel for a night much Vs an extra day/night in Des Ormes?

We usually leave our campsite on a Friday even though we're booked in until Saturday as we like getting home Sat afternoon and having a chill Sunday at home before back to work Monday so I just accept the price I'm paying is for 20 rather than 21 nights and ignore the fact we're paying for an extra day and not using it.

Ninesell

flangemeistro wrote: »

Other option would be to check in a day earlier to Des ORMES & leave on the Monday and stay somewhere else for a night on the way back to Roscoff, I doubt and campsites will rent me a mobile home for a night though.
Would anyone here have any other solutions or recommendations of a campsite for a night on the route from Des ORMES to Roscoff.
Thanks

I have booked one or two night stays with Eurocamp and Alfresco when I wanted to break a journey or to extend a trip and tie in with the ferry schedule. However, in your case maybe you just need to look at another operator in Des Ormes that gives more flexibility on check in day. Have you tried Lifestyle, Eurocamp and Alfresco?