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

shanec1928

First Up wrote: »

No Decathalon there I'm afraid. Just Auchan and a few small shops and cafes.

It’s about a 2 minute drive away

First Up

shanec1928 wrote:

It’s about a 2 minute drive away

Yes, so I see. I haven't visited it - maybe next time.

webpal

Anyone know if it's possible to use tesco tokens with stena with sale prices? They have 25% off currently but their T&Cs state you can't. That said IF said the same but you could. Thinking of sneaking away for a week and looking for a cost effective way and this is working out cheap.

Ninesell

Has anyone stayed with Center Parc Europe? I am considering one in the Loire Valley - Le Bois Aux Daims. I have never stayed in any Center Parcs but the facilities look good and comments on extra activity charges seem reasonable. We have used similar outdoor activities in Les Ormes.
I previously stayed in a very small campsite near Rigny-Ussé and visited Chinon and Samaur to purchase wine. It was a peaceful campsite and perfect for cycling but the children want more facilities.
I was also considering Les Alicourts. While a lot of reviews comment on the great facilities they also highlight the remoteness of the site. Château des Marais is also a contender as it is near the Loire à Vélo route. Does anyone have any suggestions?

nice_guy80

Getting away from the ferry, has anyone ever flown over to Geneva/Lyon and gone on a car hire/camping holiday with a toddler? 1 year old.

we're considering doing this in June and we reckon the driving and ferry option is too long for them in a car seat etc
looking at a Huttopia site in the Alps where we can rent a canvas tent or small cabin

Quazzie

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Getting away from the ferry, has anyone ever flown over to Geneva/Lyon and gone on a car hire/camping holiday with a toddler? 1 year old.

we're considering doing this in June and we reckon the driving and ferry option is too long for them in a car seat etc
looking at a Huttopia site in the Alps where we can rent a canvas tent or small cabin

You might want to consider NICE also. Might be a bit more of a drive compared to the other two, but flights are usually a lot cheaper.

Seth Brundle

Ninesell wrote: »

Château des Marais is also a contender as it is near the Loire à Vélo route. Does anyone have any suggestions?

We have stayed in Château des Marais loads of times (mostly with Canvas but once with Eurocamp). It's great: near loads of attractions and has great facilities. We still use it as a stop over on our way to and from the Dordogne.
Our kids never liked the kid's camp stuff (in any campsite) so can't comment on that side of it.
You can hire bikes but the one time we did they were kinda crap so we bring our ow now.

nice_guy80

Quazzie wrote: »

You might want to consider NICE also. Might be a bit more of a drive compared to the other two, but flights are usually a lot cheaper.

thanks
Geneva is actually working out cheaper with aer lingus and the flight times are better
and aer lingus has the free 10kg bag allowance and free buggy + car seat

whippet

has anyone have any recommendations for a resort in the south of france - close to cannes? for a family with two kids 7 & 10.

We have been a couple of places close to LaRochelle when they were younger but would like to go closer to the south - we don't mind paying for a decent place and will be driving down - brining our own bikes etc

MorganIRL

Ninesell wrote: »

Has anyone stayed with Center Parc Europe? I am considering one in the Loire Valley - Le Bois Aux Daims. I have never stayed in any Center Parcs but the facilities look good and comments on extra activity charges seem reasonable. We have used similar outdoor activities in Les Ormes.
I previously stayed in a very small campsite near Rigny-Ussé and visited Chinon and Samaur to purchase wine. It was a peaceful campsite and perfect for cycling but the children want more facilities.
I was also considering Les Alicourts. While a lot of reviews comment on the great facilities they also highlight the remoteness of the site. Château des Marais is also a contender as it is near the Loire à Vélo route. Does anyone have any suggestions?

We stayed in les Alicourts last year, excellent site, it is however very remote. Loads to do on-site, it's more of an arrive and park up the car site. Facilities and mobiles very good (we booked direct to get it cheaper) it is somewhere if u have teens u can let them off and not worry cause they can't go anywhere but they can do enough on site to not annoy u.. :-)

MorganIRL

whippet wrote: »

has anyone have any recommendations for a resort in the south of france - close to cannes? for a family with two kids 7 & 10.

We have been a couple of places close to LaRochelle when they were younger but would like to go closer to the south - we don't mind paying for a decent place and will be driving down - brining our own bikes etc

Stayed in Les Sablons in Portiranges not near Cannes but the best site we have being to, drove also but stopover req both ways.

josip

MorganIRL wrote: »

Stayed in Les Sablons in Portiranges not near Cannes but the best site we have being to, drove also but stopover req both ways.

Would second this.
Les Sablons was way better than our limited, anecdotal experience of 2 campsites near Frejus and Toulon.
We've stayed there 3 times.

Quazzie

whippet wrote: »

has anyone have any recommendations for a resort in the south of france - close to cannes? for a family with two kids 7 & 10.

We have been a couple of places close to LaRochelle when they were younger but would like to go closer to the south - we don't mind paying for a decent place and will be driving down - brining our own bikes etc

La Baume in Frejus. Lovely campsite, and Frejus is a lovely laid back town with loads to do. Highly recommended

BlazingSaddler

Quazzie wrote: »

La Baume in Frejus. Lovely campsite, and Frejus is a lovely laid back town with loads to do. Highly recommended

+1 for La Baume, we went 2 years ago in July. Only downsides were the extreme temperatures and the lack of space around the mobiles, they really were on top of each other (a common problem though the further south you get). We were used to holidaying in Brittany where you seem to get plenty of space

BlazingSaddler

I know this is for French sites so apologies in advance!, but thinking of venturing into Spain this year. Has anybody been to Villanova Park or Castell Montgri please? Any opinions would be most appreciated. Was hoping to leave the car at home this year and wondering if we could get away without even hiring one.

sulli

Hey All, thinking of doing our first family holiday in France camping. No idea what we are at, any recommendations for places to stay in July or late august this year, 2 kids and they will be 1.5yrs and 5. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Again, no real plan in mind, but will probably drive with ferry and bring bikes...open to suggestions! Thanks in advance!

manshay

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Getting away from the ferry, has anyone ever flown over to Geneva/Lyon and gone on a car hire/camping holiday with a toddler? 1 year old.

we're considering doing this in June and we reckon the driving and ferry option is too long for them in a car seat etc
looking at a Huttopia site in the Alps where we can rent a canvas tent or small cabin

During Euro 2016 we flew to Geneva, hired a car and spent a very enjoyable 5 days in the Jura mountains at Yelloh Village Camping Fayolan, Clairvaux-les-Lacs. We didn't get a result in the football but really enjoyed the site.

If you fly into Geneva you can choose the Swiss or French side. If going to France it's cheaper to hire the car on the French side. You can get a hire car and never enter Switzerland if you choose the correct route! Don't go on the Swiss motorways without a toll sticker. (Bizarrely the first 250M of road after the French car hire desk seemingly within the airport is actually swiss, I found out to my cost when I got a speeding ticket 47km in a 30km zone. I thought it was a scam at first)

54and56

sulli wrote: »

Hey All, thinking of doing our first family holiday in France camping. No idea what we are at, any recommendations for places to stay in July or late august this year, 2 kids and they will be 1.5yrs and 5. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Again, no real plan in mind, but will probably drive with ferry and bring bikes...open to suggestions! Thanks in advance!

Hi Sulli,

My thoughts on doing your first campsite holiday in France based on having kids aged 1.5 and 5 would be:-

• Not too far a drive from the ferry, 2-3 hours max. 5 minutes from the ferry is just as “French” as 5 hours away.
• Not too hot. Might sound a bit silly but very young kids will have more fun if it’s not too sunny/hot. The heat really saps the energy and you are forever trying to cover them up or apply and re-apply sun cream.
• Good facilities onsite and in particular good facilities for when it rains e.g. indoor pool etc.
• Good kids club.
• Good entertainment (shows) at night.
• Good food onsite.
• Easy access to a beach.
• Easy access to a local town for shopping.

We’ve always used www.siblu.com campsites. They are English owned so are well tuned into what “we” want/like and are very professionally run. 90% of visitors are nevertheless French so it’s not like Courtown in France!!

I don’t know much about https://www.yellohvillage.co.uk other than they are also English owned and very similar to Siblu. If anything I believe they have more of a focus on entertainment etc.

Siblu and Yelloh tend to be a little more expensive then independent/French owned sites but they are generally a high standard all round.

For your first year I’d recommend you go to https://www.les-mouettes.com/en/ which is a Yelloh Village campsite. We haven’t used it but by all accounts it has amazing facilities and is really geared up for families with young kids. It’s only 20 minutes from the port of Roscoff so dead handy in terms of driving if you can get a ferry to Roscoff. (You may have to go Cork - Roscoff with Brittany Ferries)

Other highly thought of campsites close to the Roscoff ferry are:-https://www.lesormes.com/en and the Siblu run http://www.siblu.com/camping-domaine-de-kerlann.

The potential downside of these sites are that they are located in Brittany so the weather isn’t guaranteed to be splitting the rocks but I honestly don’t think that’s what you want with very young kids and even if you did drive the 5 hours it would take (with a coffee stop) to St Jean de Monts there is no guarantee you’ll get better weather there. You “should” do but it can be marginal.

If you are up for a longer spin then St Jen de Monts in the Vendee region is one of the best and most popular spots within reach of Roscoff or Cherbourg. It’s a great town with a great beach and loads of restaurants and things to do. We stayed in http://www.siblu.ie/camping-le-bois-masson for a few years which is a well run site with a great restaurant, great pool and good cycling paths etc nearby. Directly across the road is http://www.siblu.ie/camping-le-bois-dormant which is a little quieter but is really chill and has a nicer more laid back pool and restaurant area. If you stay in one you have access to all the facilities of the other.

Also in SJDM is http://www.leclarys.com/en/. It looks a great site and others I’ve spoken to have raved about the facilities and how well run it is. Yelloh also have what appears to be a slightly quieter campsite https://en.campingpommedepin.fr which is close to Clary’s Plage. Don’t know much about it but if it’s run by Yelloh you can expect similar standards etc.

One thing to take into consideration in my opinion is that there is no point going to a site which has a load of facilities young kids will be too young to use/enjoy.

TLDR: Given it’d be your first such holiday and the age of the kids etc I’d be inclined to dip my toe in and stick to one of the Brittany sites which may be more suited to young kids in terms of facilities, kids clubs and weather. Once you have done that and if you like it you can start to spread your wings as the kids get older!!

Our first trip was in 2007 with a 2 and 6 year old and now we're driving all the way down the west coast to within striking distance of the Spanish border and the now 14 ands 18 year olds still love it albeit the 18 year old will only join us for a week this year as he has the Leaving Cert and will be working and going on the obligatory post Leaving Cert holiday with his pals also.

Hope that's of some help.

NIMAN

BlazingSaddler wrote: »

I know this is for French sites so apologies in advance!, but thinking of venturing into Spain this year. Has anybody been to Villanova Park or Castell Montgri please? Any opinions would be most appreciated. Was hoping to leave the car at home this year and wondering if we could get away without even hiring one.

We did Vilanova Park last summer.

Thought it was a great park. Kids loved it. Lots for them to do, plenty of other Irish about, which was an issue with Cypsela the year before.

Entertainment also good for them, great pools.

Would thoroughly recommend it. We didn't leave the campsite for the entire week, other families went to Sitges and Barcelona.

Considering Castell Montgri myself this year.

sulli

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Hi Sulli,

My thoughts on doing your first campsite holiday in France based on having kids aged 1.5 and 5 would be:-

• Not too far a drive from the ferry, 2-3 hours max. 5 minutes from the ferry is just as “French” as 5 hours away.
• Not too hot. Might sound a bit silly but very young kids will have more fun if it’s not too sunny/hot. The heat really saps the energy and you are forever trying to cover them up or apply and re-apply sun cream.
• Good facilities onsite and in particular good facilities for when it rains e.g. indoor pool etc.
• Good kids club.
• Good entertainment (shows) at night.
• Good food onsite.
• Easy access to a beach.
• Easy access to a local town for shopping.

We’ve always used www.siblu.com campsites. They are English owned so are well tuned into what “we” want/like and are very professionally run. 90% of visitors are nevertheless French so it’s not like Courtown in France!!

I don’t know much about https://www.yellohvillage.co.uk other than they are also English owned and very similar to Siblu. If anything I believe they have more of a focus on entertainment etc.

Siblu and Yelloh tend to be a little more expensive then independent/French owned sites but they are generally a high standard all round.

For your first year I’d recommend you go to https://www.les-mouettes.com/en/ which is a Yelloh Village campsite. We haven’t used it but by all accounts it has amazing facilities and is really geared up for families with young kids. It’s only 20 minutes from the port of Roscoff so dead handy in terms of driving if you can get a ferry to Roscoff. (You may have to go Cork - Roscoff with Brittany Ferries)

Other highly thought of campsites close to the Roscoff ferry are:-https://www.lesormes.com/en and the Siblu run http://www.siblu.com/camping-domaine-de-kerlann.

The potential downside of these sites are that they are located in Brittany so the weather isn’t guaranteed to be splitting the rocks but I honestly don’t think that’s what you want with very young kids and even if you did drive the 5 hours it would take (with a coffee stop) to St Jean de Monts there is no guarantee you’ll get better weather there. You “should” do but it can be marginal.

If you are up for a longer spin then St Jen de Monts in the Vendee region is one of the best and most popular spots within reach of Roscoff or Cherbourg. It’s a great town with a great beach and loads of restaurants and things to do. We stayed in http://www.siblu.ie/camping-le-bois-masson for a few years which is a well run site with a great restaurant, great pool and good cycling paths etc nearby. Directly across the road is http://www.siblu.ie/camping-le-bois-dormant which is a little quieter but is really chill and has a nicer more laid back pool and restaurant area. If you stay in one you have access to all the facilities of the other.

Also in SJDM is http://www.leclarys.com/en/. It looks a great site and others I’ve spoken to have raved about the facilities and how well run it is. Yelloh also have what appears to be a slightly quieter campsite https://en.campingpommedepin.fr which is close to Clary’s Plage. Don’t know much about it but if it’s run by Yelloh you can expect similar standards etc.

One thing to take into consideration in my opinion is that there is no point going to a site which has a load of facilities young kids will be too young to use/enjoy.

TLDR: Given it’d be your first such holiday and the age of the kids etc I’d be inclined to dip my toe in and stick to one of the Brittany sites which may be more suited to young kids in terms of facilities, kids clubs and weather. Once you have done that and if you like it you can start to spread your wings as the kids get older!!

Our first trip was in 2007 with a 2 and 6 year old and now we're driving all the way down the west coast to within striking distance of the Spanish border and the now 14 ands 18 year olds still love it albeit the 18 year old will only join us for a week this year as he has the Leaving Cert and will be working and going on the obligatory post Leaving Cert holiday with his pals also.

Hope that's of some help.

Thanks so much for your detailed response, will look into them now but most of what you say is bang on!! Thanks again!

micks_address

Hi folks,
Probably wrong thread but has anyone had to cancel a booking with eurocamp and do they refund your deposit? We only paid 100 euro but a work commitment means we may not be able.to travel during the summer. I guess I just need to phone them to see what they do.
Thanks,
Mick

54and56

micks_address wrote: »

Hi folks,
Probably wrong thread but has anyone had to cancel a booking with eurocamp and do they refund your deposit? We only paid 100 euro but a work commitment means we may not be able.to travel during the summer. I guess I just need to phone them to see what they do.
Thanks,
Mick

Sorry to hear that Mick,

If you call and they refuse to give you a refund your BATNA could be to get a credit on your account so if you book next year or the year after you'll get your €100 off the booking. They should want to keep you happy and a potential customer going forward so if their rules say deposits are non refundable I'd definitely be trying to get the value some other way!!

BlazingSaddler

NIMAN wrote: »

We did Vilanova Park last summer.

Thought it was a great park. Kids loved it. Lots for them to do, plenty of other Irish about, which was an issue with Cypsela the year before.

Entertainment also good for them, great pools.

Would thoroughly recommend it. We didn't leave the campsite for the entire week, other families went to Sitges and Barcelona.

Considering Castell Montgri myself this year.

Thank you NIMAN, so can you manage without a car? (getting from the airport, shopping etc)

BlazingSaddler

sulli wrote: »

Thanks so much for your detailed response, will look into them now but most of what you say is bang on!! Thanks again!

Have to agree regarding Les Mouettes, fabulous spot and very handy if you can get the Brittany Ferries ferry to Roscoff. Roscoff is a lovely spot in it’s own right. I think I reviewed Les Mouettes in detail on here before, if you do a search you should find it. Would also agree Domaine Des Ormes is a good spot, you wouldn’t go far wrong with either.

westgolf

BlazingSaddler wrote: »

Have to agree regarding Les Mouettes, fabulous spot and very handy if you can get the Brittany Ferries ferry to Roscoff. Roscoff is a lovely spot in it’s own right. I think I reviewed Les Mouettes in detail on here before, if you do a search you should find it. Would also agree Domaine Des Ormes is a good spot, you wouldn’t go far wrong with either.

Only thing that springs to mind is that des ormes may not suit a very young child. However its very handy for Roscoff especially if its your first time driving on the other side.

josip

manshay wrote: »

During Euro 2016 we flew to Geneva, hired a car and spent a very enjoyable 5 days in the Jura mountains at Yelloh Village Camping Fayolan, Clairvaux-les-Lacs. We didn't get a result in the football but really enjoyed the site.

If you fly into Geneva you can choose the Swiss or French side. If going to France it's cheaper to hire the car on the French side. You can get a hire car and never enter Switzerland if you choose the correct route! Don't go on the Swiss motorways without a toll sticker. (Bizarrely the first 250M of road after the French car hire desk seemingly within the airport is actually swiss, I found out to my cost when I got a speeding ticket 47km in a 30km zone. I thought it was a scam at first)

And because they're not in the EU, the Swiss don't have to sell a short term vignette.
So you have to buy the full year for 40 CHF.

Camp sites we'd recommend around the Mt Blanc massif are
(Swiss) https://www.camping-glaciers.ch/fr/
(France) https://natureandlodge.fr/fr/camping-les-domes-de-miage.html

Ninesell

Seth Brundle wrote: »

We have stayed in Château des Marais loads of times (mostly with Canvas but once with Eurocamp). It's great: near loads of attractions and has great facilities. We still use it as a stop over on our way to and from the Dordogne.
Our kids never liked the kid's camp stuff (in any campsite) so can't comment on that side of it.
You can hire bikes but the one time we did they were kinda crap so we bring our ow now.

Thanks for your reply. I do think that site ticks a lot of boxes. The sites own accommodation is very reasonable but I might go for one with a kids club. They like to go sometimes... We will bring our own bikes.
Where did you stay in the Dordogne? We stayed in La Palombiere. The kids liked the pools there and Sarlat was lovely.

Ninesell

MorganIRL wrote: »

We stayed in les Alicourts last year, excellent site, it is however very remote. Loads to do on-site, it's more of an arrive and park up the car site. Facilities and mobiles very good (we booked direct to get it cheaper) it is somewhere if u have teens u can let them off and not worry cause they can't go anywhere but they can do enough on site to not annoy u.. :-)

I think it looks like an excellent site. How is the cycling in that area? The rest of them would probably be happy enough to park up and stay but I would miss exploring the Château and Wine tasting.
I worry if everything felt like a long trek, I would never get them out!

NIMAN

BlazingSaddler wrote: »

Thank you NIMAN, so can you manage without a car? (getting from the airport, shopping etc)

tbh, we have only done 2 camping holidays now, and each time we knew beforehand that there would be no need to hire a car.

Our kids are young enough that sightseeing wasn't a thing we'd be doing, they were more than happy to spend all their time on the campsites. Plus Cypsela did have its own bus that went to the nearby beach for free.

We had private transfers organised on both trips, so the airport-->camp-->airport was sorted that way. Expensive enough but handy.

Edit: forgot to say, all shopping done on-site both times. Found their supermarkets perfectly fine for all we needed, and not expensive.

Ninesell

BlazingSaddler wrote: »

I know this is for French sites so apologies in advance!, but thinking of venturing into Spain this year. Has anybody been to Villanova Park or Castell Montgri please? Any opinions would be most appreciated. Was hoping to leave the car at home this year and wondering if we could get away without even hiring one.

I came across Castell Montgri when looking for a site but ended up staying at El Delfin Verde instead. It is a busy big site but we enjoyed it.
It has a large supermarket and a few restaurants, very good pool complex and smaller pools dotted around the site. It has its own access to the beach and a couple of beach bars beside that. I have friends that took airport transfers and just stayed onsite. I would however highly recommend you have a car, I personally like to get off site. There are some fab villages and coves very close by to explore - Llafranc, Sa Tuna and Pals are ones I can remember.