Domaine de Dugny

A good medium sized site which is particularly good for kids who are just starting to get a bit of independence as the site is small enough to allow them to go off on their own (my seven and eight year old would go to the shop for the pan au chocolat and baguettes each morning). The pool complex is good with a toddler pool and indoor covered pool as well as normal pool/slides etc. Site well laid out amongst trees with a lovely lake for boating and fishing. Main gripe was the restaurant which was grossly over-priced and low on quality. Also the evening entertainment left a lot to be desired which was a shame as the stage area is great and a simple kids' disco would have been a great end to the day for the children on the site. A kids club ran most days although our children were happier going to the pool. Lovely surrounding area and pretty towns/chateaus close by. A simple drive from Tours airport, so this was great for a short (four day) break.

We have just come back from a trip to Domaine de Dugny which has been taken over by Siblu.

The campsite is a nice size, big enough to have lots of fun things to keep the children happy but not so big that you get lost.

We arrived on a Friday after an overnight 7 hour ferry journey from Portsmouth to Caen (*NB* We went with Brittany Ferries and had an outside cabin, all of the children slept which was fantastic, do not attempt this journey with under 5s and no cabin) and then drove down to the Loire Valley. The journey took 5 hours but we ambled along and didn't go on the motorway so it could have been done in less time. We arrived at the campsite at 1pm to be told that check-in is from 4pm so we went for a walk around.

We went back to reception at 4pm and the mobile home wasn't ready, as you can imagine by now DD 7, DS 4 and DD 2 had had enough (and we needed [wine])

We finally got the keys at 5pm and went back to our home for the week.

From what we could see the mobile homes varied a fair bit, ours was two bedrooms (a twin and a double) and a pull out bed in the living area. The homes were well equipped with an oven, microwave and all of the utensils you would need for basic meals. It was clean and we had a lovely much needed welcome bottle of wine waiting for us.

There was also a lovely veranda that was enclosed and partially covered, perfect for DD 2.

We went swimming straight away. The pool complex is fairly large for a campsite of it's size with slides and rapids, indoor heated and outdoor pools. Part of the indoor pool is a shallow pool for the little ones. The area is clean with astroturf and sun loungers. Around the edge of the pool the flooring is marble effect tiles that got really slippy when wet so you have to hold onto the little ones when you are walking around.

The pool area is really well supervised.

On the way back from swimming DD1 fell over, as it was late and didn't seem so bad we all went to bed only to be woken at 5am by DD with a very sore, swollen wrist. We went to reception at 8am on Saturday morning and asked if there was a doctor or hospital nearby. The receptionist gave me the information of a doctor but told me that he wouldn't be available until Monday. We went to the hospital in Blois (about 20 minutes away)and it took us half an hour or so to find it, it would have been nice if reception had maps of how to get to the local A&E.
It seems as though A&E is the same the world over and we waited for 3 hours and finally had an x-ray and poor DD had broken her wrist.

She was really looking forward to the kids clubs, which looked fantastic, they had activities such as Crazy golf, swimming and the Olympics. We asked at reception if there was anything that she could still join in with with her broken wrist, they said they didn't know?

We spent the rest of the week playing football, cricket, table tennis and crazy golf, there is also a lovely river walk and picnic area (with fishing if that's what you like). We hired a 5 seater cart and peddled around the park and DS joined in the giant inflatable table football.

The evening entertainment was good if you like a bit of cheesy music and kids dance routines very similar to Butlins but the children loved it and the entertainment staff were very good at what they did.

Overall a clean and tidy park with plenty to do. The shop and restaurant are over priced, which is to be expected in a fairly remote location.

There is a large supermache about 3 miles away if you want to watch the pennies. There were many other English guests and it was nice to talk to the neighbours (and pinch their Calpol) and the children enjoyed having some independence and making new friends.

We would go again but perhaps invest in a DVD player for the car or fly and wrap DD in cotton wool!