Good French campsite for teenagers anyone?

[sepsisandAKI]

Looking to go to France next year. Haven’t been for a couple of years but my 13 year old daughter loves the social side of the French campsites. Any suggestions? Also have a 4 year old so slightly different needs! La Garangeoire looks good but when I showed her she wasn’t keen. We went to Les Valades quite a few years ago which we loved but I think she’s looking for a good pool!

[Ricekrispie22]

I think it would be hard to beat La Croix de Vieux Pont for a teenager! There's a massive outdoor and covered pool complex with slides, jacuzzi and hydro-massage area, lazy river etc... There's also a lake with a man-made beach with deckchairs and sunshades and a volleyball court. Teens might also enjoy the bowling alley, beauty salon, games room, bike hire, horse riding, climbing wall etc... However, it does get very booked up and is always busy, probably because it's so close to Paris.
My second recommendation would be Le Clarys Plage in the Vendee. If fact, when comparing them right now, I might even prefer this one to La Croix!

[sepsisandAKI]

Rice thanks! We have been looking at those two already. Really like the look of Clarys Plage trying to persuade family to look and have their say. No one seems as invested in booking a holiday as me!

[millimat]

I am sepsis
I could make a career out of booking holidays!
Those sites sound v tempting. Still love les valades though.

[hillbilly]

I would recommend Sunelia La Ribeyre in the Auvegne. We went this summer. My kids are 13 and 10. The pool has slides and there is a lake too with kayaks and paddle boards. In fact Millimat recommended it. It's great and we will be returning next year 😀

[millimat]

Aww hillybilly can I come? I NEED to go back there.

[sepsisandAKI]

Funnily enougy hillbilly I have looked at that one too. Followed your thread with millimat! Did you camp or have a mobile home? Also which ferry crossing did you use? I really like the look of it and hopefully weather likely to be good!

[hillbilly]

Sepsis we camped and took the eurotunnel. Did it in one drive from London which we wouldn't do again as it too much longer than expected. Would either have a stopover or go Portsmouth to Caen or Le Havre.

[profpoopsnagle]

We also visited Ribeyre this year. We went via Caen, and stopped over though our stopover down wasn't especially en route, more that we wanted to visit somewhere nearby. We stayed in the Loire on the way back up, and I would recommend this area as a useful stop over, as it breaks the journey into 2 even-ish chunks. It would be worth investigating Le Havre and Dieppe as other ports.

It is a lovely site with enough going on, and a fantastic part of France to visit. It does have mainly French visitors, with a few Dutch , Belgians and Brits, so (understandably) the animations are in French and it can be tricky for youngsters to make friends if there are language barriers.

[sepsisandAKI]

The drive is a long one down there especially all in one go. We’ve been caught before trying to do that and suffered. Thanks for all your info. We may well hire a chalet type thing as haven’t camped for a few years. I am slightly tempted to camp though as I do miss it! Daughter seems happy with it too!

[millimat]

We stopped near orleans on our way down and just outside Paris on our way back as we did the whole Disney thing. Well worth the travelling!

[ritzbiscuits]

Look at Brasilia, Sourh West France, Yelloh Village site. I used to work at one if the big camping tour operators and this was a popular site, especially for older kids.

We also live Yelloh Village Serignan Plage and have been three times! Been with a younger child but there is loads to do on site, they have just put in a second water complex with loads of tall shutes!

Oh, and book direct with Yelloh Village, you'll get better accommodation than the British companies on their sites.

[ritzbiscuits]

Sorry, just noticed you may want to drive, so these could be too far. We do low cost flights in a local airport with Ryanair/EasyJet, so cute that huge drive out!

[EverybodyKeepCool]

Depending on how far you want to drive then I would recommend Cote d'argent in Hourtin Plage or La Rive near Biscarosse in SW France. Both are ideal for teenagers and younger ones.

[ShannonRockallMalin]

My younger teen boys and nephew enjoyed Le Croix de Vieux Pont. Plenty to do on the site but all the extra activities can get expensive. Also be aware there is no WiFi on site apart from at the bar where you have to pay and get a code. Also, I’m not particularly a campsite person anyway, but I did find the pool and toilet areas were often dirty and a bit smelly. On site bakery is lovely though!

[OneStepMoreFun]

Dol de Bretagne is good for teens, if you don't mind Northern France. It has a zip wire, climbing wall, two outdoor and one indoor pool with slides, wave machine, lazy river. Also a lake with pedaloes, bike hire, pizzeria and games room and stables for riding lessons and trekking, as well as a separate pony riding enclosure for the younger ones.
Local town has a great market and supermarkets, some nice restaurants and some good touristy stuff nearby like Mont St Michel and DD beaches.

[mistyegg]

Ty Nadan in Brittany. It’s very outdoorsy and set by a river. It’s popular with families from the Netherlands as well as U.K. and has an entertainment programme geared up really well for teenagers while also having a kids club for younger children and a swimming pool with water slides.

[sepsisandAKI]

Thanks guys. Lots to look at I have come across most of them while searching but good to have mumsnetters views.
@ritzbiscuits serignan Plage looks fab! Where did you fly to? Looking at Montpellier and Beziers at the mo. A bit more expensive than other campsites though!

[ritzbiscuits]

Serignan Plage is the best! I was good friends with someone who used to contract out in France and he said it was one of the best in the country.

We have flown to Beziers with Ryanair, it's that close you can get a 15 minute taxi from the airport. We've also flown to Bordeaux with Easyjet (as we were worried about Ryanair cancellations one of the years). Carcasonne is another airport about an hour away too.

When are you looking at going? If it's August, it's super expensive. We go whit/early June, the weather is very nice and the prices a lot more reasonable.

[sepsisandAKI]

Thanks so much for the info. We were looking at the summer and it was coming up rather expensive. I looked at Whit like you said. What a difference! So tempted to go then now. We live in the north ( yorks) so trying to work out best place to fly from. Did you hire a car whenever you went?

[ritzbiscuits]

It's so good, I really would recommend it. You'll find at Whit there are a lot of other Brits/Irish on site, lots of German/Dutch/French too.

Yes, we have been for two weeks each time, so hire a car so we can easily get to the supermarket and go on a few day trips. If you're just going for a week, you can manage with taxi transfers and using a taxi to do one trip to the supermarket. If you book the car hire early enough, it shouldn't be that bad for a week.

On site there is a small supermarket (Casino) bakery, butcher, fishmongers, two pizza takeaways, plus two restaurants. Perfect!

[sepsisandAKI]

Thanks again for info. Will mull it over but you’ve more or less managed to persuade me to go for half term!

[HRMumness]

We have younger children (5 and 3) but went to Dol-de-Bretagne last May half term and it was great. We got the threehour fast ferry to Cherbourg and then it was a little over two hours drive. Be warned that they are doing renovations to their pool complex in 2019 IIRC.
We flew to Bordeaux (with Ryanair unfortunately) and then stayed in La Rive about an hours drive from there. We were there for 10 days and easily could have stayed longer. There was plenty to see in the area as well but we mostly stayed on site.