Ile De Re, France

[makemineaginandtonic]

Has anyone camped on Ile De Re or in the La Rochelle area? Looking for a campsite for a tent, close to beach. Trying to avoid massive Eurocamp type places. Interested in Ile De Re as hubby a keen cyclist. Any suggestions very gratefully received!

Is it just for the two of you or with children as well?

Camping Interlude at Bois Plage. Right on the beach, good facilities and close to towns and cycle paths. Would really recommend - great base for exploring the island. Think Eurocamp, Keycamp and Canvas do it but you can also pitch own tent or book chalet/mobiles direct with site.

We also stayed at Bois Plage but at smaller campsite which we liked:
www.les-varennes.com

Staff were friendly, nice heated pool, clean toilet blocks but pitches were quite small and sandy but think this might be pretty typical for Ile de Re.

Beach is walkable although quite a long way with small children. We tended to cycle very short distance up road to Camping Interlude which is right on beach.

Camping Le treviere in Bretignolles. Quiet but family friendly with a nice pool and easy cycle to the beach. We cycled all holiday there!

We had a wonderful week last year in the Il De Re. We stayed in Les Ilates camping which is in one of the quieter parts of the island. Lovely friendly site - no water slides and very basic playground but the children had a fab time cycling around the site and making friends and enjoyed the pools as they were. There's also a little bouncy castle. Site was super friendly with a really helpful owner. It's down a dead end so really quiet and you can cycle from the site to a nice quiet covey type beach in about 10 - 15 minutes (accross fields the whole way on cycle paths) or also cycle from the campsite straight accross fields to a lovely coastal cycle path. It's next to a small town with a daily market.
We had looked at Interlude camping but discounted as too big and lively and also a few negative reviews. We drove past it one day and all heaved a huge sigh of relief that we hadn't stayed there as it was next to the most unbelieveably busy beach (gorgeous admittedly) and the road outside Interlude was chocka with cars and bikes and peopel everywhere and it all just felt really busy and hectic compared to our lovely quiet corner of the island. This was in August though so if you're there out of season it may well be different.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will be us two and our daughters 8 and 6. Sounds good!

HaffertyHamster, thank you so much for your review of Camping Les Ilates. We are going there on 18th August for 2 weeks and have just jumped for joy after finding your post regarding the campsite. You described it just how I pictured it to be! I am now VERY excited! Our boys, 11, 9 and 2 are going to love it. We live in Devon so are used to the quiet, outdoors life, so were hoping Loix would suit us and it sounds like it will. Is there a decent large supermarket close by so we can stock up on arrival for store cupboard stuff? I hope to use the market for fresh, day-to-day provisions. Thanks again, Lou

We loved la grainetiere at la flotte. Not really near the beach, and quite near the main road, but very chilled out campsite, beautiful small but perfectly formed pool and clean facilities. Occasional entertainment and nice bar area.

Ile de Re all awesome though, fabulous cycling. You'll have a brilliant time wherever you go, but I'd want to avoid the massive campsites like Interlude etc ...