Sandaya Escale Saint-Gilles — Attraction in Quimper

We checked in for a week in the Premium cottage green R09. It is modern and clean but nightmare began here. The first 2 nights, we had these wood cockroaches( Ectobiinae ), crawling up on our bed and duvet. We found 6 throughout the night on our bed, 3 others on the floor and ceiling. At 3am the first night, we decided to look under our bed, under the mattress and were vacuuming. Next day, we went to the reception and the staff assured us, she will send the maintenance team to check and spray insecticide with our approval. 2nd night, it happened again, that night, we had 7 crawling on our bed. We had enough, we wanted to check out the next day and refund the rest of the stay. What was appalling was the manager told us it was normal to find this in the cabin because we were living in nature, including on the bed therefore they would not refund us. She said she had it in her house too n lived with it. Seriously? It was okay to sleep with these creatures crawling everywhere on your bed? I am definitely not paying 300euro a night to sleep with these wood cockroaches. It was clearly an infestation and an unfortunate cabin we checked in to. The only solution they had for us then was to send the maintenance staff again. During that time, we had a really good staff who helped us, a pity we did not know his name, but he was really helpful and good. He empathised our situation and tried his best to help us, he changed the mattress, bedsheets and purchased new pesticides to spray at every opening of the cabin into our bedroom. The good news, there was no more cockroaches the 3rd night. However, unfortunately, again, I did not sleep because I was just making sure nothing was crawling on our bed. Overall, it’s a nice camping ground with nice staff n entertainment. The other thing to note is the swimming pool, the rough stones and tiles, we noticed alot of kids got wounded with cuts or abrasion. Many were approaching the lifeguards for first aid throughout the day. Both my kids had wounds under the toes. We had a good time at the spa. Kids had massages and facial treatments. Staff were super nice and we bought a whole range of Brittany facial products there. They were very reasonably price. We also found Bio Fruit Facial products for kids. Absolutely love them. The close vicinity to the beach is also a plus, though not the most beautiful one but it’s good enough to have the sand sun n water. Last but not least, due to our experience, we will never come back, it is the worst holiday experience I ever had and it is traumatic. The worst moment was also to have the manager tell you that it’s okay to have cockroaches crawling on your bed...

This our first eurocamp holiday and escale saint Gilles has not disappointed us at all. The caravans are not quite the same as those back home in blighty but do the job very well. The king size bed in the main bedroom is a bit of a squeeze to get round (originally double beds). The other 2 rooms we have are great. Big shower but one toilet, there is a great covered decked area outside and a gas BBQ that came with the azure have been great to use. We were here for two weeks and one weekend was the busiest weekend for the Escale Saint Gilles as it was the French holiday/bank holiday and it was packed with very few if any pitches or caravans left. Even though it was packed you would not have known as there is space for everyone. The pool is indoor and outdoor, you can swim through a channel that goes outside which was fun and the outside on hot days was busy but not over crowded. The staff at every area from life guard to entertainment and in the shop and restaurants have been absolutely fantastic and very polite. There are great showers and washing facilities with washing machines that have self dispensing soup powder. Fresh backed bread and pastries in the morning are great. The eurocamp kids clubs and staff have also been great and very helpful. Any issues or questions we have you can text the rep and they get back straight away. One thing to look out for is the pool area, many of our party have got small cuts on our feet from the harsh abrasive rook covering and the slide is not staffed so if you do mess around injuries can happen. Waterproof shoes are a recommendation from me. The sandy beach is pretty much on the doorstep so bucket and spade is a must. The whole holiday has been great for adults to relax and kids to play whether it be in the pool, the playground, the beach or just on their scooters/bikes.

The location is great for the main beach, biscuit factory and shop. Concarneau is a must the fort is amazing to walk through the shops the fishing museum and the fort.

Quimper is also a great place to visit, with its indoor and outdoor markets and wonderful cathedral.

Highly recommend and would most...

Top team doing a great job with entertainment, especially for the kids, keeping the place proper, etc., also a very nice spot. However, both, Sandaya as well as the community of Benodet (and the entire Finistere) lack taking the perspective of tourists without a car. Bluntly speaking, in this respect for example Côte Basque is clearly ahead.

Ideas for improvements: offer as a choice: free parking or a free bike rent for the stay (now it is: parking is free, bike rental must be paid) do not create unnecessarily long walks to Benodet and bus stops, open the (existing but usually closed) gate to the North and create a gate in the West to Cor de la Mer make the community of Benodet add a bus stop at Chemin de Kerneost / Rue dur Poulquer. This is the spot closest to the camping site where a bus is running anyway, but the next stop is almost 1 km in either direction. make the community of Benodet install bus stop shelters at all bus stops (there is Wifi at the beach, which is great, but no shelter at the beach bus stop) generally, more bus lines, more busses on existing lines. Compare tourist region Cotê Basque: one bus per hour running between Hendaye and Bayonne, navettes gratuit within communities, many local bus lines connecting between neighbouring communities. Compare tourist region Black Forest: free local transport between Karlsruhe and Bâle.Compare Austria, compare Switzerland. Bretagne is really, really not up to date anymore in this respect. And that's a pitty as LGVs can bring tourists comfortably and quickly from Benelux, Germany, etc. but then you are more or less stuck. offer more choices of baguette in the superette, or maybe - there are already mobile merchants selling non-food on certain days, invite mobile boulangers and traiteurs on certain days. generally, integrate more with local businesses. With the missing bus stop where three camping sites have their exit/entrance, it appears that Benodet is not really happy with their camping tourists. install mirrors where the path to the sports and playground...