Centre touristique du Lac-Simon - SEPAQ — Hotel in Duhamel

I will start off by saying, I have visited Lac Simon 6 times over that two years, coming in from Ottawa. This year, was the first time camping.

1. Safety: I start with this, because on my first day, I came back from the beach and found the back of my tent slightly unzipped which I found weird. The second day, I came back to the same thing and KNEW that I had not done that (I was camping alone, so no one else was there to unzip the tent), also my camping pad/sleeping bag was turned upside down in the tent. A few hours later, a woman approached me to tell me someone had stolen their large propane tank, camp stove and even took the TABLE CLOTH! Turns out, the year before, there was a massive theft on the campground where someone drove off with two 4-wheel ATVs!! The camp ground is wide open to the public. Anyone can come in. There was no one at the toll booths to the beach, the gates were open. So, anyone can just walk in whenever they want, they don't have to be staying or camping. I told the people at the front office, and they said the only thing that can be done is to call the police...So, LOCK UP YOUR THINGS. Particularly propane tanks. Stoves. Bikes. Wallets. Keys. Phones. Lanterns. Because there is clearly a thief in the region that returns every year.

2. Campsite: I found the campsites large enough to pitch an 8 person tent per a site. I was camping alone and my tent as pictured is a 2.5 person trekking tent. The site came with a picnic table and a fire pit with grate. I was right by the water tap, so I didn't have to drag water far. Overall, I found the site good. That said, it has zero privacy. I was lucky because I had a cluster of trees to build a tarp shelter over my table, but many were not lucky and did not have a kitchen tent. Recommend bringing one just in case (we had rain). I was visited by a family of raccoons because I forgot a bag of chips out and some garbage, which they found and snacked on (my bad). It was not too buggy. I got some mosquito bites but the wasps were most annoying. Bring mosquito coils with you and you will be fine. Note: There is a skunk that lives there and comes out at night.

3. Facilities: The SEPAQ office has cold drinks, ice ($5.00 a bag), firewood ($8.00 a bundle) for sale. They also have a few camping necessities (lighters, tent pegs, blow up mattresses, small coleman propane tanks, marshmallows etc.) For sale in case you forget something.

Washrooms - Newly renovated and very clean. Showers are hot and clean. No charge.

Dishwashing station - Very clean and useful. Bring your own soap and cloths.

Water - Multiple taps around the campsite to get potable water. Very clean too.

3. Noise Level: Loud. Not a lot of music, but MANY children and maybe I am old, but bringing children under 5 years old seems a bit much. Many crying babies and children shrieking for hours on end. Parents not telling them to quiet down. I don't mind the noise per se, but the constant shrill shrieking or slamming doors in the new washrooms was unnecessary. This campground has over 400 sites. This is not a wild campground. If that is what you are looking for, recommend going somewhere else.

4. The Beach: Lac Simon has to be the nicest beach in Quebec. Sand in fine and white, not rocky. Water is warm because it is shallow. It has BBQ spots and washrooms. It also has a little store that sells ice cream and cold drinks. You can rent kayaks and other watersport toys. Overall, fantastic. THAT SAID, the boats? Too close and NONE followed the rules to stay past the buoy(s). One wrong move and someone is dead. In the next few years, if this doesn't change, you will read in the news someone has died from a boat hitting someone. This lake is wide enough for boats to be 50 meters from the beach, and they should be. During COVID, I came here 6 times. Never any boats. This year, I...

We stayed here for 2 nights. Our kids (9 and 6) loved the playground equipment on the beach. There was a giant bouncy pillow, 2 large slides going down a hill, and 3 even larger slides next to them. A jungle themed play structure (like you get at indoor play areas), a smaller 'pirate ship' play structure, and an upside down cone shaped round about that you could climb on, and a rock climbing 'rock wall'. There was a big sandy beach and a lake with roped off sections for swimming or boating. Motor boats were allowed on the lake, but there weren't too many. A life guard was watching one of the roped off sections of lake. The lake was quite picturesque - will rolling tree covered hills surrounding it. There was a store at the beach, and you could rent BBQ's for $5.50 for 30 mins. The store also sold ice-cream (between $2 and $4). Mini-golf was a short walk from the beach (about $5 each), although we played it as one of the organised activities - and so it was free for that hour. It was fun, but wasn't in the best of shape - some of the 'green carpet' was coming up in places - but I guess that just added to the challenge. ;) We stayed in campsite 230. We had big tree trunks around us, with a canopy overhead - but we could see all our neighbours, as there were no shrubs on the ground. The campground felt quite 'natural'. there were surprisingly few bugs - some obviously, but not a lot. The washrooms were clean enough, and they had warm water and dish washing sinks outside. they also had composting recycling and garbage bins scattered throughout the campground, which I liked as you could easily get rid of your garbage, but one day the garbage truck drove round collecting the garbage which was quite strange. The showers you had to pay for ( I think about 50c for 4mins).... I never saw anyone use them- probably would have been a line if they were free as there were only 2 in our washroom. Most information was just in French - including the list of kids activities taking place - but most of the campers were very friendly and helped us translate. I found it very strange to see a sign in French and English - with the French writing in huge letters, and the English with 50% of the sign but in tiny letters - taking up barely any of the space it had available - this seemed very odd to me and sent a strange message. A friend told me this was the law in Quebec. We went for a walk along a trail - it didn't seem to match the map we had been given, but we followed the arrows on tree trunks and enjoyed it never the less. At one point we saw some lovely birds - lots of bluejays, woodpeckers and some others that someone with more knowledge about birds would be able to identify. We probably won't come back to this campsite as it's a long way from where we live, but it was very popular (almost full). The campsite was a nice compromise between camping in the natrual forests, and providing the kids with all the playground equipment and a plentiful supply of new friends. If I didn't have kids, I would probably choose a different campsite. Oh - between 5 and 5:30 each day - the bouncing pillow is adults only! I went on, and it was great fun, but if someone 'bounces' you - you might go flying into the air - I decided to come off after a bit as I could see injuries might happen - it was fun though - and a...

We stayed here for 2 nights. Our kids (9 and 6) loved the playground equipment on the beach. There was a giant bouncy pillow, 2 large slides going down a hill, and 3 even larger slides next to them. A jungle themed play structure (like you get at indoor play areas), a smaller 'pirate ship' play structure, and an upside down cone shaped round about that you could climb on, and a rock climbing 'rock wall'. There was a big sandy beach and a lake with roped off sections for swimming or boating. Motor boats were allowed on the lake, but there weren't too many. A life guard was watching one of the roped off sections of lake. The lake was quite picturesque - will rolling tree covered hills surrounding it. There was a store at the beach, and you could rent BBQ's for $5.50 for 30 mins. The store also sold ice-cream (between $2 and $4). Mini-golf was a short walk from the beach (about $5 each), although we played it as one of the organised activities - and so it was free for that hour. It was fun, but wasn't in the best of shape - some of the 'green carpet' was coming up in places - but I guess that just added to the challenge. ;) We stayed in campsite 230. We had big tree trunks around us, with a canopy overhead - but we could see all our neighbours, as there were no shrubs on the ground. The campground felt quite 'natural'. there were surprisingly few bugs - some obviously, but not a lot. The washrooms were clean enough, and they had warm water and dish washing sinks outside. they also had composting recycling and garbage bins scattered throughout the campground, which I liked as you could easily get rid of your garbage, but one day the garbage truck drove round collecting the garbage which was quite strange. The showers you had to pay for ( I think about 50c for 4mins).... I never saw anyone use them- probably would have been a line if they were free as there were only 2 in our washroom. Most information was just in French - including the list of kids activities taking place - but most of the campers were very friendly and helped us translate. I found it very strange to see a sign in French and English - with the French writing in huge letters, and the English with 50% of the sign but in tiny letters - taking up barely any of the space it had available - this seemed very odd to me and sent a strange message. A friend told me this was the law in Quebec. We went for a walk along a trail - it didn't seem to match the map we had been given, but we followed the arrows on tree trunks and enjoyed it never the less. At one point we saw some lovely birds - lots of bluejays, woodpeckers and some others that someone with more knowledge about birds would be able to identify. We probably won't come back to this campsite as it's a long way from where we live, but it was very popular (almost full). The campsite was a nice compromise between camping in the natrual forests, and providing the kids with all the playground equipment and a plentiful supply of new friends. If I didn't have kids, I would probably choose a different campsite. Oh - between 5 and 5:30 each day - the bouncing pillow is adults only! I went on, and it was great fun, but if someone 'bounces' you - you might go flying into the air - I decided to come off after a bit as I could see injuries might happen - it was fun though - and a...