Camping Le Soleil — Hotel in Céret

So we’ve never camped before, I booked through Eurocamp purely on the recommendation of a friend, who’d told me it was great fun for the kids & a chance to really relax for the weekend without worrying about make up or what you’re wearing! So I booked, having never holidayed in France either. We flew into Perpignan & picked up our hire car, we’d booked beforehand through Hertz (who were by far the cheapest) & hired a seat for our 2 year old which was about €45 for the week I think. The hire car companies at the airport close between 12pm - 3pm so just be mindful of that when booking flights & planning to collect a car. But we definitely needed a car. I’m glad we booked one, without it we would’ve been a bit stuffed. ||It was an easy 35 min drive to the site. As soon as we got there & got our key we dumped our bags & Googled the nearest supermarket. There’s a Lidl & an Aldi about 10 mins drive away. We went & got supplies, & came back & got a takeaway from the campsite takeaway service. My husband had a bit of a shock when he saw we were staying in a caravan, but we were pleasantly surprised. I’d hired a cot (don’t bother unless your child likes sleeping on a ‘mattress’ not dissimilar to a block of concrete - or you’re prepared to bring your own cot mattress) but I’d also hired the bed guards too in case the cot wasn’t suitable, I’m glad I did. My little one slept next to me in a single bed with bed guards all week (he’s only ever slept in a cot) & my older son slept in the double bed with my husband - this worked fine.||Some people have mentioned the noise from the fun fair. All the eurocamp vans are in the middle of the camp it seems so we didn’t notice it, yes there’s a bit of noise but it was fine & we were all so tired every night we slept fine. The shop is handy & has fresh baguettes & pastries every morning. The restaurant is nice - we had 2 meals there, the first was lovely, the 2nd time they forgot our mains & left us waiting for a long time with no apology.||The pool is nice for kids but British folk beware - men HAVE to wear trunks. No swim shorts allowed. Something I knew because I’d read trip advisor a few days before we went & ordered some for my husband (much to his horror!) but you can buy them in the shop. ||The beach is nice too but the sand is coarse & there is mostly stones under foot in the sea itself. I’d definitely recommend some beach shoes for kids. There is a busy beach resort nearby with a lot of cafes/bars/shops - but it’s a bit like Great Yarmouth en francais! If you drive a little further down the road there’s a lovely marina with a lot of restaurants but they don’t open until about 6.30pm, which with little ones who’ve been playing all day can be a little late. There’s a bbq with the caravan though but sausage & baguette gets a bit boring after a few days. ||I’d forgotten to reserve my bedlinen (you’re supposed to do it at least a week before you go) but I called up on the off chance & was told it would cost me £65 to hire bed lined & towels for a week! So I took my own, & I’m|Glad I did as the bedding itself was a bit grotty - not sure what the linen would’ve been like. ||The evening entertainment was pretty dire. We only went once, & left after 15 mins. The ‘staff’ were ‘entertaining’ the crowd, but after seeing the chubby girls grinding & doing a strip tease dance with feather boas we decided it wasn’t for us (nowt wrong with being chubby, just setting the scene for you!).||So all in all would we go again, yes we would. It was cheap, hot, clean (mainly) & fun for the kids. We ate a lot of baguette, ice cream & chips, my toddler ate a lot of sand. But we all came back tanned, happy & also...

Not for everyone, a lot of a let-down unfortunately. Stayed there in motorhome from the 14th to 28th August 2019, 2 x adults 2 x children First of all, I’ve been camping in France and Spain for the last 12 years, camping tent, caravan and now motorhome so we know what to expect. We really wanted this to be a good alternative to where we normally go in France this being quite a lot more expensive though. The camp itself is a stand-alone site with a shop, restaurant, fast food, bars and a good swimming pool and entertainment for the family, the entertainment can be a bit odd if you’re not French. Over all it’s a large busy site with decent facilities, also with good sanitary blocks dotted all over. Unfortunately, that’s where the good bits end. Reception can be quite helpful, but sometimes don’t want to be bothered and can be rude, you pay all monies on arrival. There are no waterpoints on the site its self, to fill up your onboard water tanks or empty your waste water you have to go to their external car park point through barriers which means getting a pass from reception them keeping your ID until you bring the pass back when refilling your water tanks there only a tap no hose so you’d better have some tap adaptors for your hose of your own. The pitch When we got there our pitch have seen better days, overgrown bushes hadn’t been cut back and certainly not what we paid for or acceptable, there were no other pitches so we couldn’t move, 6 days later we were cover in hundreds of mosquito bites all four of us we then presented ourselves to reception and got a move eventually. The restaurant We all went to the onsite restaurant for my birthday, 1 large mixed grill, 3 x pizzas, the mixed grill was extremely small, the chips were cold and had to be replaced on all meals, worst of all the 3 of us who had the pizza got food poisoning from them (chicken & creams sauce topping) and were violently sick after 6 hours on all night long including the kids & bad for 2 days, I’ve personally previously been in the restaurant trade for 20 years so I’m aware of symptoms and causes I reported this to both the reception and restaurant manager they weren’t really interested and just said sorry, this was to me spoilt our holiday and was totally unacceptable and without any remorse from them. Location of site As stated this is a stand alone site with only the beach in close proximity, if you haven’t got a car it can become very awkward walking over 1 km to the nearest bus stop and a family of 4 costing 20 euros for a return trip to Argelès-sur-Mer centre which isn’t bad, if you need to go to the water park you need a taxi (no busses) and its 28 euros each (rip off), you definitely need a car at this site. Luna Park (large fairground) which is stated to be close isn’t walking over 2 km away unless you want to hike through dark woodland at night time or there’s again 20 euros for the bus (family of 4 return) from the site only at night time. Attitude of people here This to me is very important, service here was poor for the whole area it felt as all they wanted was your money from you, and forget about any quality service from the site to the taxi’s, shops and restaurants, this is a great shame as the site we normally go to near Biarritz is completely the opposite. Will we stay in this area or at this campsite again, NO poor service, very expensive, poor pitch and the people just don’t care, they’re just there for your money,...

The good:|1. mobile home was stylish, modern, clean and the mattresses were comfortable enough|2. The pools were great, one for every age and the beach was nice too. I would say the place was great if your kids are under 11 |3. Argeles isn't as near as we thought, but once there the beach cafes are great and the old town is also nice although quite a walk from the beach area|4. They put on different entertainment every night although we found it all a bit naff however the French families seemed to love it all ||The bad:|1. be very careful which mobile home you book - ours did not come with towels which we'd assumed would be there as standard! We had to use our beach towels after showering, yuk. No provision to rent them either. That's not my idea of a 5 star camping resort. The pillows were also awful. I had to put my bulkier clothes under my pillow to get the right support.|2. The reception staff did not know information I would have thought standard like the times of the local tourist train into Argeles. |3. There is a massive theme park and water park right under the resort and you can hear the noise every night. it's not too bad, but this isn't a quiet peaceful place to come|4. There are no sunloungers at the pool, just chairs or you lie on the fake grass|5. The onsite supermarket is limited and expensive and the nearest one off site is quite a way away so beware if you aren't coming with a car. Taxis were very expensive so we walked it but meant our meals were limited to what we could carry|6. There were only 5 hangers in our mobile home which was inadequate and you have to pay for sheets. Again not my idea of a 5 star resort. This should come as standard. You also have to clean the caravan properly on leaving! Mopping floors and wiping windows isn't my idea of a holiday but could have cost us 80 euros if we hadn't|7. If you are leaving via a taxi on check out please pre-book! We didn't know to do this and missed our booked...