Camping Riva Bella Seasonova — Hotel in Caen

I never write bad reviews, however I cannot let slide how we’ve been treated this week. We actually had no complaints about the site, cleanliness, staff etc, as we have used this site before and there has never been a problem, up until now. On the fourth day of our holiday (we still had three days left) we received a call to say that the site was being evacuated due to a storm coming. I explained that we were in Paris for the day & our train would not get us back until 8pm. We explained that we would get back when we could as we had a car there and all of our stuff in the mobile home, most importantly, everything for our six month old daughter. The lady on the phone said that was fine and would keep us updated. I would like to add that the weather was absolutely fine at this point, and it was when we got back at 8pm, even though she told us it was starting at 5pm. There did seem to be wind in the middle of the night and I’m not disputing that they have to follow safety procedures, however it was the way we were then treated is the main problem. We arrived back at the site just after 8pm, to find it was completely abandoned and they had locked us out. We managed to walk through a small gate to reception, which was in darkness and no one was answering the emergency phone number on the door. We could see a light on upstairs so we started knocking at the door, to be ignored by the staff who we could now see upstairs. They eventually sent down the security guard who just said, the camp is closed you need to leave. They let us collect our stuff, while none of them came to check on us, and let us go without any kind of refund/compensation, and nowhere booked to stay with a six month old baby. The lack of care & compassion has been disgusting, the least they could have done was help us book somewhere to stay and check if we needed any help whilst packing up. I also can’t believe there was no one there to greet us when we arrived back, they just seemed to bury their heads about the whole situation and it was so unprofessional. I would like to also just add this was afew days before the end of the season, we were one of the last families there & they had spent the whole day before packing all of the site up, the storm seemed to be convenient for them. What makes matters worse is that we have now been completely ignored by them in terms of getting a refund. The phone line has been cut off, I had one email replied to that simply sent a photo of a tree down on the site, but everything else has been ignored. It’s a shame because we will never use this site again, we are now £700 down after paying for a hotel, and we are being...

We stayed overnight at this caravan site after booking it through the Caravan Club direct. The site itself has everything that you would need. It has an indoor pool, bar area, takeaway, kids playground area, VERY clean toilets and excellent showers. It is located abut 5 minutes from the ferry port and we used it to catch the 0830 ferry to Portsmouth. It must have taken 5 minutes to get to the Ferry terminal. The gate opens at 06:30 and is a code exit as well as entry. You can tell that the owners are working hard to make the site nice, but if they could move the immigrants on, they would be in a much stronger position. The receptionist didn't seem to bothered about the gathering of men to the front of site, but she is either putting a brave face on it, or she is used to them not causing any issues. I don't have the answer to this. On the way into the caravan site, there are a few gatherings of immigrants who paid no attention to us at all, but it is disconcerting to know they are there. The grassed areas around the entrance to the site have been fenced off to try and dissuade the immigrants from gathering and I suspect that this has made a difference. Through the night, we did hear a number of lorries blaring their horns at the immigrants, but I can't say if that was to frighten them away or if they were actively trying to stop the wagons. There is a lot of road noise at the area set aside for overnight stops, but I feel that if you parked further away this wouldn't be so much of an issue. We left the car hitched up and ready to go early the following morning and we noted that a lot of people did this. There is a security guard who we saw patrolling the site from around 18:00 onwards and we saw him a few times as we sat outside. The toilets don't have seats or toilet paper which is a surprise in this day and age, but we used our own facilities, so no big issue for us. The site is clearly very popular for the people getting the ferry from the port, and not many seemed to be concerned about the immigrants outside. As we left, the immigrants paid no attention to us at all, and when we arrived at the port we encountered no enhanced security checks due to where we stayed. I hope people find this useful and provides a balanced view...

Competent and friendly management. We started with 3 nights and ended up with a full 8 day stay because we liked the place.

Well kept campingsite...bit like a park. Onsite Bistro/Pizzeria offers good tasty food..Not cheap but worth the price.

Sanitaries : Very simple but clean and taken care off several times / day.

Supermarkets ( Carrefour, Lidl) , Bakery( and pastry ) and Fuelstation( ESSO) just 5-10 Minutes walking distance.Also two shops for local products ( Cidre, Calvados...😄)

Busstop to Caen (Lines 12 and12Xpress stop 5 minutes walk from the Castle ) in 10 Minutes walking distance .

Beaches and downtown with tons of restaurants, shops, banks, pharmacies....10 Minutes by bicycle.

Very good Restaurants downtown / seaside we tested : Jo & Jack, Voile Blanche. Many things to do. Top bicycle routes.

What could be done better on the campsite : SPEEDLIMIT on the campground...people drive waaayyy too fast. New / other type of spenders for toilet paper. Installed ones are cheap and don't work. Seatings on the toilets. Tell parents to educate their children that toilets are no playground and toilet-paper is ressource, not something to shred to pieces and throw around like snowflakes...

Let people know that crossing other campers occupied pitches is not "gentile" and disturbs privacy sphere.

Let people know that radio/ music volume has to be toned down to a level not disturbing others.

Let people know, that rainwater sinks at the pitch site are NOT for dumping kitchen residues...

In general...keep a little bit more discipline among guests for the sake of all. I know this is not "en vogue" today, but a society without rules doesn't work. And a campsite is like a little society/ village.

Others : We will certainly come back next year for another week, or two.

One point I forgot : Yes there are migrants from Africa next to the Camping. BUT : they don't do any harm and are happy not to be bothered. It is not nice being on vacation while just a fed meters away, people fight for survival. However, this belongs to our world and we will have to learn to live with it. Not visiting cities who have a migrant problem is no solution. And practically all cities with overseas / channel crossing ferry ports have...