Camping Sandaya Riviera d'Azur - 5 étoiles — Hotel in Draguignan

This is absolutely not a 5 star site. The facilities we encountered were about a 2 Star in terms of the camping. Stayed for a week in our own caravan. We were placed in an area near the pool which was clearly repurposed static pitches. We chose this site as it had grassy pitches and states you could relax "in tranquility". In reality it was a gravel pitch with music booming until 11.30 at night and for much of the day. When I say booming - it was enough to make our caravan shudder. We have young kids including an 8 month old baby during our stay. Both the gravel pitch and noise were wholly unsuitable with a crawling baby. The site is falsely advertised. In addition, the lovely washrooms on their photos were at the other end of the site and instead we had a portacabin outside style which either had no hot water or would not keep a steady temperature (either scalding or freezing). There were only 4 unisex showers and 4 unisex toilets (2 missing toilet seats which were not replaced despite raising awareness during our week long stay) and as they are right by the bar and pool they were often utilised by those using other facilities meaning a long wait. They were often dirty and missing toilet paper. For 5 stars I expect a decent shower. ||The nearest water and waste points were right at the opposite side of the camp site meaning a long 10 minute walk each way in the sun to empty the waste then repeat to fill the water. We resorted to having to use our car to carry and fetch water. Everywhere else we stayed around Europe on our 6 week trip had water on the pitch and for less money. ||Other guests inconsiderate parking made it difficult to get our caravan in and out of the site.||The pool area is poorly maintained and poorly designed. Most of the water is very deep and where it is shallow the poolside is narrow making it difficult to supervise children. There is very limited shade and the pool is often heaving. Getting a sunbed or shade was a challenge. The security guard on the gate for the pool was rude and unhelpful (eg watching us struggle with the buggy and not opening the gate or even moving out of the way). He was so rude to me on one occasion I didn't want to return to the pool that day (he was unnecessarily very confrontational about my disability instead of being kind about it). Music booms so loudly by the pool between 10-12.30 and after 3pm that sat next to each other we had to shout to hear each other. I don't mind music, but the level was excessive.||The evening entertainment was a good effort (albeit not our taste) but was ill thought out and at times inappropriate. For example making a joke of Princess Diana and showing wild west shoot outs on the big screen immediately after the kids disco before we had left with small children. It was very loud and very late.||Kids couldn't utilise kids club as it was all in French and inappropriate activities for their age group. 5 and 7 year old boys want to play football or games not sit and do art and craft. It was aimed too young. ||It was really hard to push a buggy along the gravel roads and the campsite maintenance for some reason decided to come and rake it through creating a lot of dust right at lunchtime whilst we were eating. ||Washing machines are expensive and so is WiFi. Everywhere else we stayed and paid less money for, it was free. ||All in all we left after a week feeling exhausted and needing a holiday as it was hard work and we got no sleep. Kids were cranky from being disturbed until late at night. We did complain and were offered another pitch but it also was in a noisy spot (as the neighbouring site often has entertainment going on later than 11.30) so was no better. We wouldn't return...

This is absolutely not a 5 star site. The facilities we encountered were about a 2 Star in terms of the camping. Stayed for a week in our own caravan. We were placed in an area near the pool which was clearly repurposed static pitches. We chose this site as it had grassy pitches and states you could relax "in tranquility". In reality it was a gravel pitch with music booming until 11.30 at night and for much of the day. When I say booming - it was enough to make our caravan shudder. We have young kids including an 8 month old baby during our stay. Both the gravel pitch and noise were wholly unsuitable with a crawling baby. The site is falsely advertised. In addition, the lovely washrooms on their photos were at the other end of the site and instead we had a portacabin outside style which either had no hot water or would not keep a steady temperature (either scalding or freezing). There were only 4 unisex showers and 4 unisex toilets (2 missing toilet seats which were not replaced despite raising awareness during our week long stay) and as they are right by the bar and pool they were often utilised by those using other facilities meaning a long wait. They were often dirty and missing toilet paper. For 5 stars I expect a decent shower. ||The nearest water and waste points were right at the opposite side of the camp site meaning a long 10 minute walk each way in the sun to empty the waste then repeat to fill the water. We resorted to having to use our car to carry and fetch water. Everywhere else we stayed around Europe on our 6 week trip had water on the pitch and for less money. ||Other guests inconsiderate parking made it difficult to get our caravan in and out of the site.||The pool area is poorly maintained and poorly designed. Most of the water is very deep and where it is shallow the poolside is narrow making it difficult to supervise children. There is very limited shade and the pool is often heaving. Getting a sunbed or shade was a challenge. The security guard on the gate for the pool was rude and unhelpful (eg watching us struggle with the buggy and not opening the gate or even moving out of the way). He was so rude to me on one occasion I didn't want to return to the pool that day (he was unnecessarily very confrontational about my disability instead of being kind about it). Music booms so loudly by the pool between 10-12.30 and after 3pm that sat next to each other we had to shout to hear each other. I don't mind music, but the level was excessive.||The evening entertainment was a good effort (albeit not our taste) but was ill thought out and at times inappropriate. For example making a joke of Princess Diana and showing wild west shoot outs on the big screen immediately after the kids disco before we had left with small children. It was very loud and very late.||Kids couldn't utilise kids club as it was all in French and inappropriate activities for their age group. 5 and 7 year old boys want to play football or games not sit and do art and craft. It was aimed too young. ||It was really hard to push a buggy along the gravel roads and the campsite maintenance for some reason decided to come and rake it through creating a lot of dust right at lunchtime whilst we were eating. ||Washing machines are expensive and so is WiFi. Everywhere else we stayed and paid less money for, it was free. ||All in all we left after a week feeling exhausted and needing a holiday as it was hard work and we got no sleep. Kids were cranky from being disturbed until late at night. We did complain and were offered another pitch but it also was in a noisy spot (as the neighbouring site often has entertainment going on later than 11.30) so was no better. We wouldn't return...

Not what you think of a „5 star“ location. Far from it.

I quite thought some time if I should even review but all in all and frankly speaking Sandaya deserves a massive kick in the back for their performance!

We stayed the 5th time with Sandaya this year (Douce Quietude, Castellane and Riviera D’Azur) and we always liked it in the past. However this year was different, way different!

About Riviera D’Azur I can say you should (especially in high season and the current set up) avoid it! It is simply toooo full with people. The pool feels like being canned fish – you cannot swim at all and all this seems to be a joke! How many people you think you can squeeze in here??? As a result the water gets dirty due to so many people and we caught a „nice” upset stomach which gave us some suffering nights.

The Bar/Restaurant staff is obviously also not planned for so many people. Waiting queues, young guys (trying to do the best they can, fair enough) in sweat with no Pause and no chance to serve this amount of people. Another joke and definitely not worth to be called a proper „Holiday – the Sandaya way“ like I used to know it.

#capitalism xxl … you cannot squeeze the sponge like this to maximize income by giving a s* about the quality. I forgot to take a picture of the Sandaya flags at the entrance as they were looking really bad with faded color and torn material. As flags are used to signal something, these flags waved the information that money was saved here on all ends.

I have also preodered a WLAN pass. Well, what can you expect from a place with simply too many people? Paying money for internet access but no bandwidth at all. To be clear it was more like NO CONNECTION at all. In other words: waisted money for nothing. No Mail checking, no downloads/uploads, we could not event book a stayover for our journey back home.

As all of this would be enough already the list goes on … horrible smell at the pool area which was heavily noticeable on our place, leaf blower starting at 09:00 in the morning (is this what you think Holidays should be? Wake Up service with leaf blowers? Especially after there was a VERY LOUD party going on at the neighbor site until 03:00 in the night!!!) and last but not least a massive leaf blower action at mid day right next to the pool and the sandy area which gave us a nice sand storm while trying to chill out at the beach…

Too many jokes guys and for us definitely too many points to consider not coming back.

A big shout at last to the lovely team of animators and kids club guides. These young folks are doing a great job and I cannot imagine how hard this is, if the management fails to cover here as it should be for such a good team. Poor guys and a big fat MINUS for Sandaya this year. We will consider going to another site where we feel better taken care of for next year as... THIS WASN'T A...