Belambra Clubs "Les Grands Espaces" — Hotel in Les Sables-d'Olonne

There aren’t many reviews in English, so I thought I would write a review with useful information that I found hard to get before our visit. ||This place is a gem hidden by the French from everyone else - and rightfully so - they don’t want us to come and spoil the perfection, it seems☺️||First of all this place is in a perfect location - it’s 6 hour drive from Calais (French toll roads can be expensive, be ready!) and located just by the sea. ||Town of Saint Jean Du Monts is a pretty lovely civilized town with lots of little restaurants and cafes and things to do, and the beautiful sandy beach is 8km long! Belambra is located a bit further from town centre so its beach is not that busy even during peak time. ||PARKING - When you arrive, don’t be put off with lack of parking at the front, it’s very busy, but if you drove to the second car park there will be plenty of spaces. ||ROOMS - for the two small children we decided to go for a privilege room, it had two bedrooms, both with en-suite shower and toilettes. We didn’t know until we arrived that would be the case as the website doesn’t really give you much information. The room had a cooker hob, a fridge/freezer, all the necessary crockery and cutlery, a vacuum cleaner, a coffee machine, and a toaster. We were on the first floor and we had two balconies - one for drying the clothes and towels, and one for sitting down for dinner. ||Towels are changed mid week, you have to bring the dirty towels to the reception and pickup clean there.||Bring your own: coffee machine filters, cleaning liquid and sponges & hand wash soap. They do provide loo paper, but not many rolls, you can ask for more at the reception or just bring your own. ||LAUNDRY- they have a launderette downstairs in the main building. 4 euros per wash, 3 euros per tumble drying cycle, cash only, washing capsules aren’t included, you can buy washing tablets for 40 cents at the reception. |they have ironing boards and irons also if you need to use it. ||Reception is only open in the morning and afternoon, so if you need to do anything with reception check their opening times. |||KIDS CLUB - simply amazing! Where do I start? They have an amazing team, and we just could praise enough Pedro who speaks good English (I am confident that they are all amazing but we didn’t have a chance to speak English with them). My 5 and 3 year old non-French speaking children were in kids club most of the days, they did lots of activities, played games, did arts and crafts (worthy of taking back home as a souvenir) and on Thursday they had a big show where children were all dressed up and performed on stage. My 5 year old ended up dancing on the front row of the stage. Thank you so much Renardeaux club for letting us to have guilt free mama & papa time ☺️||SWIMMING POOL - we stayed for a week and my daughter had five 30 minute swimming lessons within which she pretty much leant to swim! Group lessons cost 15 euros per lesson, 75 for the week. Private lessons cost 25 euros per lesson, if you have 2 children taught privately it’s 20 euros per lesson per child. ||The swimming instructor Jérémie is really really good, he is so busy, everyone wants to have lessons with him so make sure you book a slot at the very beginning of your stay, he practically lives at the pool side with non stop lessons. He is very calm and attentive, he is amazing with children and because my daughter didn’t speak a word of French, he managed to give her instructions in English during group lessons! Highly recommend Jérémie!||Swimming pool works by booking on the app, but the people seemed not to bother booking as no one checked and everyone seemed to turn up as they wished. The water is clean and the site is regularly cleaned too. In the afternoon it’s full of loud (by still well behaved) teenagers, so if you have swimming lessons for your little one, try and find a morning/early afternoon slot.||RESTAURANT - we had half board, breakfast was included every day and we could choose lunch or dinner as well. Breakfast is least inspiring meal, lunch and dinner are better, with different meat options and salads and greens on offer, and a big choose of desserts. When you come in to the restaurant, inside you wear a mask all the time, and there is a person putting hand sanitizer on your hands every time you come back to the area if you left, even if for 1 second. They are very diligent with hygiene around meal times which is very reassuring. The red and rose wines on the tap are included in the meals. If you I want to purchase dinner - it’s 22 euros per adult, 10 euros per child.||The club offers lots of activities - yoga and walks in the morning, games and movie nights. You can hire bikes or take a lovely guided walk, or walk to a nearby Explora park which is also apparently worth a visit, there is a water sports club with lots of water sports offers is also at the doorstep, you can go for a day to a nearby island. ||It is by no means a luxury stay, the accommodation is pretty basic and could do with a lick of paint and a bit of a refresher, but with the sea at your side, and the amazing kids club and things you can do whilst you have your base, truly make it a very special place. The service is so friendly and immaculate! ||We would love to come back again, we created lovely...

We like to do our own thing on holiday, nice beach or pool, golf, lively town and a selection of restaurants - built up and high density doesn't appeal. I loved the location. Our apartment overlooked sand dunes and a nature reserve so it really felt like you were getting away from it all, heavens . The beach is within walking distance, maybe 5 mins tops. This end of the beach is relatively unpopulated in June, the beach stretches for miles and is great for long walks. There are many walking routes nearby. The pool area is very pleasant, there are three heated pools, plenty of Sen loungers and this area overlooks a small lake which is very pretty. We didn't use the hotel restaurant or bar, preferring to self cater or enjoy local restaurants, so i can't comment on those facilities. Wifi is available in the lobby, even when reception is unmanned. There is a choice of 17 different types of accommodation-the central reservations number was not too enlightening as regards accommodation options; it's difficult to get an operator who speaks English and they are not familiar with all the accommodation options. From speaking to staff at the resort they recommend to contact the resort direct if you are interested in the location.. The sea front resort is within 15 mins walk and there's plenty of choice in typical tourist menus in the restaurants there.The town is about 25 mins walk, or 5 min drive and there's plenty of parking. There's plenty of activity in the town in the morning. At the resort, in addition to the pools, there is also a volleyball court, two table tennis tables,two pétanque areas and a number of playgrounds for small children and there is a safe in the...

I really liked it ! We booked a room the day before leaving, no problem. We even asked for a cheaper room with a "forest view" and still ended up with a room facing the ocean !

Pros :

Great location, a few hundred meters from the ocean. Great prices, especially considering my first point. The room was rather good. Has a heated outdoors pool Dinner was great. You need to book at the reception though. Costs 20€ for adults, 10€ for children. May sound expensive but it's a high quality all-you-can-eat buffet. The staff was top notch, helpful and cheerful, especially the reception manager and the guy at the bar. Plenty of free activities, ranging from group hiking to soft archery. Rarely a dull moment, always something going on in the club.

Cons (but most of these are really petty) :

A major lack of power sockets, we found only three or four usable ones. Get a multisocket. The staff member who checked us in didn't tell us we should have Belambra bracelets on at all times in the club, nor were we told that we had to book for dinner there. Led to awkward situations later on. The bracelets are very hard to remove unless cut, think before putting them on ! The bar offers too few snack options. -The bathroom of the apartment was rather small and cramped

Other than that, it was a pleasant trip. Will probably come again in...