Bonne Anse Plage — Hotel in Rochefort

This was our 3rd visit to Bonne Anse Plage, and 5th visit to this area having also stayed in nearby Les Charmettes (also Siblu). We are a family of 5 from Dublin, Ireland (kids now 17, 14 and 11). We originally booked our trip for mid July this year but had to cancel 2 days before travelling due to my son catching Covid. Our worst nightmare realised. We were able to rebook though for 2 weeks later when my son had recovered (and no one else caught it), so we eventually travelled from 30 July to 13 Aug 2022. ||||What we liked...||LOCATION: We absolutely love this whole area, but love the Bonne Anse campsite too. Located at the edge of a large forest that stretches about 15km. Its right on the coast, but nearest beaches are about 3km away. Its more marshland by the campsite itself. Big attraction for us are the cycle tracks that run alongside the site through the forest and along the coast. You can cycle almost anywhere, and most of it if off road. 3km west you come to the impressive "phare de la coubre" (lighthouse) which is located on a beach that I'm told stretches 15-20km. Its right on the Atlantic, so exposed, and from what I have seen can get quite choppy. It is an impressive beach, but be wary as I dont think it has any lifeguard cover. The other direction stretches down to nearby La Palmyre, which has some small beaches along the promenade (which the cycle paths run by). But our favourite beach is a further 2km on (la plage de la grande cote). Its 4km long, sandy, reasonably sheltered and has good lifeguard cover in places, so ideal for kids in particular. La Palmyre has some restaurants, a well known zoo, markets etc ||||CAMPSITE: Reasonably large but compact site. Staff are excellent...couldn't be more helpful. Nice pool, although can get busy at peak times. I like the fact that they zone off some lanes for people to do some length swimming without fear of kids jumping on top of you. On site restaurant was actually not bad...can get a bit slow when busy, but staff are pleasant, work hard so not their fault. Plenty of entertainment, some good, some not so good, but all part of the fun. ||||BIKES: If you cannot bring your own bike, you can rent on site from a local rental company. We brought 3, and hired two on site for 2 weeks. Cost was about €80 per bike for the 2 weeks this time which was a big jump from when we last visited in 2019 when it was about €57 for a similar type of bike. ||||WEATHER: Had to mention the weather, as this year it was extremely hot...unusually so from our experience. While we were there temps were often in mid 30's (centigrade), and would drift above 40 degrees some afternoons. Coming from Ireland, I am not complaining, but we did have to avoid the sun at peak times. Usually temps here (from our experience) would be in mid to late 20's on a good day, and only occasionally would go above 30 degrees, so this year was unusual...or is it? Downside, but understandably, there was a ban on using the BBQ for most of our stay. On previous trips, if eating in, we did all the cooking on the BBQ. We had air con in our original booking, but when we had to cancel and rebook, we lost that, and boy did we miss it. Cooking in a mobile without the aircon turned the whole mobile into a hot sauna. Very unpleasant in that heat. Also sleeping was an issue...Siblu did provide us with fans, but these were just blowing around very hot air. Although after a cold shower, the air felt a lot cooler for a while. So a few short cold showers needed to get some sleep!!||||SUPERMARKETS: On site one was very basic, but ok for some essentials. In nearby La Palmyre you have a smallish Carrefour. Can get quite busy, and has limited stock supply. In Arvert, about 20-25 min drive away, you have 4 supermarkets....a large Super-U on the outskirts of town, a large Inter-Marche about a mile further out, while in the middle of the town, located beside each other, you have another Carrefour and an Aldi. These are a good bit smaller though than the two other ones on the outskirts of town. We found Super-U though the best one in the area. We also liked the odd trip up to La Rochelle (about 80km away, approx 55 min drive) where there is a very large Carrefour supermarket, ideal for that large shop...its located in Angoulins which is on the route down from La Rochelle to Bonne Anse. ||||OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:||1) La Rochelle, approx 80 km from Bonne Anse. Lovely marina with plenty of restaurants with a daily market. Also has a fabulous aquarium, open usually to about 10 or 11pm during peak summer months.||||2) The island of Ile-de-Re, just off coast from La Rochelle. Can drive onto it via a 3km bridge. Costs €16 to drive over, but island is lovely. The town of Saint Martin de Re is worth a visit. ||||3) A bit of a trip, but the theme park "Puy de Fou" is worth a trip, especially for the older kids. No roller coasters in this park, just themed performances (shows) mostly of historical significance, but very well done. Very professional. About a 2.5 hr drive, up near Nantes. They market overnight trips, so might even be one for stopping on the way home. The evening show on the lake was spectacular (not the cinematic one at the weekends...i heard that was very long). This was 30 mins long. Finishes though at 10.30pm in the summer, which means not getting back to campsite until 1-2 am||||TRAVEL (for those travelling from Ireland): Travelled with Irish Ferries, Dublin to Cherbourg. Its an 18.5 hour crossing, mostly at night. A fabulous stress free way of travelling with plenty to do on board. Prices shot up this year though post covid. Trip from Cherbourg to Bonne Anse is approx 575 km, which takes about 6.25 hours to drive, without stops. Motorways from Port, but last 150 km is a mix of national roads and dual carriageways. Last 50km is around resorts area, where traffic can be quite busy in places. Plan for 8 hr trip with stops. Also plan for bottlenecks in or around Nantes on return journey, especially if travelling on a Sat. Can add 30 mins to journey time.||||No real dislikes BUT I do have one point of criticism for Siblu from this trip....their "cancellation insurance". After we booked back in January, we got phone calls the day after from staff in Siblu asking us did we want to take out their cancellation insurance. There was no mention of it online and it was not discussed when I booked with them over the phone. But they tried to sell this to me the next day ,pushing it almost. But I would have to book it straight way as it must be booked on booking. I did not take it though in my initial booking, as I was not convinced they could sell it to me as I live outside of France. Their staff insisted I could, but did not convince me. The insurance is not mentioned on their Irish and even their UK versions of their site, BUT they have a large section about it on their French site, all in French obviously. I had it translated, and while not clear, I am pretty sure you must be resident in France to take it. After we had to cancel for covid, and rebook at a higher cost, I did take it up on rebooking, again after their staff tried to sell it to me. i only did so though because I was unsure about my travel insurance covering a second cancellation if covid struck again, especially if one of us caught it off my son. I did so though on the back of what the staff said to me, and I felt I would have enough grounds to claim because of that should the need have arisen. I would be careful though if you are offered this and live outside of France. It is sold by a French Insurance company, and from my understanding, insurance companies cannot sell to residents outside their state. I could be wrong on that, but I was unable to establish for sure with Siblu. But if anyone from Siblu reads this, PLEASE ensure you market it clearly on all your websites. I might have paid for something you cannot stand over. ||||Overall though that did not take away from the holiday we had. Would highly recommend this site and the area....

We (my wife and I) returned home last weekend after a thoroughly enjoyable week at Siblu Bonne Anse. The beauty and naturalness of this under-rated corner of Western France has been well documented in previous reports: the place exudes a healthy lifestyle, including super opportunities for cycling, jogging, beach-combing and walking.|| The site itself is relatively secluded, with the semi-chic resort of La Palmyre close at hand. Our mobile home was of excellent standard, with large terrace and all the facilities we needed: the wooded location and reasonable space between the mobile homes gives the place a relaxed, tranquil and no-rush feel. Friendliness abounds.||What makes this place special, however, are the people who work here - although everyone is so cheerful and obliging their ‘work’ comes across as being a profound pleasure. The reception team were well-informed, very helpful and always welcoming. The boys and girls in the Atlantic Restaurant and bar were always efficient, smiling, jovial, and nothing was too much trouble for them. The Animation team (who run the kids’ clubs, daytime and evening entertainment, and seemingly never pause for breath - this place is a kids and teens paradise, by the way) put in a phenomenal performance, mindful that the audience is largely French but also multi-national, and making allowances for that.||Ably led by the tireless and inspirational Matthieu, the animation team of Amelie, Baptiste, Celia, Dino, Dorian, Juliette, Leni, Lola, Maielle, Rose and Ugo - and anyone we may have forgotten (and apologies for any misspellings!) - all deserve a name call for their energy, enthusiasm, creativity and high levels of skill : and because across the week they showed they are absolute stars in every sense.||A big thanks to everyone for making our week so memorable.||Phil &...

Amazing location, fabulous campsite that feels very authentic and rustic. Access to beaches and miles and miles of safe cycle routes are what give this the wow factor, plus the friendliness of the staff. Campsite feels very safe and quite even in the mornings if you are not an early riser :). The only problem we had was the pool area was extremely limited and would give us hesitancy to go back. There is nothing like a dedicated bar area in pool zone to have a nice coffee and afternoon cold beer in safe view of watching kids. There is nothing like that here which is very dissappointing for parents who might want to have a coffee or cocktail while kids are playing in pool while they read their book or have adult chats. All other campsites we visited always had this like a beach bar in the pool area. We all found this a bumper. The 3 slides are limited to, no fun duo slides as kids love to go down in twos with parents are friends. pool area is the only place that needs investment. Which is a pity as 10 out of 10 other than this. Mobile homes fabulous, new and spacious. All in all loved...