Camping Sandaya Péneyrals - 5 étoiles - Dordogne — Hotel in Sarlat-la-Canéda

We've stayed at Les Péneyrals four times since 2002 predominantly when it was family run and independently owned, and then this year when it was part of the Sandaya group and to be honest not alot has changed. Yes it's got bigger, it's expanded and the range of accommodation has improved and the camping chains, like Eurocamp have gone, but essentially it's the same.

It's a well kept clean site, well laid out set around a fishing lake at the bottom of the hillside and in the valley, with pitches & accommodation up the hillside leading to the main reception area, bar, restaurant and shop at the entrance to the site.

With the exception of the far side of the fishing lake, up along the opposite side of the site in what I would call the new area, all of the pitches are shaded and separated from adjoining pitches by established trees and hedge-rows. When the temperature is in the early to mid-thirties you certainly need the shade. The campsite is very well maintained, the hedges and trees separating the plots aren't over-bearing whilst providing most plots with a good level of privacy.

The facilities, including the washblocks are also very good, very clean and maintained to a high standard. The bins around the site are emptied daily and the main recycling ♻ area is located at the front of the site ensuring that the noise from the empty bottles of wine 🍷 🍾 and beer breaking as they drop into the recycling bins don't keep everyone awake, and the smell of the bins don't linger around anyone's pitch.

The staff were very friendly and helpful, always greeting guests with a smile, a wave and a 'bonjour'.

The lifeguard was a little unique with his whistle almost permanently stuck in his mouth, he could be a rather, umm well let's say 'bossy' to be kind. He also turned a blind eye to the balls flying across the pools when it suited him, overlooked the swim-shorts worn by some whilst telling others to go and buy 'trunks' or 'speedos' because 'no shorts, no shorts' were allowed. But he was friendly enough and clearly took his job seriously, although it was quite funny when he wanted to watch a football match on his phone sat at the pool side and plugged the large speaker into his phone so that we all got to hear what he was watching. It's good to share isn't it 👍🏼.

The exchange rate isn't great at the moment so drinks and food aren't cheap, certainly nothing like they used to be. Leffe was over six euros and Jupiler over five. The bar stocked a good selection of wines with a large pitchet or carafe just over ten euros. Pizzas at the pool side take-away ranged from ten to fifteen euros. And they do offer a good range of freshly prepared and oven-baked pizzas. The only thing that they appeared to be lacking from the takeaway were some deserts, like crepes. Yes you could order some deserts from the restaurant but sometimes it's nice to cook your own meal and then to wander up to the bar and have a crepe cooked for you. So on several occasions we travelled into Sarlat and Salignac and took advantage of the local cafes and their crepes. It's certainly not a critism of the site, we had a great time, very relaxing as we stayed the last week of August and the first week in September, when it was significantly quieter and less busy.

It's a great holiday for families, especially with young children, and as the site gets quieter and moves out of the main summer season the dynamic changes and it becomes quieter, more relaxed and the age of the guests changes noticeably.

On the site you've got tennis, table tennis (better lighting is needed at night as only one of the six tables is lit), crazy golf, fishing and a giant chess set, which was good fun although standing in the sun for 90 minutes playing chess was quite an unusual way to get sun burnt.

There's plenty to do around the area, an abundance of shops and restaurants, plus a canoe trip on the Dordogne River is not to be missed as of course a visit to a château or ten 🏰 which are plentiful.

All in all a good...

We had a great holiday at Peneyrals but there were a few things that we would expect from a true 5 star campsite.||Lovely location, close to Sarlat and other little villages. Can highly recommend trips out to Domme, Beynac, Sarlat market, and coffee shop at Vitrac.||Pool areas good - needs lots more parasols. Speedo rule enforced.||The main bar, restaurant area - didnt do it for us. Too much trying to be done in such a small space. People eating nice evening meal with people dripping from the pool next to them and then kids disco etc all going on at the same time. At peak times the queue from the bar would extend in and around people trying to eat their evening meal - not good having a pair of speedos in your face trying to eat your lovely moules frites!||Smoking in all public areas, especially in the bar/restaurant area. A big problem for us - trying to have an evening drink and the table next to you all light up at once - disgusting. Families trying to eat their evening meal surrounded by tables full of smokers - just aweful. Some of these smokers were the campsite staff.||Picnic table on the deck. Very cheap and uncomfortable, took up a huge amount of space on the deck. Had to keep moving around to open the main door to holiday home! Not suitable for relaxing or spending an evening sitting out on - also not good for my back. The only place in many years of coming to France to have cheap nasty tables.||Our youngest spent a lot of time in the giant sandpit play area - on one occasion he dug up x2 empty glass wine bottles and plastic cups - could have been very dangerous if the bottle had been smashed.||The site staff were great and very pleasant. They spoke very little english. Not a problem for us but I would imagine was for others including Dutch, Belgian, German customers.||The Sunday evening welcome drinks was a good addition, if you can understand french. No english spoken at all by the presenting management team.||Shower blocks dated and in need of refurbishment. 1 out of 5 showers working properly - I tried lots!||Great little fishing lake - caught some lovely carp.||The site is very well marketed/presented - for me I found the photos to be slightly misleading as they gave the impression that the site is much bigger - especially the bar/restaurant areas. When in reality they are very cramped.||In summary lovely little site but definitely not 5* more like a 3. Site is trying to do too much - sometimes less is more! Needs a bit of TLC in places. Would we go back..... no, plenty of other...

What can I say? First day and night was great but the next night was a nightmare. They had music and karaoke out loud until 11pm with it peaking at 81 decibels. Nothing against the entertainment at the lake, it was just the noise levels and the time. If that's what works for Sandaya then fine but there will be less and less British visitors in future||||The other issue was the payment of WiFi. During our stay of 10 days, 6 had no WiFi access for which we have not received an apology or refund.||||Now to the pool. No footwear and take your budgie smugglers with you. The 'lifeguards' are hot on the case on those not wearing them or really tight shorts. This is fine as it's the rule but they are hypocrites. They wear loose shorts and dirty sliders themselves. Without going into detail, if you are French, you work with different rules.||||Continuing with the pool theme, a guy who really pushed the limits on one of the slides ended up injuring himself and the lifeguards were panicking as they had no clue what to do. ||||Left the best to last. You have the option to take the "cleaning package" for €90. We didn't as we pride ourselves as being clean but the condion we found our cabin was pretty dirty and so confusing. It is obvious no-one checks the cabins when people leave as we had stained doors, ripped bedsheets, coffee machine and kettle with massive limescale and dirty, toaster with bread in, fridge freezer had at least 6 months worth of dirt in there.||||We raised most of these issues while at site but there was very little interest. ||||A warning to other British people. If you like a place being like Ibiza until 11pm, then go for this place. Also, just because they have a website In English doesn't mean they slightly cater for the British at all.||||Oh yes, nearly forgot to say that I had to either give my passport or driving licence away just to borrow 2 broken tennis table bats and a ball. Gave away my drivers licence and was kept in an unsecured building/shed. Don't understand why they could have taken our name and cabin number.||||This is the first time I felt the need to leave a review but Sandaya need to clarify their offer during the booking process in order to reduce the negative...