Camping Piani di Clodia — Hotel in Lazise

Stayed here with the two kids (13 and 11) Friday to Friday in the May school holiday. Fantastic experience and I would highly recommend.

ACCOMMODATION We stayed in one of the Crystal Lake maxicaravans, which are the front row of maxicaravans overlooking the lake. The hot tub and dining table on the terrace were in the shade which was very welcome in the hot heat. We ate breakfast on there every day and it was a real treat.

The caravan was clean and tidy, and the beds were comfortable. If I had one complaint about the main double bedroom it was that the plugs are not in a particularly convenient location for the bed. So you have to get back out of bed if you want to put your phone on charge... Yes, bit of a first world problem I know! No such problem in the twin room with lots of plugs and separate USB outlets right next to the beds.

The caravan had a good selection of kitchen equipment with an induction hob and microwave. I made coffee each morning in the percolator, which was excellent! Did some simple pasta dishes on a couple of nights with ingredients from the shop and the welcome pack pasta (a nice touch).

Be warned - being next to the lake, there are high mosquito and midge levels at night and I would recommend keeping the caravan doors shut from about half 8 at night. Also be prepared to wipe all the dead midges off the dining table each morning!

ACTIVITIES There is a wide range of bikes available to hire from the site. We hired three simple mountain bikes for 24 hours and took them south down the gravel path that runs alongside the lake. There are lots of places to stop and enjoy the views along the way. I would say that care is required as many people hire ebikes and ride quite fast and inconsiderately along here.

We played a couple of rounds of the mini golf which was great fun.

As we stayed at the park outside of the peak season, only one of the water parks was open. We went here one day - there is a small, warm, splash pool for small kids and a larger, colder (!) pool for others. Once used to the water temperature it is great fun, with four good slides.

FACILITIES The onsite shop has a great selection of freshly backed pastries. There is a big queue to the bakery counter from 8 am, and I found it better to go about 9am. There is also plenty of supplies to make some varied meals at the park if you wish. We made a lot of use of the tote bag that is a welcome gift - a great idea!

We ate lunch at the Marc Aurelio restaurant on our day of arrival. Kids had pasta dishes, which were great. I had a ham and mushroom pizza which was a bit overwhelming - base quite thick (not expecting for Italian pizza!) so it was very filling. I was informed after giving up that most guests eat half and get the rest boxed up! However, the chocolate salami was very good!

We had takeaway pizza one night from the other bar - these were delicious (better than the restaurant) and well priced (about 10 euro each).

There is an underground car park for those staying in the maxicaravans.

There is a nice small sandy beach area that can be reached down some short hills from the park. We went here quite a few evenings - there are folding chairs for park guest and it is a lovely spot to relax and watch the sun go down.

It is difficult to say how things would be in the busier peak times. One thing I feel is that the park caters extremely well for young children but older kids will probably not be so interested in the evening mini disco. My two were certainly a bit old for that hence evenings were largely just spent in the caravan.

LAKE GARDA AREA We hired a car from Verona airport - something I thought was an extravagance at the time but I feel it was essential. There is a bus service and taxis are not so common. Having a car allowed us to travel to the towns on the south east park...

Pianni di Clodia ||Stayed from 7th August to the 19th of August on a pitch plus with our tent. ||Accommodation ||Pitch size was fine with electricity and water. ||What was not so fine is the way the pitches are packed in and are crowded and not to mention noisy at night with no noise regulation from staff for example quite time after 11pm (ear plugs came in handy) ||Shower blocks and toilets ||Shower blocks are all clean and regularly attended to by cleaning staff. ||The toilet facilities are next door to the showers, once again the toilets are cleaned on a regular basis, but staff clearly do not know the meaning of cleaning quietly especially early in the morning with toilet lids simply being dropped or slammed down after cleaning, wouldn't be so bad if the toilet lids are soft closing which they are not. ||Choose your pitch carefully as you will not be wanting to stay near any of these facilities. ||Swimming Pools ||Plenty of choices for swimming pools but they are all overcrowded. ||The waterpark closest to the reception area is less crowded but if you fancy a relaxing swim, you will be disappointed due to the number of balls and Frisbees flying through the air. It's not relaxing in the slightest. ||Bars ||Nothing but terrible service will be found here. ||To buy a drink, you will queue and once you get to the cashier you will order your drinks and then be given a receipt which you will then move a metre sideways round the bar to hand the ticket over to someone else who will then slowly get your overpriced drinks. This is even worse at the wooden hut bar near the main stage. ||Once again you will queue in the heat and humidity only to pay one person only for them to give you a receipt and then form another queue less than half a metre round the corner to have your overpriced drinks dispensed by another member of the bar staff at such a leisurely pace you might have fully dehydrated by the time you actually get them. ||For goodness' sake...Surely it would be quicker the same person who took the payment to dispense the drinks rather than the crazy ticket method. ||To avoid the awful service and overpriced drinks, just go to the supermarket and buy your beverages of choice, put it all in a cool box and take that with you to watch the evening entertainment. ||When you leave the evening entertainment area you may notice a handful of security staff. This is the only place you will see them. No idea what else they are meant to be doing, perhaps they just stay there all night.... who knows! ||Restaurants ||If you are going to eat on site, I can highly recommend the Marc’Aurelio restaurant this is a little oasis of calm and fantastic service (Probably because it is independent) and not to mention fantastic food. Go here, you will not be disappointed. ||Take out Pizza is also great near the main bar. ||Conclusions ||Pianni di Clodia is great if you just want to base yourself there and want to spend most of your time away from the complex visiting other places like Lazise or Verona. ||If you are looking for a relaxing family holiday unfortunately, I cannot recommend this holiday park. ||If you are looking at their social media and thinking this looks amazing that will be down to the staged shots from their onsite media team who take some great shots, but sadly this is not reality. ||Fancy a walk down by the lake in the evening? Better stock up on mosquito repellent or perhaps a bit of stargazing? No chance due to the amount of light pollution. ||Verona is about half an hour drive away and is a beautiful city with plenty to see and do. Lazise is just 10 minutes away and a boat trip around the lake...

We are not long back from this lovely campsite. We booked it as soon as the booking site opened as had been looking at it for a few years but it always seemed to be full when we were booking somewhere.||We booked a Maxicaravan Romeo and it didn't disappoint. There was a large double room and a second room with a double and a top bunk so plenty of room for our family of four. The bathroom was plenty big and it had a nice large covered deck with loungers and outdoor table and chairs.||The location of our maxicaravan was perfect for us - almost overlooking the pool and the football pitch. Our kids are 14 and 15 so we didn't mind the noise during the day. The campsite is very strict about noise at night as once 11 came, there were security staff telling people to go inside their caravans if there was any noise. Ideal if you have younger kids.||We had family travelling with us and had requested a nearby caravan. They were literally right beside us which was great for all the kids.||The main restaurant in the square Catullo left a lot to be desired. The food was just ok but the service was shocking. No one came to serve us until we asked about 4 people and eventually the one who was supposed to be looking after our table came and finally took an order - all the time looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. This happened on both occasions that we ate there. Then the food came which was grand but no cutlery until we went and found some in a drawer as no one would bring us any despite asking a few different people. ||The other restaurant Marc'Aurelio was a much nicer experience. The staff were older and much nicer. The food was so much better there too. ||The free shuttle bus in the evening to Lazise was brilliant. We used this a few times and ate in some lovely restaurants in town. The lake front is beautiful to wander along in the evenings also. We were able to walk into Lazise from our campsite along a gravel/sand path along the lake too which we did a couple of times.||The pool areas were brilliant. We stayed at the upper pool area as it was so close to our caravan and the other pool complex further down looked great too but seemed much busier and harder to get loungers at. There was never an issue getting loungers at the pool which was great. The pool opened at 10am and closed at 7pm. One of the pools with the larger slides, which our kids were more interested in, didn't open until July 1st which I thought was quite late as the campsite was busy at the end of June.||All in all, we had a fantastic holiday in this campsite and it was very clean and well run. The check-in and check-out was very quick and efficient. We were able to walk to Canevaworld waterpark and had a brilliant day there too. We bought reduced price tickets for there at the campsite. Need to start looking now...