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Hi there,

We have spent this year getting ready for our first camping trip with 2 boys next summer.  They will be 5 and 7.  Can anyone recommend a site with good pool facitilies and near a beach in either Brittany or Normandy.  With this being our first trip abroad we don't want to spend hours sat in the car driving so not too far from a ferry port.  My boys are very active so the more activities on offer the better.  I keep going back to the website for Camping Du Letty in Benodet as it looks fantastic but has no pool.

Thanks in advance!
Cath

Hi

I was very attracted to the Camping du Letty, but I chose the L'Orangerie de Lanniron' at Quimper instead.  It has a pool and in fact there was an additional aqua-pool development last Summer (which isn't in any of the pictures I've seen).

It's always a dilemma for us, since I like low-key and uncommercialised sites which are easy to find in France.  However, our son (11) needs a reasonable choice of activities to keep him happy. 

You also have to be careful in France as the French are in the habit of 'bigging' up the actitivies and you can find that the 'animations' are in fact a juggling clown or a colouring competition!!!!

- Mr Ulti-mates has bought an inflatable Kayak to take with us to L'Orangerie de Lanniron, in the hope that it will provide much of the required activity.

We enjoyed camping club du saint laurent,lovely location next to the sea with a couple of beaches,good kids club that during the end of May was in English,nice atmosphere in the evening at the bar.

Good slides that go into shallow water ( my 5 year old twins cant swim well yet) and of course the area around Concararneau has plenty to do.

Further along the coast we also enjoyed Camping Kervilor which again has an excellent pool complex and a nice location a few minutes drive from the sea.

Further north near St Malo we had a great time at camping la tousse,no pool but a short walk to an excellent beach and a good play park.Very good atmosphere at this site and also different from the preceding two as it feels very French as opposed to the English feel of the previous two.

Hi Cath

As always I would like to add my recommendation for Du Letty.  I expect you have already read my praises on other similar threads and in the reviews here on UKcampsite.

I would highly recommend Camping Du Letty in Benodet. We discovered it on our first visit to France as tent campers and returned many times, latterly as caravanners. Large pitches, friendly staff, excellent amenities and right on the beach. Our 5, now grown up, kids would still come with us if we were going to Du Letty and still talk of it with the greatest fondness.  We discovered Du L on our first visit to France when our kids were 6-14 years old.  We went for a number of consecutive years initially as tenters and latterly as caravanners.

I understand your concern that there is no pool but there is the super small river estuary adjacent to the site and which is probably why there isn't a pool.  It doesn't really need one.  The river estuary, depending on the tide, provides a relatively pool of varying depths surrounded by beache on both sides of the river.  There are bathing platforms in the river too and scope for swimming, boating and any other water-based activities.  We nearly always had excellent weather.

If you want to read my review of the site, and which includes lots of ideas of things to do in and near Benodet, have a look in ukcampsite.co.uk campsite search section. There are lots of other positive reports there by other campers. IMHO Du Letty is EASILY the best site in Brittany.  My wife and I tempted to return most years but there are still so many unseen places to visit in Europe now that we no longer have the kids on board with their interminable "are we there YET"!! ! (In the last couple years we have visited Italy - beautiful for us older, now unaccompanied, romantics).

If your kids get restless driving I would recommend Roscoff as your ferry destination for Brittany.  It is less than 2 hours easy drive from Benodet for example.  The only downside is that Brittany Ferries have become ridiculously expensive.  We found that the cheapest way of going was to book the campsite ourselves direct and book the ferry through the Caravan Club.

Wherever you end up have a super holiday.

(PS I'm NOT on commission from Du L or anyone else, UNFORTUNATELY)

Best wishes

Tim

Hi Mr Paul

Fair comment although a lot of Continental campsites are rather geared up to relying on good weather, Du L included.  In our 13 years of Continental touring I can think of very few site with many indoor facilities.  Even those which have pool complexes tend to have outdoor pools.  Continental campers seem to expect good summer weather and seem to live outside of their 'vans BBQing

Sorry to hear that Summer 2007 was bad in Brittany - we got good weather pretty well all of the years we went.  We always go in July and August as we are teachers and have to go in the School hols.  I do remember one wetter year at Du L when we visited the municipal swimming  pool in Quimper.

Regards

Tim