Travel

Eurocamp Les Aliscourts Resort France Review

EurocampLes Aliscourts Resort
Loire Valley, France

www.eurocamp.co.uk

Reviewed by Emma Bradley

In early July we were given the opportunity to review a one week break at a Eurocamp parc. We chose Les Aliscourts Resort in the Loire Valley in central France. Our party consisted of two adults, a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Included in the trip was return ferry crossing from Dover to Calais.

Journey and Ferry Crossing
As we had a long drive from Manchester to Dover we decided to break up the journey at Dover and found a cheap hotel just off the A2 outside Dover, this worked well and allowed us to catch an early P&O ferry from Dover the following morning. Arriving early and travelling with children resulted in us being put on an earlier ferry meaning the waiting time was limited, plus they put us directly next to the lifts, which meant getting to the passenger areas was made as easy as possible.

The quick trip over the Channel gave us time to get breakfast and the kids eat free vouchers given on check in helped save some pennies. Breakfast was as good as one might expect on a mass-produced catering facility but it was disappointing to see no specific children’s options meaning the service was slow due to having to select individual items from the hot plate and with coach loads of children on day trips it took over 45 minutes to get served.

On leaving the ferry we headed for Paris, around the peripherique and then headed South to Orleans on the French Motorway network. The roads are great and allow quick progress and the frequent service areas allow for plenty of toilet stops for the 3 year old (he liked the automatic toilets but was a bit confused by the “holes in the ground”!). A slightly scary experience around the peripherique when we were driving on fumes due to not filling up before Paris and a last minute dash across 4 lanes of traffic into a petrol station set the heart racing a little. We had estimated a 3.5 hour drive to the resort but with stops it took closer to 5 hours (including a stop at a local supermarket to stock up on essentials).

Arrival at the parc
On arrival at the parc we checked in at the main site reception who directed us to the Eurocamp reception. The rep took us to our holiday home, an Avant 3-bed with decking, she showed us the rooms and left us to our devices. After a quick tour of the holiday home we unpacked the car and settled in. The raised decking was surrounded by a stable and strong fence and gate meaning it was safe to allow the children free access to the inside and outside areas which was fantastic.

The open plan lounge, kitchen and dining area is spacious and airy with two sets of double patio doors onto the decking allowing plenty of air to circulate. Off the lounge there are 3 bedrooms (one double, one twin and one bunkbeds) and a small but functional bathroom with a shower cubicle. Each bedroom had an ample wardrobe and cupboard, with a small bathroom cupboard and plenty of cupboard space in the kitchen with a full size fridge/freezer and well stocked cutlery and crockery, along with a good selection of pans and cooking dishes. The covered area outside gave a great eating area with a large dining table, whilst offering protection from the elements in the event of inclement weather. A set of outside lights meant you could sit out into the evening if you wanted to brave the insects which were aggressive once the sun went down. The couch area was ideal for a family with small children as the covers were all wipeable and waterproof and the laminate flooring throughout made cleaning easy and all brushes/mops were provided.

Les Alicourts Resort
The parc itself had a great range of facilities and although the parc had been flooded two weeks earlier during the worst flooding in recent history in France, there was no evidence to suggest this bar the surface on the tennis court had been damaged, and the machine on the wave pool being out of order and was being repaired. The children had a great time on the 2 large play areas which are both set in large sand areas with seating around for the adults, these catered for children up to about 10 years old. For older children there are table tennis tables, boules area, volleyball/badminton net, football area, tennis courts and mini-golf course. Most of these are free but all the rest are reasonably priced and will keep the children entertained, all the equipment can be hired from the parc activities centre along with bike hire and go karts. The range of bikes is really good and will accommodate everyone’s wishes, bikes can be hired from half an hour to the full duration of your stay. For younger children there was also a small indoor soft play/ activity area which our two thoroughly enjoyed.

The parc is situated around a large lake that provides another large range of activities, from lake swimming and beach, beachside bar, lake fishing, pedalos, kayaking/canoeing, paddle boarding and wakeboarding on a fixed wire facility. Add this to the large pool complex and there is things to keep the whole family entertained all day without the need to leave the parc if you so desire.

There is a large pool complex which comprises a mixture of pool sizes, depths and slides etc.

The main covered pool (cover opens in hot weather) is heated and ranges from a small toddler pool with slide, to a large pool from 70cm to 1.7m in depth. Around the pool there are a large number of sunloungers inside the covered area meaning the pool can be used regardless of the weather.

Outside of the covered area there is a heated pool with two large slides, a twisty slide which is small child friendly and a fast straight slide for the more adventurous, even on the cooler days this was still warm enough to entice people out of the covered area.

There is an unheated toddler pool outside with a number of showers and water jets to keep the kids entertained. In warm weather this would be full of children and another set of slides into a shallow pool give the small children the thrill they seek.

There is also a large wave pool, which unfortunately was broken during our stay but you could imagine it full of adults and children in the height of summer.

There are also two big waterslides, one set-up for two person rubber rings and a smaller one person slide. These are open at certain times but are available for all children at adults discretion.  Our 3 year old loved the rubber ring slide and would have spent all day on it if we allowed!

All the pools and surrounding areas are impeccably clean and well maintained, at certain times of the year these are patrolled by lifeguards but the area is well designed so even without lifeguards you can see all areas to keep children supervised.

As well as the leisure activities there are a number of other facilities on site:

A small supermarket is well stocked and has long opening hours meaning all essentials are on hand. As you would expect the shop is pricey compared to local supermarkets but it is convenient.

There is a restaurant and takeaway on the parc which both seemed very popular and reasonably priced. Both of these were open for lunch and evening meals every day.

The bar offered evening entertainment daily that was suitable for all ages and was busy every evening. The views over the lake were fairly special as the sunset. There is a small theatre linked to the bar which hosts entertainment shows during the summer months.

Wifi is available from the main reception on subscription basis but it doesn’t cover the full parc, there is also a web service within the small book exchange.

Laundry services etc. are all available on the parc on coin meters.

During summer months there are also children’s clubs and activities for 4 plus.

The parc is situated within the amazing Loire valley with lots of Chateaus in the local area. The nearest town (Lamotte Beuvron) with a supermarket is about 15kms away but has everything you could need to keep your holiday going. A little further afield is Orleans which is a large city, train services are available from Lamotte Beuvron to save driving into the city.

Day trips
To be honest we really enjoyed the facilities on the parc and only did 3 main trips out during our time there.

Disneyland Paris – we did a day trip to Disneyland Paris as we managed to get a good deal on some tickets, from the resort it is a good 2-3 hour drive so is a bit of a trek but we managed it ok within the day. A good thing to note is whilst the gates to the parc close at 10pm there is a carpark immediately outside the gates where you can leave your car until morning in case you arrive back late.

Chateau de Chambord – Chambord is one of the most famous Chateaus in France and its beautiful to visit. Access to the grounds and the horse stables are free, but you will need to pay for parking, entrance to the house and horse and equestrian shows. It’s about an hour drive from the holiday parc.

Parc Beauval – We have annual passes to Chester Zoo so are regular zoo goers, I have to say though this was probably the best zoo we have ever been too. With a wide range of animals including, Hippos, Pandas, Gorilla’s and an amazing bird display show I would recommend everyone makes the trip if you love animals. It’s just over an hour drive from the holiday parc.

General comments about our experience
Although we had a great holiday and really enjoyed our accommodation and the parc itself we did have a few small problems that we feel could have been dealt with better.

On arrival it was disappointing to not get a thorough tour around the holiday home and an introduction to the parc, we had to ask where the facilities were or find out ourselves during the stay, for example where the bins were, what the recycling arrangements were, pool times, shop location, entertainment programme etc. We expected that this would been explained to us as part of the welcome.

After the rep had gone we identified a number of issues with the holiday home in respect of what had been ordered:

There was no essentials pack which contained vitals such as cooking oil, tea, coffee etc. Had we known we could have got some from the supermarket before arriving, or they could have explained they hadn’t any on site and were due a delivery on Monday (3 days after arrival), on request they were happy to offer any of the elements should we need anything.

The travel cot requested was dirty and unusable. We requested additional single bedding for one of the extra beds but were told they had no more on the parc and only received what was ordered and therefore the only option was to clean the cot. After asking twice very politely the rep had to make two calls to the regional manager they arrived with spare bedding and took the cot away. It seems a bit of an oversight that there is no spare bedding on the site in case of incidents like these. It was resolved in the end, but we were very uncomfortable to have to keep pressing the matter to get any action.

The description of the holiday home included a gas BBQ but there wasn’t one, after 3 requests they found a charcoal BBQ and then informed us we would need to buy some charcoal which might be available at the shop. Again it was only being persevering and explaining that there were empty holiday homes with gas BBQs that they found one. Again a simple explanation on arrival would have sufficed to explain that they were short of BBQs and would try to source one.

Although the holiday homes are relatively new, ours was showing some signs of wear and tear: a cupboard door was missing in the kitchen meaning that all sharp knives and scissors were left accessible to small children and at eye level. The cutlery drawer was fairly empty and placing them in there resolved the potential safety issue.

Checking with the rep that the door was missing she explained that it had been reported but hadn’t yet been fixed. We were again disappointed that this hadn’t been explained to us when we arrived and that no consideration was given to the fact we had two small children with us and open kitchen cupboards with sharp implements in them are a bit of a problem. It also meant we had significantly less space in the cupboards for food storage.

The decking design leaves small gaps of approximately 1cm between the planks, this is not overly friendly to small fingers and toes and you could clearly see that the gaps had claimed a number of items from previous guests from forks, toys and plenty of food remains. Although the decking was raised it was not possible to get underneath to retrieve lost items. Not a massive issue but we can imagine it will be pretty messy under there by the end of the season.

We felt frustrated about the issues we experienced above as they could have all been dealt with much smoother and quicker and wouldn’t have even become ‘issues’ at all. Perhaps with it being towards the start of the season things just weren’t quite flowing as they should. On the whole the resort reps were extremely polite and attentive when you spoke to them just unfortunately not very proactive.

Overall thoughts about the Eurocamp experience
Our overall thoughts are most definitely positive; the booking process and pre trip information was very efficient and straightforward. We especially welcomed the pre-trip emails with reminders of things to take with you and local driving laws etc. The parcs in terms of facilities and cleanliness were top notch and great value for money. The mobile home was pleasant, well-proportioned and well thought out for families. A couple of little niggles with our particular one didn’t really detract from how well equipped and functional it was. Our reps for the week really could have been better when it came to customer service, in particular with communication regarding missing items and faults with the mobile home, but all other dealings with Eurocamp staff and bookings were very efficient and helpful

Without doubt we would recommend a Eurocamp holiday to our friends and family and have already done so many times since our return. We are also looking to go back again next year to another site we enjoyed it so much.

We would rate our Eurocamp experience 4 out of 5 stars.

Rating: 4/5

Eurocamp Fact Box

We are the leading provider of outdoors holidays and help more than 500,000 holidaymakers plan fantastic trips to Europe each year. We offer more than 180 prime locations that are ideal for any kind of holiday: from beach and citybreaks, to stays amongst mountains and lakes. Most importantly, we are more flexible than other operators, offering a range of travel options, including flight, ferry and driving, and total flexibility when it comes to arrival and departure dates. To book visit www.eurocamp.co.uk contact the customer service team on 0844 406 0402. For a two bed mobile home it costs from £57 a night.

4 Star

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