Le Ranolien campsite, Perros-Guirec, Brittany

A visitor to this website stayed at Le Ranolien campsite and submitted this review / tale of their holiday:

Camping in France? Moi? Well if you has asked me this question a few years ago my reply would include the words ‘over’, ‘dead’ and ‘body’ as I am one for insisting on my home comforts and basic necessities such as ‘keeping dry when it rains’ and ‘not having to sleep on hard ground in nothing more than a glorified sack’. But then camping conditions, thankfully, have much improved nowadays and this has been my 2nd consecutive family holiday on a real French campsite with absolutely no canvas in sight.

Our accommodation was a ‘chalet’ which in fact is a kind of up-market mobile home that doesn’t go anywhere if you know what I mean. Our spacious 6 person capacity holiday home had 3 bedrooms (one even housing a king size bed) and a good-size living area where we could all actually walk around the dining table without knocking each other out!

Added luxuries included a satellite tv, dishwasher and a built-in bbq. A large terrace with garden furniture was great for al fresco dining and we even had breakfast outside weather permitting (a word of warning – don’t ever be tempted to feed seagulls as you will never eat in peace again, one fellow camper even had a whole kebab whisked away from his bbq!). The campsite itself was very picturesque, set on the beautiful pink granite coast where rose tinted boulders abound, some small ones had to be negotiated whilst driving around the site which caused a few near misses and shrieks of ‘watch that rock!’ ’which rock?’ ‘that rock!’

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The panoramic views out to sea were quite remarkable and best enjoyed by following the smugglers path that left the campsite along the coast to either the large beach at Perros Guirec or a slightly longer walk in the other direction to the little, charming port of Ploumanach where you were welcomed by small bars, restaurants and ‘non-tacky’ souvenir shops. We took these walks in the early morning because the pathways started to resemble the M25 as they got busier with keen (but slow) ramblers as the day progressed.

We were accompanied by two 14 years old girls (my daughter and her friend) who we also took away with us last year but what a difference 12 months makes in the life of a teenager! During the previous visit they were well goggled & sun creamed-up and in the pool and down the waterslides 24/7. At the end of the holiday they looked like lily-white prunes! This year the hormones had taken a turn and they spent most of the holiday nurturing a suntan to show off to their friends on their return and of course they could not possibly go in the pool as they hadn’t packed their hair straighteners!

The girls’ favourite leisure facility was a pool table in the family friendly bar area where most of our euro coins were swallowed up at a frighteningly quick pace. A lot of campers congregated ‘au bar’ in the evening often arriving clutching boxes of ‘ready to eat’ pizzas bought from the on-site take away. There was also a very good restaurant and crêperie - both excellent value for money. If you preferred to self-cater an extremely well stocked grocery shop with its own bakery was open morning ‘till night but you had to get there before 9am for a good choice of freshly cooked croissants, pains au chocolat and baguettes to ensure a scrumptious breakfast.

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Activities for the younger children were in abundance; play areas, bouncy castle, paddling pool, mini-golf, games room etc. Time-out for the adults included entertainment in the bar, casino, gym, steam room and digital photography classes. The ladies could indulge themselves at the beauty salon with a massage, a sun bed session or even have a henna tattoo applied. There really is something for everyone and little chance for even the most challenging child (or adult) to get bored (believe me, I know!).

Several good-size outside ‘heated’ pools (well, they felt a couple of degrees above chill temperature to be honest, but it is all character building stuff!) included a spa pool and one with a huge waterslide for the kids. An added bonus was an indoor pool (now this one really was quite warm!) where during the early evening lots of Dads appeared with ‘babes in arms’ presumably to give Mum a break. We were quite impressed at this non-macho, child bonding session until one evening a beautiful, shapely young woman in a very brief bikini strolled onto the poolside and suddenly the babies were forgotten and some were almost dropped feet first into the water!.

All in all it was an extremely pleasant and enjoyable stay at Le Ranolien and we would not hesitate to return. The staff were the most hospitable I have ever come across and there was nothing they wouldn’t do to help you. They seemed genuinely pleased to have us staying on their family-run campsite and most spoke fluent English too. On the downside the weather can be very unpredictable in this region - sunny one day, cloudy the next, very similar to our climate in the UK but there is lots to see and do locally.

By Jenny Staple

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