Sandaya Camping Le Col Vert: Review (2024)
To finish off our family gap year we wanted to have a final few weeks of real family holiday style fun. We knew we wanted sun, swimming and plenty of activities for the kids to get involved in. Plus we were hoping that they’d find some other kids to play with after we’d been on the road for so long! We’d done loads of research on where might fit the bill and had read several great reviews of Camping Le Col Vert in France. So we took the plunge and booked ourselves a pitch! Did it live up to the hype? Read on for our full Camping Le Col Vert review!
Where is Sandaya Camping Le Col Vert?
Camping Le Col Vert is located on the South West coast of France, a couple of hours drive from Bordeaux. It’s situated right on the lake shore of Etang de Leon, and is also only a short drive (or a 45min cycle) to the glorious Atlantic beaches of the area.
The nearest little town is Leon and is an easy 15-min cycle or 5-min drive from the site. Leon is a lovely little town with boulangeries, cafes, a bike shop, a pharmacy and a decent-sized Carrefour supermarket.
The location is one of the very best things about Le Col Vert – you’ve got direct access to the lake (and all the activities this offers, including a great little sandy beach). But you’re also very close to the long stretches of white sand beach that this region of France offers, with it’s huge rolling surf. And if you need a supermarket shop, or fancy sitting on a town square sipping a coffee, then Leon is only a short walk or cycle away.
Where to stopover on the way to Camping Le Col Vert
If you’re taking the ferry from the South Coast of England in to either St Malo or Cherbourg then the drive down to Le Col Vert is likely to take you at least 9 hours. It’s much easier then to plan for at least a one night stopover on the way down and on the return leg.
If you do decide to stopover on the way there or back, then I would highly recommend Camping & Gîtes La Forêt de Tessé.
This is a very small little site about a 5.5-6 hour drive from Cherbourg and around 3.5 hours from Le Col Vert. It’s in a tiny village and is surrounded by fields so is very peaceful. There’s only a handful of pitches on the grassy lawn area but the facilities are excellent (including a little swimming pool!). There are also a couple of teepees available for hire if you don’t have your own camping gear (or just don’t fancy having to put it up for a short stay!).
The alternative approach is to book a ferry in to Santander in Spain and drive up from the South. Whilst this means an overnight ferry journey it does reduce the driving time. Le Col Vert is around 3.5hours from Santander. Plus, overnight ferries can be a lot of fun for the kids!
What facilities do they have at Camping Le Col Vert?
Now this really is a massive, all-singing, all-dancing campsite. There is pretty much everything you need right on site if you don’t fancy going very far during your stay! The list of facilities includes:
- Covered and outdoor swimming pools, plus splashpark
- Two fab adventure-style play areas
- Pump track for bikes/scooters/skateboards
- Basketball courts
- Table tennis
- Campsite shop and bakery
- Beachfront restaurant
- Snack bars
- Archery range
- Watersports centre
- Bar
- Bouncy castle
- Bike hire
- Outdoor theatre
On the drive in to the site the boys couldn’t believe their eyes at the amount of stuff on offer! This is a huge site and it really feels it. It took some time for us to find our feet and get used to the distances between things – it is much, much easier if you have bikes for your stay. Our pitch was about a 25minute walk from Reception!
There’s entertainment on the outdoor stage most evenings so it’s also not a quiet place.
But the adventure playgrounds and the pump track were MASSIVE hits with the boys. They spent hours hanging out there with other kids from the campsite.
The Sandaya app also lists all the optional activities that you can book on to during your stay. The boys got to try paddleboarding, sailing and archery right on site, for a small extra cost (but very reasonable).
There is a LOT going on so if you want an active holiday (and want to keep the kids entertained) then this is the right place for you!
What are the pitches like at Le Col Vert?
If you’re staying in a tent, campervan or caravan then there are a variety of pitch types that you can choose from.
As we were on a tight budget, we opted for a Nature Pitch – the smallest on offer at 80m2. You can also book bigger pitches, plus pitches with their own private sanitary facilities. The best of the pitches though are definitely the lakefront options. These are big, light and have wonderful views out over the water. Definitely worth upgrading to!
Sandaya also allow you to pre-book fridges for your pitch that they drop off on your arrival.
I have to say that our pitch was one of the most disappointing aspects of our stay. We had enough space for our small campervan and our bell tent and awning, and the electricity was fine. However, our pitch was right down at the end of a row and was so shaded by trees that it actually felt dark, damp and cold (even in August!). Whilst a bit of shade is very helpful on a campsite, this was a bit much. The ground at Le Col Vert is also largely dirt and dead leaves – there is very little grass anywhere on site. This was a bit of a shock for us, coming from leafy green little campsites in the rest of Europe! The dirt did drive me a bit mad – it meant we couldn’t sit on the ground and it got trampled through the tent CONSTANTLY.
Camping Le Col Vert Review – the Facilities
If you’re camping then there are several sanitary blocks spread out across the site. These include toilets, showers, washrooms and sinks for washing up. There’s also a laundry section at on of the blocks with several washing machines and tumble dryers.
These were pretty clean throughout our stay. They did lack a few things that I would have expected from a big site. For example, there are no plugs in the washing up sinks (bring your own or a bowl), no soap in the hand sinks (this was actually quite annoying) and no hooks in the showers to hang your towels/clothes on.
How much are the pitches at Camping Le Col Vert?
We booked on to the cheapest pitch type on site for our stay (Nature Pitch, with electricity). In total, this came to £550 for 14nights for the four of us – so just under £40 a night.
Whilst I was disappointed with our actual pitch, this is still excellent value for a family holiday on a site with so much on offer! Once I’d got over my feelings towards our pitch and got out and about we definitely more than got our money’s worth out of the lake, swimming pools, adventure playgrounds, table tennis, watersports and everything else on offer.
What is the kids club like at Camping Le Col Vert?
The free Kids Club was one of the reasons we opted for a stay at Le Col Vert. After so long on the road we wanted to give the boys the chance to hang out with some people their own age!
The Kids Club at Le Col Vert is split into age categories, with clubs for kids from 5-7years, 8-12years and a teen club for 13-17years. There are two sessions a day (on most days) and you can book them in up to a week in advance on the Sandaya app.
I have to admit that we had really high hopes for the Kids Club based on previous Le Col Vert reviews but it didn’t quite live up to them for us. The boys were pretty ambivalent about the whole experience. By the second week had no interest in attending any more sessions. Unfortunately during our stay (we visited in August) there were no other English-speaking children and the boys struggled to fit in as the sessions were run in French. Totally understandable given where we were! But just a bit tricky for the boys. There was one member of the club staff who spoke limited English but for the most part they struggled to join in with games and sports as they didn’t understand the rules.
Most of the activities that were run during the Kids Clubs the boys attended were arts and crafts and mini sports games. This was fine but from the website we’d had the impression that they’d be able to get involved in a wider range of stuff but this wasn’t the case.
Fortunately there were PLENTY of other things they could do on site!
What are the nearest beaches like?
There are a couple of beaches within very easy reach of Le Col Vert and they are vast expanses of glorious white sand and surf. They are so vast that even in August there was still plenty of space to find a spot and chill out.
We really loved the beach at Saint-Girons Plage. This is a great spot for families – there’s a handful of little shops and restaurants along the sandy road down to the beach. Plus a fab ice-cream counter and a place selling delicious doughnuts and waffles! You can drive here from Le Col Vert in around 15minutes, or you can cycle which takes around 45mins-1hour depending on your speed. We loved cycling here, hanging out at the beach, grabbing an ice-cream and then cycling back to the campsite.
The surf here is pretty huge but a lot of fun. Plus throughout the Summer there are lifeguards on duty.
Be aware that there are decent parking facilities for cars (with two pretty large car parks) but if you’re in a high-sided van/campervan then there’s only really the small camping spot nearby where you can park. You can stay overnight here too, but spaces are limited.
The other beach option is the more nature-based Plage de la Lette Blanche. This is a windswept stretch of sand backed by high dunes. As this is part of a nature reserve there are no real facilities (shops, cafes etc). But that makes it a beautiful, wild spot to spend the day! There’s a huge car park so it’s easy to drive to, but it’s also an easy cycle from Camping Le Col Vert.
Camping Le Col Vert Review: The best bits
The lakeside location is just unbeatable. I swam in the lake in the morning almost every day of our stay. And I was usually the only one in there! We also hired paddleboards several times. It was wonderful to drift around on the lake in the mornings and evenings.
The range of optional activities on site is also brilliant. The boys really enjoyed getting to have a go at some new things they hadn’t tried before, and although there was a cost for these it was very good value.
If you’ve got younger kids then they’ll love the adventure playgrounds and the pump track. These feel really well-designed and our two spent hours there.
Camping Le Col Vert review – final thoughts
This is a great big, very busy campsite (probably the biggest we’ve ever stayed on). It definitely felt a bit overwhelming at first for us. And it also took me a while to get used to the pitch we were on. It does feel a bit like the site is set up for mobile home holidays rather than geared towards actual camping.
But we found that once we’d decided to start to really lean in to the things that Le Col Vert offers it was a really fun stay. The activities on site, the ability to get straight in to the lake for a swim, the access to long cycle paths and the beautiful nearby beaches were all wonderful. Once we’d started to get out and about and embrace these aspects we started to really enjoy ourselves!
Top tips for a stay at Camping Le Col Vert
- Take your bikes, or hire them on arrival (and factor this in to your budget). The site is huge and much easier to navigate on a bike than on foot. Plus this gives you the option of cycling in to town or to the beaches nearby (where parking is limited)
- Shell out the extra for a lakeside pitch. The views and the space are definitely worth it!
- Download the Sandaya app in advance and make sure you book on to any activities you want to do early. Popular things like archery get booked up quickly!
- They don’t offer anywhere to freeze ice-packs so you’ll either need to regularly buy ice (available at the Carrefour). Or come prepared with a plug in option!
Planning a family holiday or long term travel adventure?
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