10 good reasons to spend your holiday on a luxury campsite
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For more than a decade now, we observe a strong enthusiasm for camping, something we never saw before in France. Quintessential popular tourist accommodation, the camping has been able to renew itself by means of investments and innovations, offering comfort and facilities that nowadays are just as good as all the other types of holiday accommodation. These transformations have been such that the term camping and caravanning has appeared in camping vocabulary, as the services offered by these campsites are nowadays close to the services more commonly found in the traditional hotel sector.
During this period, some campsites, whether independent or members of a group, have invested far more than others. They have transformed their modest grounds in real high-end properties, where impressive leisure facilities now cohabit with luxury accommodations, grouped in carefully manicured districts, and all this in order to provide ever more comfort to the tourist. These establishments are nowadays qualified as luxury campsites, and you will discover, in this thematic file, 10 good reasons to spend your next holiday on a luxury campsite.
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Because here we find everything we need to make it the favourite tourist accommodation of the French
Year after year, study after study, figure after figure, the same conclusion is drawn; No other type of tourist accommodation has such a positive image than camping. In fact, the French hold camping and caravanning in high esteem because, for a large majority of them, camping is synonymous with friendly holidays, bringing you closer to nature and it is a social diversity factor.
Many reasons are used to attempt to explain the love story linking the French with camping being, and by far, the favourite holiday accommodation in France. Each year, they are 6 million spending their holiday on one of the 10,000 campsites in the country, offering France the first European outdoor accommodation capacity and the second in the world, behind the United States of America. The positive image of camping in France reflects also outside its national borders, since every year, 2 to 3 million foreigners also travel to French campsites.
Among the reasons traditionally put forward to explain the popularity of camping in France, the ones coming up the most when we ask the campers are the quality-price ratio, the conviviality, the proximity to nature, the freedom to change the holiday destination, the all-inclusive offers (accommodation, activities, leisure), the range of activities and entertainment and the quality of the facilities.
A holiday on a luxury campsite allows to find all these advantages, and many more, as you can see in the following points!
Staying on a luxury campsite nowadays, for a few days or a few weeks, is an amazing experience where the terms of conviviality, harmony, well-being, relaxation and fun are not just vain words. Life on a luxury campsite is the opportunity to get closer to the people with whom you're sharing your stay, whether they are family or friends, but it is a compulsory social diversity factor too. This is also the opportunity to meet wonderful new people, to make new relationships and to share convivial moments together which ultimately, although appearing simple, are genuine moments of happiness and give life meaning.
But life on a campsite is not just these moments of conviviality, it is also the chance to enjoy all of the quality facilities provided to the guests of a luxury campsite. These facilities can take the form of rental accommodation in which there is a wide range of facilities and services to ensure a high level of comfort for holidaymakers: air conditioning, an equipped kitchen, a soundproof bedroom, the latest bedding, high definition TV, a Wi-Fi broadband connection and others.
These facilities also take the form of quite remarkable leisure facilities, from the dream water park, like the one on the Le Pommier campsite , to the latest generation sports complex, from the fabulous wellness centre to the ultra-fun treetop adventure course on the Parc de Fierbois.
Finally, the good life on a luxury campsite is made out of relaxation and rest, enjoying the passage of time, the sun and the singing of the cicadas in the South of France, an atmosphere redolent of holiday!
When you travel, or go on holiday, it is also the opportunity to discover a new cuisine, regional and/or summer dishes that you're not used to eat back home. And that's great, because when you stay on a luxury campsite you don't have to go far to taste the best of the local cuisine. All these establishments boast indeed at least one gourmet restaurant!
And the least we can say is that the food is good in these restaurants. They offer typical summer menus with salads and fish and chips, but the local home made specialities made out of fresh local products are also very successful.
Part of the success of these restaurants is the environment and the scenery in which they are settled, luxury campsites very rarely neglect this aspect. Thus, and very often, the restaurants nestle within a superb building.
On the Domaine des Ormes, there are no less than six restaurants within this 5-star campsite in Ille et Vilaine Here too, local specialities, specifically Breton, are much in evidence at “la table de l’Oie Gourmande", “ Cellier”, “chez Madeleine" or "L’auberge de ma Cour Verte"…
However, it is not only in the restaurants of luxury campsites where you eat well. Many campsites propose during high season, at least once a week, markets with local producers. Here tourists can buy lots of fresh products and some can prepare these in the fully equipped kitchen and serve it on the terrace of their mobile home!
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Because here we can afford originality
And Yes! There's nothing better than a luxury campsite to go glamping! Glamping, a contraction of glamour and camping, is a new trend in the outdoor hospitality industry that appeared in the mid-2000s. A clever mix of luxury and nature, comfort and respect for the environment, glamping plays the card of the unusual as it consists in offering out-of-the ordinary and original accommodation in locations which, at first sight, are not meant for that purpose…
Timber cabins perched in the top of trees (tree houses), floating small houses amidst a natural lake, French huts, Mongolian yurts, Indian teepees, gypsy caravans and others. There are so many forms of unusual accommodation which you can now find in numerous luxury campsites such as on Domaine des Ormes, in Ille et Vilaine, where there are plenty of glamping offers, or even the Parc des Alicourts, in a superb campsite within the heart of the Sologne.
Moreover, some of these establishments have pushed the boundaries of originality even further. There's nothing better than a luxury campsite to spend a glamorous and original holiday...
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Because luxury campsites are ideally located
One of the great assets of luxury campsites, it is that the vast majority enjoys an idyllic environment They are either established in the heart of a forest, in front of a beach, by the river or in the park of a noble residence. They allow tourists going there to enjoy more than perfect scenery to take their mind off things and to discover, every morning upon waking up, a landscape where nature is entirely in its proper place...
Others can advance their perfect situation by the sea or a lake, being for example only a few steps from a paradisiacal sandy beach, as with Beach Garden, next to the Marseillan Plage beach, or a wild and natural creek.
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Because here children are pampered
And that's the least we can say! Luxury campsites pay close attention to children and adolescents. By entertaining them, the campsites relieve the parents, who can thus enjoy more free time to rest or do other activities, knowing that their kiddos spend a great time having fun.
This attention paid to the youth and the parents can be verified from the earliest age. It is indeed not rare to find, on 4 and 5 star campsites, baby areas, destined to the less than 3 years old, accompanied and supervised by a parent, and where the toddlers can have fun, awaken their senses and motor skills through a multitude of games and toys adapted to their morphology, as for example on the campsite of les Iles de Pénestin, in Brittany.
As for the leisure equipments, the finest campsites in France don't skimp on the means either. Whether it's indoor facilities (video games room, ping pong tables, etc.) or outdoor facilities, such as swings, trampolines, climbing walls and spider webs, jumping castles or ultra modern and impressive playgrounds, looking like a replica of a castle as on le Boucanet or a windmill as on le Moulinal, there's everything for the youngest to have fun during their holiday!
We note in passing that some campsites are starting to equip themselves with actual children’s indoor playgrounds where, on many hundreds of square metres, there are so-called tubular games, giant facilities, parks with the latest generation of games consoles and lots of other surprises!
One of the other major assets of luxury campsites, it is that they all have at least one children's club. In a vast majority of them, we find up to three kids clubs, in order to put together the age groups of 5 to 7, 8 to 12 and 13 to 17. Each of them offers a range of activities and different animations, adapted to each generation and organized by qualified youth leaders who are sometimes able to speak several languages.
Finally, this attention paid to children is also found in the water parks of these establishments. They all have at least a paddling pool, but nowadays we see more often real fun water playgrounds, especially adapted for the youngest. Here, we find for example water fountains, mini slides, water jets, etc! In short, everything to awaken the water senses of the youngest, in a safe and secure place.
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Because the adults are pampered too!
Just like the children, the adults are pampered too when they stay on a luxury campsite. Everything is done to make them feel good, because ultimately, satisfied tourists are likely to come back the following year, or at least spread the word! Therefore, it is essential to make their stay unforgettable, and to make their holiday a pure moment of pleasure, relaxation and well-being!
The general well-being of the guests is what all luxury campsites try to achieve. Even if all of the above listed points participate in making the campers happy and satisfied, there is another way to achieve this goal. Number of luxury campsites use this feature, and it is very likely that this trend will continue in the years to come. This "miracle” way, if we may say so, is quite simply, the "wellness" area!
It exists on many campsites. These wellness areas exclusively reserved for adults, are entirely dedicated to staying in shape and the key words are rest and relaxation. Here you can enjoy different body and facial treatments, massages, beauty care and others. These wellness areas are also and often equipped to offer a balneotherapy area, with spas, Jacuzzis, massaging baths, saunas, hammams and other similar facilities.
There's one thing for sure; on a luxury camping, it is hardly possible to get bored. Outdoor camping establishments offer the advantage of leaving the choice to campers of what they wish to do during the day, they can laze all day, go to a nearby beach or visit the tourist sights that surround the campsite, but they can also enjoy the many activities and make their stay even more pleasant.
From the break of dawn to sunset, campers can be entertained the whole day by the activities and events on the luxury campsite. The morning is often devoted to sports activities, as the morning temperatures are more adequate for physical activity during the summer season.
Aquagym is certainly one of the most popular activities. As its name suggests, aquagym consists of doing gymnastics (and muscular awakening) in the water of a swimming pool. Campsite's hosts, lifeguards or professional trainers are responsible to animate these sessions, suitable for young and old and also for people who are no athletes at all. Still in the water, aqua-biking consists of cycling in the water, and is a strongly developing activity.
On many luxury campsites we also find a fitness rooms with state of the art devices. Other trend followers put the fitness material directly at the disposal of tourists in the great outdoors, like on the campsite of L'Arinella Bianca for example, where you can work out directly on the beach, your eyes fixed on the turquoise horizon of the Mediterranean Sea!
In the afternoon, the fun and more festive activities are on the program! Thus, on campsite Les Sablons in Portiragnes, every summer real Olympics are organized. Various sports events, each as entertaining as the others await campers...
Some campsites organize cookery lessons or creative workshops to occupy holidaymakers.
Finally, come the evening, these sports and recreational activities are replaced by many forms of evening entertainment which never fail to bring all generations together around warm and friendly events.
