Welcome to CaravanVlogger’s Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review (SG)
In the summer of 2018 we spent three weeks in France. Two of which were spent at Camping Le Soleil in (actually near) Argelès-sur-Mer. Camping Le what? Argelès ? What the…Ok, let me use my rudimental French here, so the camp site is “Camping the Sun” and “sur mer” is “on sea”. So, there you have the two main reason we go on holiday, sea and sun, what’s not to like?
We’d spent a lot of time, actually, Mandy had spent a lot of time, looking at different sites in the South of France. We had been before, to La Rochelle, on the West coast as well as Biarritz, which is South West France many years ago in a caravan and had really enjoyed it. Mandy wanted a beach holiday and, to be brutally honest, I wasn’t over keen. I get bored (oh poor old me!) We had never really done beach holidays, the kids have grown up and although they haven’t all moved out, we were getting used to holidaying on our own.
We booked well in advance, it gave us something to look forward to. As Argelès-sur-Mer is at the very South of France, we decided to take a few days to get down there and visit some places on the way, eventually getting to Argelès-sur-Mer and Camping Le Soleil.
When we booked we had a single axle Sterling Eccles, so were not overly worried about the size of the pitches. When we eventually left to go we had a twin axle Bailey, in theory it was only 60cm longer but, the mover packed up the day we were leaving. It actually made for a more stressful holiday than I really would have liked. I’m OK at reversing, but we really would have taken a lot more into consideration if we knew a) we’d have a lager caravan and b) we didn’t have a motor mover..
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Site Overview
The site itself is sold as being on the beach and I wouldn’t argue with that, the site does back onto the beach, this is good, this is what we wanted. It has a great swimming pool, as with all pools in France, you’re not permitted to wear “swimming shorts”, sometimes called Bermuda short. You basically HAVE to wear Speedos (Budgie Smugglers) The restaurant was good, with outside seating. It maybe wasn’t as big as I’d thought it would be but the food was good, and too was the service and prices. Most nights there was entertainment in a dedicated area behind the swimming pool with a live band. This isn’t something we attended, but we were told it was very good.
The site sits between the sea on one side and the Pyrenees on the other. It’s located about 10 minutes drive from Argelès-sur-Mer and about 15 from Colliourre which is stunning and an absolute must visit place. There’s a video of Collioure on our YouTube channel, should you be interested.
It is a big site down a road that you wouldn’t expect it to be, we went at the end of June and the site wasn’t full. However, as we were leaving it was certainly filling up. Like most sites it is only fully operational at the height of the season. For instance the shop wasn’t open all day for the first week, but for the second it was.
Most staff on reception speak very good English and I never had an issue being understood, even when I tried to speak in French – bless them.
The food and drink was not expensive and of good quality. They had a reasonable take away service and the restaurant had a nice outdoor area for dinning. Actually the staff on the take away were really nice and talkative, which was fun at times. Take away sold things like chicken, paella, chips. It worked like an Argos; you ordered your food paid for it and sat down awaiting your number to be called. It worked very well, although there were quite large queues on certain days.
The site is a short drive from an Intermarche, which is a hyper market and is HUGE and we love it. Neither of us are big shoppers, but we do tend to spend too much time and money in there. It has a fish section alone is about as big as our local Co Op..
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Toilet Blocks
Wow. Now, the thing is, we have a thing about toilet blocks. We are CAMC members mainly because their toilet facilities are spot on, most of the time. On our way down to Argelès-sur-Mer we stopped on two sites which made me want to just use our caravan shower, not something we’ve ever done. But these toilets and showers were spotless. In fact at one point I said to Mandy that I wished they’d stop cleaning them as I need to use them! They were absolutely spotless and considering the amount of kids around, they deserve some kind of medal. There seemed to be staff constantly cleaning them.
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Site Access
The site itself is down a road which is “off the beaten track” so to speak. It’s a road that the site is at the end of. We had real trouble finding it, mainly because of our Sat Nav. The sign on the main road isn’t that easy to spot. Once you know it’s there of course it’s easy!
I’d worry about 100% recommending this site to everyone. The main reason is the pitch sizes. Which reminds me. I’m developing a theory about Caravan sites and “serviced pitches. You know, the ones that have your own tap and drainage. I don’t know if it’s just me, but are they ALWAYS a pitch that no one would use unless they wanted the tap and drainage? What I mean is, they are very usual for disabled people etc however, I’ve noticed they’re not in prettiest of locations and tend to be smaller. So when we rocked up in our 8 metre twin axle I nearly feinted at the size. OK, I didn’t really, but it was tricky, have a look at our video. Thinking back now we probably could have asked to be moved, but I was so tired I just wanted to get set up.
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Wardens
This is a section where I normally give my review of how the wardens were. This site didn’t have wardens as such, so I’ll review the staff. We didn’t have occasion to really converse much with reception, only when booking in and paying. I needed to ask where you chemical toilet facility was and then we spoke to them about booking next year. Oh and we ran out of gas, they were unable to help as they don’t sell it and didn’t know who did.
Bar staff were good English speakers, I like to order stuff in French where I can, but they pretty much all the time answered me in English.
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Things To Do
The South of France is a large tourist area so you’ll find just about everything available here. We don’t tend to cram loads in as we also like to relax. This particular visit we did spend a good amount of time on the beach as you can just walk, there’s no need to drive.
Two of the highlights for us on this trip were Collioure and Argeles-Sur-Mer Port, which we’ve made a couple of short videos about.
Camping Le Soleil Caravan Site Review – Conclusions
We would recommend this site with a couple of caveats. Firstly a lot of the pitches were a bit on the small size, probably perfect for a single axle. We are going again next year but we got to select our pitch whilst we were there, so the 1st year might be a gamble as you get allocated a pitch when you book. Secondly, I assume towards the end of July and August the site will be full. I know this is true of all good sites and I only mention it as our trip wasn’t really high season so I might be looking through rose tinted spectacles…
The journey down is fine and took us a total of 17 hours done over 3 days, so we took our time. Next year we might do it over two days.
I’d recommend picking a couple of places you want to see on the way down and on the way back. On the way down this year we visited Carcassone and on the way back Giverny (Monet’s Gardens)
It’s the kind of site you could pretty much stay on for two weeks and not need to venture anywhere. It’s really nice to have the option not to drive somewhere. The swimming pool is great and with such easy access to the beach we went most days and I don’t do beaches!!
Bring it on for next year, we can’t wait.
Leave a Reply