Great facilities - good location for teenagers
18 August 2019 at 04:53:07
We just spent a week in a 6p Ankara (3 beds) with our 2 kids age 3 and 6.
Highlights:
Cabin was spotless, well equipped and great air-con. The bedrooms were obviously compact so if you're over 6 foot this is going to be tricky for you!
Swimming pools were brilliant for kids - a mix of water slides... in the 2 pools for all ages and proactive lifeguards (not being the fun police but keeping a close eye for safety - very impressed). We always found a couple of sun beds even though this must have been the busiest week of the year - it didn't feel over-crowded to me.
The park area is terrific, with 2 huge bouncy castle things as well as trampolines, climbing frames slides etc plus a football / basketball pitch, beach volley spot and table tennis. Lots of places would charge you to use such good facilities - it could get dangerously busy but if you go at lunchtime it's empty.
Low-lights
The food offered was extremely limited and all deep fried. The kitchen essentially does grilling/ frying and pizza so we didn't see a green vegetable for the week. It was reasonably priced and not fast but not outrageously slow either - the system was complicated as you had to order different items in different places and then collect food elsewhere -but my main complaint is the total absence of anything sensible for the kids. Lobbing a bit of broccoli on the plate or offering basic pasta would have meant we ate there far more often. Overall the cafe/restaurant area is very small and they clearly aren't that interested in doing much business there - I guess most visitors are self-catering which obviously we did lots of, but a slightly more extensive menu and a few more staff would have made a big difference.
Smoking - at least half the guests seemed to be smokers, and they were allowed to smoke in the eating area and in the kids disco! The total lack of consideration for other guests or families was astonishing - I think MS Vacances should ban smoking in the communal disco/show/food area at LEAST even if they still let people smoke on their own terraces.
No staff at all in the park and dozens of totally unsupervised kids over-excited and acting crazy, leaping off the inflatables etc - I had to stay pretty close to my kids to extract them from any looming danger and was amazed at the absence of other parents who seemed to let their kids run loose. The site felt very safe - fenced and walled in all around except the very front were there is some sort of security so your kids are unlikely to wander out - but we saw plenty getting hurt or into fights in the park. Don't think it would harm to have security or entertainment staff wander past every 20 mins to keep it calm.
Other comments
The beach is a 1km walk which is a bit of a hoof with small kids and clobber - nothing at all on beach (no loos or sunbeds etc) but it was clean and pretty. We drove into the town of Argeles sur mer one day - battling a lot of traffic, eventually parking and to be honest the beach there was no better but there were dozens of shops and restaurants plus more inflatables/ parks etc. If we came back I would be inclined to stay in walking distance of all that to open up the eating options.
Le Littoral is directly next to a huge Loisirs area with tonnes of things to do e.g. go karting, water park, go-ape type thing, fun fair (not so close we heard it at all) - but all for kids >10.
Evening entertainment was a bit cheap and cheerful, relying mostly on the entertainment crew rather than external/ professionals and it's not that family friendly after the kid disco. Not a big deal but after last year's trip to Majorca it was quite a contrast.
Be aware the photos on the website seem more like promo shots for the cabin manufacturer and are mostly not photos of the actual site - we had the impression we'd have a bit of grassy garden and some privacy via hedges but in fact all the cabins directly face the internal roads and you have to park on your 'grass' spot. You can get some sort of privacy by closing the screens on your terrace but be aware you're pretty close to your neighbours.
As you can tell by this being one of only a handful of English reviews, it is very much a French resort and we barely encountered any other non-French. Few of the staff speak any English (with exception of one excellent receptionist who was super-helpful on our arrival) so I would advise you not to visit if you don't have at least passable French to deal with food ordering etc. All the announcements/ shows/ etc are in French so again it will limit your experience if you can't follow - but if you do try (my French is "reasonable") they are mostly appreciative and happy to try and help figure things out. They seem sort of shocked than an English person actually has competent French so I imagine they get some visitors who just expect English to be spoken which I imagine is quite stressful for the staff.
All in we had a great week and I was impressed with the facilities and staff - I think they could improve with just a few small steps around the food and the smoking, and we would definitely return when the kids are old enough for the loisirs.
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18 August 2019 at 04:53:07
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