Endless beaches of soft sand and lapping waves, fringed by pine trees and undulating dunes – perfect!
Camping in the Vendee
153 campsites in France, Vendée
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On the edge of a pine forest and just a short walk across the dunes from a fine sandy beach, this could be an ideal spot for a seaside holiday. Les Cyprès is a very French campsite with good basic facilities and a pleasant modern pool complex. The 300 pitches are in an arc curving out towards the sea in both directions from reception; the 141 touring pitches of varying shapes and sizes occupy the southern end of the arc. All have access to electricity (10A) and water, though long leads are required in places and some are more suitable for tents because of the trees.
Camping Le Marais Sauvage is located in Le Mazeau, Vendée, France. It is in the heart of the Marais Poitevin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its stunning natural beauty. The campsite is surrounded by woodlands and waterways, offering a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. Take advantage of the 57 large touring pitches with electric hook-up points available. Some pitches are shaded, while others are in more direct sun.
Domaine de l’Oiseliere is ideal for camping and campervan holidays and jsut 35 minutes from the Grand Parc du Puy du Fou. This is a small site with just 45 large pitches to choose from, 30 of which are for touring and are 200m2 and separated by hedges. There is a choice of full sun or shaded pitches with cover provided by oak trees. For families travelling in a caravan, large plots enable you to extend your awning easily. The site is a pedestrian zone; vehicles can drive to and from the pitches upon arrival and before departure. Otherwise, campers must use the adjacent parking area.
A site that lives up to its name, Camping Sandaya La Grande Côte, is extensive with 800 pitches, of which 293 are numbered touring pitches in rows spread over undulating dunes with sparse grass under pine, all with 10A electricity and over 287 chalets and mobile homes to rent.
Camping Sandaya de la Bosse is located on the idyllic Île de Noirmoutier, off the coast of Vendée, France. On-site, you will find 249 touring pitches with electric hook-up points. Most pitches are on open and flat, sandy areas with little shade.
Camping Les P’tites Maisons dans la Prairie is a charming, family-friendly campsite with a unique Wild West theme. Located in the Vendée region, it offers a peaceful countryside setting while remaining within easy reach of the Atlantic coast and local attractions. The site provides a mix of traditional camping pitches, chalets, mobile homes, and themed accommodation, making it ideal for families and groups.
This family site is located close to the village of Barbâtre, on the west coast of the island of Noirmoutier. The site has direct access to a fine sandy beach. There are around 400 pitches, of which around 200 are available for touring units (the rest are occupied by an imaginative range of chalets, mobile homes and fully equipped tents, including teepees, many of which are for rent). Touring pitches are mostly equipped with 16A electricity. On-site amenities include two swimming pools and a paddling pool. A wide sunbathing area surrounds these. A children’s beach club is organised in peak season and evening entertainment is also on offer.
Camping Le Grand Jardin is a peaceful retreat, just a short bike ride from the Atlantic coast. The campsite offers direct access to scenic cycle paths winding through the Breton wetlands. On-site, there are 19 touring pitches with electric hook-up points available. Most pitches are delimited by mature hedging, giving privacy to each pitch. Tall trees provide ample shade during the summer months.
This is a busy, family run campsite that is very popular with British holidaymakers and is used by a number of tour operators who occupy 150 of the 544 pitches. However, there are still 300 touring pitches, all with electricity (10A), water tap and drain; there are also 32 mobile homes for hire. The site is on both sides of the main road, linked by a tunnel. Most of the larger pitches are on the far side, so owners of high units would need to ask for a pitch on the main part of the site. There are outstanding leisure facilities.
Plein Sud is a small, friendly site, immaculately kept and with a very French ambience. There are 110 grassy pitches separated by hedges, all of a reasonable size. All have electricity and water; most also have drainage. Twenty pitches have site owned mobile homes, cabins or tents for rent, the rest have privately owned mobiles. The touring pitches at the far end of this long, narrow site are particularly peaceful. Only 800 m. away, via another campsite across the road and through a strip of forest, is a long stretch of safe, sandy beach.
This is a delightful little site, a real find for those wishing to enjoy the beaches and lifestyle of this stretch of coastline without the razzmatazz of some of the neighbouring sites. It is family run and everywhere there is attention to detail: flower tubs beside the road as you drive in, whitewashed stones for the pitch numbers, engraved designs on the washbasin mirrors, even plugs for the dishwashing sinks! There are 46 touring pitches, all with electricity available (10A), and a further 69 with mobile homes and chalets, all but five available for rent.
Camping Le Petit Bois is a located in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, Vendée, France. It is situated just 500 meters from the beach and offers a variety of amenities and activities for campers to make their holiday relaxing and enjoyable. Camping Le Petit Bois is an ideal base for exploring the Vendée region, which is known for its beautiful beaches, picturesque villages, and stunning scenery. The site has ten touring pitches with electric hook-up points available (10-amp) and 29 accommodation units to rent. Pitches are separated by mature hedging, giving a sense of privacy to each. Choose wisely for shade during the summer as there are few mature trees covering the pitches.
Camping la Dive can be found south of the popular resort of La Tranche-sur-Mer, close to the broad, sweeping bay of l’Aiguillon-sur-Mer. The nine-hectare site is located on the edge of the pleasant village of Saint Michel-en-l’Herm. The beach can be accessed in around five minutes by car. The 125 touring pitches here are of average to large in size, grassy, part shaded and have 6A electricity. A wide range of mobile homes, chalets, roulottes and tents are available to rent in a new area of the site. On-site amenities include an outdoor swimming pool complex with slides, flume, sauna and jacuzzi, minigolf and pony rides. There is a good range of shops in the village (500 m).
Camping Resort La Yole is an attractive and well-run site, two kilometres from a sandy beach. It offers 362 pitches, of which 91 mobile homes are either privately owned or available to rent. There are 133 touring pitches, most with shade and separated by bushes and trees. An area at the rear of the site is a little more open. All the pitches are of at least 100 sq.m. and have electricity (10A), water and drainage. The pool complex includes an attractive outdoor pool, a paddling pool, slide and an indoor heated pool with jacuzzi. There has been a recent extension to the pool area. There are also gym facilities and entertainment is organised in high season. This is a clean and tidy site, ideal for families with children and you will receive a helpful and friendly welcome.
In the heart of the Vendée, with more than 250 kilometres of coastline and many beautiful beaches, you will find Camping Le Cabestan. In the middle of a beautiful cycling area, this is a wonderful place for an active or just a relaxing holiday. On the campsite, you will find a relatively large swimming pool with a sliding roof and nice sunbeds
Camping Le Merval is located in Puyravault, Vendée, France. It is in the heart of the Marais Poitevin, a wetland area known for its canals and waterways. The campsite is an excellent base for exploring the Vendée region, with easy access to the beaches of the Atlantic coast. The campsite offers a variety of accommodation options, including 17 touring pitches, which are spacious and shaded, and many have electric hook-up points.
Camping le Paradis can be found close to the popular seaside resort of Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, between Jard-sur-Mer and the larger resort of Les Sables-d’Olonne. Talmont makes up part of the Côte de Lumière, and its 3.5 km. sandy beach (Le Veillon) has longstanding Blue Flag accreditation. There is a free shuttle bus from the campsite to the beach. Pitches here are of average size with limited shade. A number of mobile homes are available to rent. On-site amenities include a covered, heated pool and an all-weather sports pitch (basketball, volleyball, football). The site becomes more active in peak season with a daily children’s club and frequent activities for all the family (including evening entertainment).
This is an attractive, family run holiday site with indoor and outdoor pool complexes and 382 pitches, most of which are fully serviced. Over half are taken by mobile homes and chalets, leaving 183 good sized, hedged pitches with 10A electricity hook-ups (2 pins) for touring units. Grassy and level, these are served by tarmac roads. A good family holiday location, there are lots of activities and entertainment in July and August. The indoor pool is open all season, the L-shaped outdoor pool complex has a menhirs theme and attractive flower beds.
A member of the Chadotel group, le Bahamas Beach is separated from the sandy beach by 600 m. of sand-dunes and the River Jaunay. It is a modern, well-equipped site, very well placed on one of the most popular stretches of the Vendée coast, and attracts a higher proportion of French holidaymakers than many others in the area. The 81 touring pitches are scattered amongst the total of 235, of which 154 are mobile homes. There is one French tour operator (6 pitches). The pitches are grassy, and level on sandy soil, separated by hedges or low bushes and all have easy access to electricity and water. There are few trees and little shelter from the wind off the sea. Maximum unit length permitted is 8.5 m. There is a good range of daytime and evening entertainment for all ages in July and August.
A short distance away from the busy coast, Puerta del Sol could suit not only families with teenage children to entertain, but also those seeking a more peaceful and relaxing holiday. Of the 216 pitches, 70 are available for touring units, each with electricity, water and drainage; they are level with dividing hedges and there is plenty of shade from mature trees. The remaining pitches are occupied by mobile homes and wooden chalets, 66 available to rent. A pleasant bar with snack bar, takeaway and small shop overlooks the outdoor pool and terrace and the adjoining indoor pool which has been recently added.
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Vendée
It’s not only the fine beaches that make this holiday region so appealing – quaint fishing harbours, historic ports and charming towns all create a great holiday atmosphere.
This small but perfectly located region is all about the beach. All 200 km of it. That may sound a little over-simplified, but it is undoubtedly a magnet for lovers of sun, sea and sand. Visitors flock to the region to enjoy the exceptionally mild climate with an enviable sunshine record and famously balmy micro-climate (apparently, there are more sunshine hours here than on the French Rivera); it’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular tourist areas of France. The Vendée has a wealth of sleepy fishing harbours, historic ports and charming towns that all create a great holiday experience. Popular resorts in the Vendée include Les Sablesd’Olonne, La Tranche-sur-Mer, and St Jean-de-Monts.
The Vendée was the centre of the counterrevolutionary movement between 1793 and 1799, and a ‘son et lumière’ held at Le Puy-du-Fou tells the whole story. Les Sables-d’Olonne is its main resort, renowned for its excellent sandy beach. The area between the Vendée and Charente, the Marais Poitevin, is one of the most unusual in France – a vast tract of marshland with a thousand or more tree-lined canals and slow-moving streams.
Vendée Blogs
Spotlight on the Vendee
Rob Fearn | 2 Apr 2021 | Read time: 7m 57s
There are four distinct regions to the Vendée département: the Bocage, a rolling, wooded area of low hills; the Plaine with its open countryside and rich arable land, golden with wheat and sunflowers in summer; and two marshy areas - the silent Marais Breton to the north, the lush, verdant slow-moving waters of the Marais Poitevin to the south
Read MoreCAMPING IN THE VENDEE
Camping in the Vendée
The Vendée is a hugely popular region for camping, partly because it’s an easy place to get to from the UK. Campsites in the Vendée are usually of high quality (competition encourages standards to be high) and many have been in business for decades, gradually improving services and facilities. Of course, as is often the rule of thumb, the closer the campsite to the beach, the smaller the pitches are likely to be. That is sometimes the price to pay for convenience. Moreover, campsites near the beach can be more expensive.
And campsites on the beach can be that much more lively in terms of evening entertainment and general hubbub. For this reason, some prefer to enjoy the day on the beach and then retreat to the more secluded campsites slightly inland. But each to their own!
PLACES OF INTEREST
Places of interest
L’Aiguillon-sur-Mer: Famous for its mussels and other shellfish; site of migrating birds between August and November.
Apremont: Pretty village with a Renaissance castle; Vendée’s largest lake with a sandy beach, watersports and boat hire.
Île-d’Yeu: One hour by boat from the coast, a major tourist destination with colourful shops, cafés and restaurants; art galleries and exhibitions; bicycles and cars for hire.
Jard-sur-Mer: Abbey of Lieu-Dieu (financed by Richard the Lionheart); seaside with attractive, colourful houses.
Le Puy-du-Fou: 15/16th-century castle; son-et-lumière production and historical theme park.
BEACHES OF THE VENDEE
Beaches of the Vendée
The Vendée is a great choice for children of all ages. The traditional accessory for every child visiting the Vendée is, without doubt, the bucket and spade - and with good reason. From St. Jean-de-Monts to La Tranche-sur-Mer the coast is virtually unbroken with fragrant pine forests leading down to gently shelving sandy beaches.
These are some of France’s finest beaches, with gently shelving golden sands that are reassuringly safe for toddlers as they paddle and splash in the water. Many beaches offer high season kids’ clubs with organised beach activities as well as watersports on offer like sailing, windsurfing, paddleboards and kayaks. It’s generally easy for teenagers and older children to enjoy a degree of independence in safety.
Île de Noirmoutier: The Le Gois causeway (and a modern bridge) connect this once detached island to the mainland. A handful of scattered villages and miles of often empty beach create a magical environment, very different from the mainstream resorts further south. The Plage des Dames, complete with a boardwalk, wooden pier, soft sand and backed by oak trees, mimosa, eucalyptus and fragrant pine trees is hard to beat.
Les Sables d’Olonne: This is a resort where the beaches are so good they named the town after them. It’s one of the major resorts of the Vendée and has a fine, curved seafront and sandy bay. The marina is always a popular haunt with plenty of flashy boats to gawp at, as well as the usual bustle of a working marina and, naturally, some really good restaurants where you can enjoy fantastically fresh seafood. The 15th century Château St Clair is also a popular excursion as is the zoo with its sanctuary for over forty endangered species.
St-Jean-de-Monts: Though quiet for much of the year, St Jean-de-Monts wakes up with a vengeance during the summer months. This is one of the best-known hotspots, with many excellent family campsites jostling for position along the Cote de Lumière. The vast 8 km long beach is a delight with fine sands and no currents to worry parents of young children. It’s frequented by kite surfers and sand yachts, as well as cyclists and horse riders enjoying the shady pines that fringe the shore.
St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie: As a change from some of the larger resorts, St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is an attractive fishing harbour spanning the river Vie. It is home to Beneteau, the world-leading sailing boat manufacturer and it is truly a town of boats, from the brightly painted fishing boats, the little ferries that ply back and forth to the Ile d’Yeu, to the host of small dinghies and sailing boats that bob up and down in the blue waters and whose white sails are sprinkled across the seascape. It’s no surprise the region is known for the Vendée Globe yacht race, one of the most gruelling nautical challenges in the world.
Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez: Not far from its larger neighbour, St Gilles, this pleasant town of small whitewashed houses adorned with jauntily painted shutters is also home to the Atlantic Toboggan waterpark on Merlin-Plage. Here a mind-boggling range of pools awaits, with waterslides, flumes, whirlpools and more. The 250-metre thrills of the twisting Boa and the Kamikaz are inevitable highlights.
The Route du Sel: An excursion with a difference is to follow the Route de Sel (or the Salt Route) through the Marais, inland flat expanses of land reclaimed from the sea. Take to the completely calm waters of the waterways that criss-cross the Sallertaine’s ancient salt marshes and find yourself at eye-level to the surrounding marshland with its windmills and wildlife. A wonderful time to do this is early morning when you might start paddling as the atmospheric morning mists begin to burn off, revealing the magically tranquil landscape around you.
CUISINE OF THE REGION
Cuisine of the region
Not known as a viticultural world-beater, the Vendée does have vineyards around Brem-sur-Mer and Mareuil-sur-Lay, producing light, refreshing wines perfect at the end of a long day in the sun. Excellent duck comes from Challans where the duck market was a key part of the local economy. Locally produced meat and poultry include Charolais beef, salt-marsh lamb and foie gras.
The Brioche de Vendée, the soft, slightly sweet bread served at breakfast is a family favourite. Best of all though is the huge variety of seafood available from the simple but highly prized oyster to the elaborate fish dishes that tempt every passer-by. Seafood includes sole sablaise, cooked with lemon, barbecued sardines from Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie, baked white tuna and mussels from the Baie de l’Aiguillon cooked in white wine.
Samphire: A herb that grows on the edges of the salt marshes.
Mogette: A signature dish of the region, Slow-cooked baby haricot beans, traditionally served with gammon.
Jambon de Vendee: Local raw-cured ham.