Review: An Irish family's mobile-home holiday at a French resort

Danielle Farrelly reviews her family camping adventure on France's Mediterranean coast.

Location: La Sirène Campsite in Argelès-sur-Mer on France's Mediterranean coast.

Who went: A family of four including two young boys aged eight (Joseph) and five (Alfie).

How to get there: The nearest airport to La Sirène is 25km away at Perpignan. Instead, we flew to Carcassonne – saving us about €800. It meant we had a drive of one hour and 20 minutes – but the saving we made more than covered the price of our car rental.

Another option is to fly into Girona in Spain. I heard from other holiday makers that the taxi cost €80 from Perpignan Airport to the campsite for a family of six.

Airline: We flew with Ryanair to Carcassonne. Aer Lingus fly to Perpignan.

Car Rental: I hate car rental companies when abroad; I always begrudge having to take out extra insurance and pay for child seats. We brought our booster seats with us this time, so all together we paid Avis €540 for 10 days for a Nissan Duke automatic.

There was a hairy moment when my other half didn't know how to drive an automatic but after 10 minutes around the carpark, he found it very easy and now wants an automatic car. The roads were very good, and we had to pay one toll which was about €20.

La Sirène

We got to the campsite close to 3pm and went straight to the reception desk. We were handed an information booklet, a holding deposit of €200 was put on the card for any breakages, and the remainder of the deposit invoice was paid. We were given a couple of bedsheets and were sent on our way to find the mobile home.

The camp check-in desk reminded us to download the La Sirène App - you really need to do this as the app has everything on it, from the schedule of the week to the timeline of daily activities.

Booking opens every day at 1pm on the app, and many of the activities were for kids over the age of six. Joseph loved the bubble football, and they both enjoyed the archery.

In Le Hippocampe across the road, there were daily football matches in which Joseph – and sometimes also his dad – could take part. There was a daily 'family football' tournament open to all ages – with the finalists walking out to the sound of the Champions League music.

Joseph was pretty chuffed to win this competition on his first go (with Dad relegated to playing in goals throughout). But just a word of warning: if you book activities and don't turn up without cancelling in time, after two no-shows you are blocked from the app.

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The Mobile Home

All the mobiles and roads within the campsite look similar and we drove around and around before eventually finding ours. We arrived at a very pleasant three-bedroom mobile home, No. 175.

We parked right outside the house so we could unload the car and then relocated the car to a nearby parking spot. If you don't do that you will have no room to sunbathe or you will have to eat with your car bonnet right beside you. The accommodation consisted of two single bedrooms with two single beds each and a double bedroom. We felt the mobile would be a little cramped if six people were staying there.

This set-up was perfect for our two lads, who shared a room, and we used the other single to store our suitcases and clothes. We learned this 'hack' after we went camping in Italy when our youngest, Alfie, was a baby.

The travel cot and suitcases took up the tiny living space – and after a week of rain and Alfie's tummy bug we needed another holiday. This time around we spent a little extra for three bedrooms.

We had a lovely, powerful shower, and the toilet was in a separate room, which proved very handy. The dining/kitchen space included a small table with a sofa bench. The kitchen was well equipped with a four-ring hob, a microwave, a kettle, a filtered coffee machine, a fridge and a small freezer. A gas 'plancha' BBQ was located on the deck.

A nice touch was La Sirène's welcome pack, which included a few one-night essentials like toilet roll, coffee sachets, sugar, and washing-up liquid. I'd bring a few tea towels with you.

The air con worked and was really powerful, and each window was equipped with mosquito blinds. They are there for a reason but we still all managed to get eaten alive. On this subject: don't leave the front door open, buy some repellant, and if you're sitting out at night to eat, consider using mosquito-repellent candles.

You'll thank me when you wake up on day four of the holiday without a fiery trail of red bumps running from your ankle to the back of your knee (on both legs). We found having liquid antihistamine on hand for the boys was a great idea. It takes the sting out of the itch and stops them scratching the bites at night time.

When it comes to the Wi-Fi, only two devices can be used, and to be honest the signal was very weak in our area.

The Food

The drive into the campsite was a little daunting but within an hour of walking around I realised that most mobiles were only about 10 minutes away from the action. Better yet, ours was just five minutes away. This was perfect as, although we could hear the noise from the nighttime entertainment, it didn't keep the kids up.

Everything you need is available nearby as the supermarket, bakery and restaurants are all beside each other. Our morning started with me walking down to the gorgeous bakery which sold fresh bread, pastries, doughnuts and quiches. Our favourite was the Pain Lena which was a thick rustic stick which cost about €1.60. Pastries were about €2.50 to €3. The bakery stayed open from 7:30am to 8:30pm and never ever seemed to run out of bread.

You can get coffee from the bar which is located beside the bakery, but it cost €4.50 for a six-ounce cup of OK coffee - and it was often less than full. The solution for us was to make filtered coffee in the mobile to enjoy with the croissants.

Next door to the bakery was a little supermarket, and it was a tad more expensive than one outside the camp (maybe an extra euro for a lot of products) but that's the price you pay for convenience.

There were two restaurants on site; one served pizza, pasta, chicken nuggets and steaks and the other was a little more expensive and had more seafood options. We ate at the pizza restaurant a good few times and their delicious pizzas were €14.

The only downside was that a lot of the time half the table would get their food first and the other two would get theirs when the meal was almost finished. But still there were few complaints as the nearby music pounding from the stage kept the kids occupied. A good bottle of wine* was €18.

For the most part, we found it less stressful when we cooked on the BBQ and had a glass of wine. Personally, we didn't think the French steaks were half as nice as Irish ones, so we switched to burgers and chicken breasts. Another great option was the takeaway attached to the restaurant where you can get pizza and rotisserie chicken and chips. The pizzas were the same price as sitting in the restaurant, a large whole chicken was €12, and a large fries for four people was €10. All the restaurants close from 2:30 to 5pm.

A firm favourite was the ice cream shop - about €3.50 a scoop.

Kids Club

There were two age groups from 3-5 and 6-12. They do sessions in the morning from 9:30am to 12pm and then 2:30pm to 5pm. The lads didn't love it as they felt it was a little boring, but they did attend it twice. It was also a good chance to make new friends as it was located beside a great playground, which has ziplines and swings and crazy golf.

The Pool

Most people looking to book a campsite holiday are looking for exceptional pool facilities. And they are five-star at La Sirène. It boasts a large pool for small kids where the water goes up to their knees, a deeper end, an indoor warm pool and another pool.

There are also a fair few waterpark slides – ranging in thrill from 'kiddie level' to 'terrified parent' – which are great fun. There are also lifeguards on duty which makes it feel safe. There are no seats around the pool, which cuts out the 'leaving out your towel' business, so you find a spot and lay on the artificial grass.

One odd thing I noticed when I got the kids an ice pop from the shop was that we were told we couldn't eat it on the grass. There were also people doing braiding of kids' hair by the pool, which I noticed lots of parents paid for. I wonder was it the fact that they got about two hours of peace while this was taking place?

Aerial Adventure

About 1km away was an aerial adventure park, which we learnt about from the very pleasant workers at the information desk. We arrived at the park at 4pm, thinking we would do it in two hours, but were advised to come back earlier the next day as it tends to take five hours. We did this and they were absolutely right.

It cost €90 for the four of us to enter. Alfie had a little junior aerial line to use, and it was funny seeing him attach himself with the clasps as he was told to do by the instructor. Joseph is a bit of an adrenaline fiend and was using the ziplines for 10-year-olds. I did a good few of the ziplines myself and they were quite advanced. I even had to be helped down by an instructor as I found one just too hard!

Evening Entertainment

Every evening at 9pm there is a free show - the theme of which will appear on the all-important app. It's generally half in French and half in English.

A firm favourite was the Robot Magic Show on the Friday night. When the curtains pulled back there was a massive figure of Bumblebee from Transformers on the stage. The magic tricks were actually very good, and Joseph was on a serious high after the performance – boosted by getting his photo taken with Bumblebee himself. It was lovely to see.

Argelès-sur-Mer

There is a local Lidl and Aldi about a five-minute drive away. A Hypermarche is about 10 minutes away, but it is massive and a little overwhelming. If you don't have a car many people just hire a taxi. There's a pharmacy about three minutes away and we also managed a trip to Decathlon (15 minutes) as we forgot sunglasses and flipflops.

A small so-called 'train' (it's actually a bus) leaves from outside the resort to the town. You can get a timetable from the reception desk. We did this one evening and the kids loved it.

Argelès-sur-Mer was full of stalls and tourist trinkets and ice-cream shops. Perhaps we didn't go to the scenic end, but it resulted in a tasty dinner out at La Canne à Sucre. Getting back to the resort we hailed an Uber as the 'train' stops at 7pm.

Collioure is a small, beautiful, picturesque village of colourful shop fronts on the seaside. I highly recommend a walk around the town. Parking can be an issue as it's limited but we went early at about 11am and found a spot.

Final Thoughts

We loved this holiday and can see us going back again next year. I did find a lot of families came on holiday with their friends, so it was hard for our little ones to make friends, but they had each other which was great.

There was also a lot of activities for teenagers, so it is good for a family of mixed ages. And we loved that they had a gym that overlooked the Pyrenees. We used it a few times for a quick run.

We would always book a three-bed as we would find it cramped otherwise. I think I would fly to Perpignan or Girona next time and just get a taxi to the resort. I didn't feel like the car was worth it.

The food was great for a resort and then you also had the option of eating in as you had the BBQ. Do be warned the mosquitos are a pain and you'll see many people walking around with massive bites. Alfie, for some reason, managed to get no bites.

The resort was busy enough at the start of June and I can only imagine the crowds in July as I know it is a firm favourite for holidaymakers. Le Hippocampe across the road, which is a part of the same resort, apparently is a quieter option for peak season.

Cost

Our flights cost €1,135 with loads of baggage. These were booked in February, so there might be better deals out there.
Car hire was €540.
10 nights in a three-bedroom mobile was €996.20 and I booked directly with the campsite. The holiday took place from June 7 to 17. It was a lot cheaper to go in June than July/August.

NB: All costs were paid for by the writer, and no media discount was applied.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.

*Always drink responsibly.

Review: An Irish family's mobile-home holiday at a French resort

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