Camping La Sirène is one of the most popular campsites in Europe particularly with Irish families. Located in the heart of the seaside resort of Argelès sur Mer, in Southern France, only 900 metres from the beach, and a few kilometres from Spain. It’s the perfect choice for a family holiday, with children and teenagers.
Our holiday began with a flight from Ireland West Airport to Barcelona (Girona) airport which is just over a two hour flight with Ryanair. The flight operates twice weekly from April to September and Girona Airport is a particularly popular choice for families as it’s the gateway to some of Europe's most popular family campsites both in the Costa Brava region and also down into Southern France.
Our flight departed at 15:30 and we arrived into Girona Airport just before 7pm local time - note the 1 hour time difference. We had hired a transfer from the airport to La Sirene with a company called Taxi Estartit (https://taxiestartit.com) which is a company we have used on many occasions in the past and have always found them very good and very reasonable. The transfer cost is €380 return from Girona Airport to Camping La Sirène. Many of our friends hired cars which ranged from about €380 to €600 (depending on family size). Hiring a car is very useful for going to the large supermarkets (Lidl about 15 minute drive) and for also exploring many of the beautiful areas around La Sirène and is also quite handy for going to the beaches in the region.
The transfer took just over an hour, and we arrived at La Sirène just after 8pm. The atmosphere was brilliant when we arrived and the kids were very excited. The campsite was buzzing as the entertainment was in full flow and the smell of freshly made pancakes from the on site pancake counter drew us in and we couldn’t resist as a treat on arrival!
As this was our first time in Camping La Sirène, our first couple of days were spent finding our way around and getting used to where the various activities took place each day. Camping La Sirène offers a wide huge range of free activities and entertainment for both adults and kids and includes a fantastic on site water park. If you’re looking for a small, holiday park then Camping La Sirène isn’t for you. It’s a huge park, but that said its very easy to get around and most mobile homes are no more than a five-minute walk to the main pool and entertainment area. There is a sister smaller campsite across the road called ‘Hippocamp’ where most kids activities and teen clubs take place. There are sports pitches there too and a smaller pool. All visitors to Camping La Sirène can use the facilities at the Hippocamp and vice versa, this is why you need to wear your wristband/security bracelet at all times. Our kids spent a lot of time over at Hippocamp enjoying daily games of football, dodgeball, table tennis and family Olympics – which was great fun!
The campsite itself really is a kids paradise and perfect for a relaxing family holiday. Catering for kids of all ages, there is so much to do with something for all the family, with a large pool Complex:, 2 Heated Covered Pools, 3 Large Water Slides, Paddling Pools, Water Games , Mini slides, Water Fountains. There is also during peak season an Adult only pool which is Heated & Covered Pool. a multi surface pitch for football, basketball and handball, tennis courts, plus hill walking and cycling trails in abundance. Important to note they don’t provide complimentary sunbeds in any of the pool areas – you can buy fold up sun loungers in the shop for around €30 but mostly people used their towels and lay out on the artificial grass surrounding the pools. They have a very strict policy of no footwear or food or drink allowed around the pools which kept the area spotlessly clean all day long. Note the pools close at 7pm every evening and one evening a week they stay open till 10pm!
Accommodation
We booked our accommodation with local Galway Travel agent Kelair Campotel (www.campotel.com) and Pearse and the team were superb to deal with from start to finish. Kelair have a number of mobile homes in La Sirene and in the sister Hippocamp campsite which is located just across the road. As a family of five, mobile homes can sometimes be very challenging for our crew but the 3 bedroom mobile home we had was very spacious with loads of room and very modern. The accommodation included two bathrooms and a double room for the parents, 2 x twin rooms with a nice size kitchenette and large seating and dining area. It was fully stocked with a full set of inventory, cooker, microwave and fridge freezer. It also had air conditioning, which is certainly a must, as temperatures got up to as high as 30 degrees during our stay! The best thing about mobile homes as always is the outdoor decking area which was well-sized and came complete with barbecue which was perfect as we cooked at the mobile a good few nights.
Around the corner from our mobile home was a large playground area which included, complimentary mini golf, which was a lovely surprise, two tennis courts and the kids club for the younger kids was located here also, as was the archery which is a free activity and one which we really enjoyed as a family activity. The kids spent hours in the playground area – which meant more relaxation time for the parents!
Entertainment
One of the best things about Camping La Sirène, is the evening entertainment, which is simply top class. There are shows on every evening with a welcome show every Wednesday and Sunday which is simply brilliant. Shows which were on during our stay included, the Lion King, Back to the Future, High School Musical and an Abba Tribute act. There is a great atmosphere in the entertainment arena and to acknowledge the amount of Irish holidaymakers on site the acts even broke into a rendition of ‘Irelands Call’ which really got the crowd going on welcome night! The entertainment has a Broadway type feel to it and you can see why its one of the main selling points of Camping La Sirène as its far and away the best entertainment we have seen at any campsite we have holidayed in, in either Spain or Italy over the past number of years. The only downside I would say is that some of the performances were not in English and just in French which we found was a little disappointing especially for the kids, who struggled to follow it and given there was a such a large amount of English speaking holidaymakers there it was the only let down! One thing to note is the entertainment is very popular - it starts at 8/8:30pm every evening but you really needed to be down there from 7pm onwards to guarantee a good seat and table to enjoy the entertainment – otherwise you could be standing up for the duration of it! The entertainment typically ends at about 10:30pm every night.
Activities
The activities available on-site are really what makes Camping La Sirène and Hippocamp stand head and shoulders above any other campsite we have holidayed in over the past number of years All activities onsite are free (we’ve never been at a campsite where this was the case!). Activities for both adults and kids can be booked each day using the official campsite app – but be warned, activities must be booked at 1pm each day only and the popular ones book out very quickly so you need to be ready! We enjoyed lots of the activities on offer including family archery, family Olympics, kids dodgeball, soccer tournaments etc.
For the adults there was lots of daily classes to choose from (again all free) - from fitness and Zumba classes to aquaerobics and Aquabiking sessions all bookable each day on the app. Another popular facility was the campsite gym, open and accessible for free every day during the season.
Across the road at Hippocamp was the Sporttippo sports complex which was a hive of activity every day. A multi-sports ground with free access, to numerous sports and leisure activities. Including Football, beach volleyball, basketball, battle archery, beach soccer, bubble football, handball and much more which were run by the activity team, and were suitable for all ages from kids as young as 5 up to adults. Our kids (aged 10,12 and 13) spent a huge amount of time over here both in the morning and evening as there was always some form of activity going on!
Food and Drink
The food and drink on-site is very good and again probably as good as anything we have experienced at other campsites in Italy and Spain. By staying at the La Sirène or Hippocamp campsites, you will have access to three restaurant areas as well as a takeaway service! There is an onsite Italian restaurant which we ate in once - the menu was decent, lots of pasta dishes and kids really enjoyed the pizzas. The most popular eating out option was the on-site take-away located right next door to the Italian restaurant called El Goncourt. The pizzas were tasty and affordable and there was freshly prepared wraps and salads each day to choose from which were delicious - it was very busy every evening which is testament to how good the food was – the added bonus is you could bring your food to the open air entertainment area and have you seating area secured and have your food before the entertainment started at 8pm.
Theres also a small open air restaurant overlooking the pool area, called the Sirène Beach which we also ate at a couple of times for lunch – really good choice on the menu (The chicken Caesar salad was excellent!). Across the road in Hippocamp there was a Thai restaurant called Bambou restaurant. Whilst we didn’t eat in it ourselves, friends of ours did and said it was very nice.
As mentioned we ate at our mobile home quite a bit and there’s a lovely on site bakery, fresh bread and pastries every morning and there’s a large supermarket on-site which was decent value and had a good selection of food for preparing lunches and dinners.
There are three bars on site, two located in the main entertainment arena. The main bar ‘the pub lounge was a nice little bar which was popular with the Irish as it showed all the GAA matches and also the soccer matches. Note beers are expensive in the bars with a pint of the local beer costing €6.90. However you are allowed to bring your own beers and wine to the entertainment arena and this was what we did most nights as beers and wine (€5 a bottle!) were good value in the on-site supermarket.
The Beach
There are two beautiful beaches within easy access of both La Sirène and Hippocamp. We hired bikes from the nearby bike hire shop (located just 200 metres from the campsite). Bikes cost €80 for two days for five of us. We cycled to the nearby town of Argelès sur Mer which took about 25 minutes. There is a beautiful beach there (note all the beaches in the region are ‘stoney sand’ which is 7km long and has a prestigious blue flag. A novelty train goes by road throughout the day from right outside the campsite to the beach and back and costs €25 return per family of 5/6.
There’s plenty of things to do on the beach, you can hire pedalos and SUP boards and the promenade is beautiful to walk along and has some lovely restaurants and ice cream shops which we used a few times during our stay. Its really a lovely pretty spot.
It’s worth noting the sand, which is coarse, gets unbearably hot. You could easily burn your feet walking on it when the temp gets very hot which it did when we were there. This coarse sand means that you won’t be able to build sandcastles but it’s comfortable for lying a towel on. The water was beautifully clear and the kids really enjoyed swimming in the sea.
Whilst we didn’t get a chance to explore the region friends of ours did visit the old town of Collioure which apparently is a holiday must-see. Collioure is home to a historic heritage of leading importance. It is one of the most vibrant tourist attractions in the Pyrénées Orientales and is home to the famous Château Royal de Collioure castle.
To finish…..
Overall I would highly recommend both La Sirène or Hippocamp for a really relaxing and fun family break – it’s got everything you need for the kids and the campsite is really safe and secure. We have been going to campsites in both Spain (Castell Montgri) and Italy (Bella Italia and Altomincio) for the past 5/6 years and whilst we found these campsites to be very good, La Sirène was certainly the best one we have been to yet. The kids themselves said it was their best holiday ever which is the best endorsement we can give it. From an adults perspective, the list of daily activities was a big plus. Overall we’d rate this campsite as a 9/10 as there really is something for everyone in the family to enjoy!
The flight option to Girona is really good and it's hard to believe from leaving your house in the morning that you can be poolside in 28 degrees of heat by lunchtime!
Flights for the 2024 season are every Wednesday and Sunday with Ryanair and are usually very very reasonable (Travelling in the middle of June we paid €1200 for 2 adults and 3 kids which included a 20kg checked bag and also 2 x 10kg bags with priority boarding). Flights typically operate from April to October. The accommodation in a 3 bed mobile home was €1200 for 10 nights. The airport transfer was €380 return whilst car hire was circa €400 - €600 for ten days depending on car size
For accommodation you can book with local West of Ireland travel company www.campotel.com and you can also find out more information on the official campsite website www.camping-lasirene.fr/en
21 Aug 2024 13:11 pm
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