Ciela Village Campsites in France: La rive in BISCARROSSE, Landes REVIEW

Last updated on June 7th, 2024 at 01:31 pm

This past half term, we stayed at one of the Ciela Village Campsites called La Rive in Biscarrosse, Landes. Celia Village has 16 different 4 and 5 star campsites in France to choose from. Even though La Rive is the first one we have experiences we can’t wait to try them all. We had an unbelievable time as a family. There is so much to do and see on the campsite for all ages, you won’t need to venture anywhere else but Biscarrosse is so beautiful you will want to so make sure you book plenty of time to experience all that La Rive has to offer as much as Biscarrosse has to offer.

What are the accommodations like at La Rive?

We were welcomed by friendly staff at the late hours of midnight. I was a little nervous arriving so late but they have fulls security and lovely staff waiting for our arrival in the middle of the night to guide us to our accommodations. We had a three bedroom Prestige mobile-home for the week. My two boys shared the bulk beds in one room, my daughter and I share the other room with twin beds, and we gave Granny the master-suite with a double bed and her own en-suite. It was so spacious with a kitchen, dining able and living room area. We spent a lot of time on the patio playing games or just listening to the birds chirps drinking our morning coffee, or having lunch and lounging our own lounge chairs for some relaxing in the sun. It fit my family of five perfectly and had everything we needed to make our own meals if we wish and our stay comfortable. With a modern design, it really is kept up to date and clean.

What is there to do at Ciela Village, La Rive?

Maybe I should have titled this what is there “not” to do because there is “so much” to do at La Rive, Ciela Village for all ages of kids and adults alike. From amazing indoor and out door pool options, to the many amenities of restaurants, bars, spa, grocery store to the leisure activities galore that families need most on holiday.

POOLS

Let’s start with what most kids love the most, the pool options. La Rive has indoor/outdoor pools, indoor/outdoor lazy river pools, heated pool, wading pool, water park, water slides, indoor splash pad, and more. Phew! Even though we were there in “out of season” time so the outdoor pools, water slides and water park were closed there was plenty of pool and swimming fun to be had indoors.

AMENITIES

What makes a holiday work best for families? Accessibility to necessities so everyone can relax, right? La Rive amenities cover anything you can need on the campsite so you can just walk to whatever you need right on your front doorstep, literally. At La Rive, there is one restaurant, tapas/cafe/bar area, grocery store, pizza restaurant, salad bar restaurant, candy store, bike/scooter rental store, wellness spa, pet friendly, electric car terminals, wifi options, two food trucks, crepe/waffle/ice cream shop, and a clothing shop that sells things from lovely holiday gear to beach towels, pool toys, games and more. Like I said, wowzers, you need it, you can get in right on the campsite.

LEISURE ACTIVITIES

We had already scoped out all the pools and tested them out on our first day in the sun so it was time to see what else the kids can get up to on our second day. It did not disappoint there was plenty to do when the sun wasn’t out or when we needed a break from swimming in the pools or at the lake. La Rive has kids club options, multi-sport field area, waters sports center, fitness area, indoor soft play area, super soft sandy playground all sorts of climbing frames, outdoor entertainment area and indoor arena for evening shows, and numerous daily activities happening all over the campsite at different times and days of the week. Don’t forget to regularly check the Ciela Village app for these so you don’t miss out.

How easy is it to get to La Rive?

The campsite really is located in the most beautiful forest, Landes and right on the the lake too. We didn’t have our own car on this trip so we taxi to and from the airport to La Rive. It was about an hour traveling one way. But I didn’t want to have my not driving sway me not to experience this place and it didn’t. Once we arrive at La Rive, we didn’t need to go anywhere else. If you are renting a car, it’s a super easy to navigate straight there on one long road and few easy turns.

What was the food like?

There are various places on site you can eat when you don’t feel like cooking in your mobile-home. We frequently visit the crepe/waffle/ice cream shop its only open in afternoons. We ate a few times at the Restaurant for a more formal meal but our palettes aren’t as adventures as we are so the kids still ate chicken nuggets or burger in restaurant. I had chicken and mash potatoes once and chicken Caesar salad the second time. Both delicious. We had pizza one night from the Pizza Store and it was sooo delicious. We took it back to our mobile-home for dinner as it was raining. We wanted a lovely night in with some delicious pizza. It did not disappoint. Kids loved it too.

There were two food trucks that offered your burger, fries, hotdog, chicken nugget, style food. They were open various times and days. There is also an outdoor tapas. It had four options of nibbles and drinks.

There is a grocery store onsite but if you want a lot more healthy options like vegetables I would recommend picking them up on your way to the campsite. They didn’t have vegetables like broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach, asparagus etc. It’s a small grocery so you can get by but the restaurants don’t offer any vegetables for adults or kids. We didn’t have our own car this visit so we didn’t have the option to get a full grocery shop on the way to the campsite. There is a salad bar restaurant but again you are only going to get carrots, cucumber, lettuces for the week and it’s very expensive we found for salads. It was very hard to find healthy food between all the amazing treats and delicious holiday food. Kids were loving a week of treats.

I have a son with severe food allergies and everywhere we went were quick to help us make sure he was safe to eat what he wanted. We don’t always have that luxury on holiday so it was a relief to have options and help. Although I did have to have a card made up in french so they understood the severity of his allergies and what I needed. It would have been impossible without that translate card.

Why did I love it so much?

If kids are happy, parents are happy, right? YES! I have three kids all various ages from a 5 year old to a 13 year old teenager. They like different things, they are interested in different things and the age gap sometimes means holidays can get tricky or even stressful trying to entertain them all, all the time. Usually it’s my eldest that gets the short straw and there isn’t much for teenagers to do. Most activities would be either too baby-ish or he was too old and big for but still wanted to do fun games and activities. Sometimes we have had it where I just couldn’t safely leave him to do an activities and go where my younger two were doing activities. This was one of the first holidays where I didn’t have to do any of that. My eldest had plenty to choose from and they were all easy for me to keep an eye on him and still have the younger two doing fun activities nearby and keep an eye on them too. Everyone could be doing something they wanted to or loved all whilst I could be nearby relaxing too. That’s a great holiday in my book. Everyone wins that way. The facilities are layed out perfectly for you to be able to all be in the same area doing different things. You also feel so safe letting them bike and scoot or run around the campsite with it being a gated campsite too. So for parents that need relaxing or have numerous age kids this is the location for you.

There is a spa!

Need I say more…who doesn’t love a good pamper on holiday? Luckily, Granny so kindly offered to babysit the kids at the pool whilst I went to see what the wellness and spa center was like. It’s lovely and private. There is one steam room, one sauna, two little pools with a private patio in the sun and treatment rooms. I had the best deep tissue massage ever! Definitely recommend each parent taking turns in the spa for a treatment.

Why did the kids love it so much?

We usually find that one location gears more for the tots or younger kids, or opposite that our two younger kids aren’t tall enough to do this or old enough to do that. It can be hard finding a place that has a not just one thing for that age group but a bunch of choices for each age group. We found that all our kids had a few favourite things to choose from each day when they deemed themselves bored or wanting to do something else. That always makes for an easy holiday.

Little man, who is 5 years old loved the indoor soft play area and the sandy playground. He often ran between the two for hours on end with his sister trailing behind. That is, unless they were swimming and running around the lazy river together.

My daughter is a woodland girl. She loved the lake and the walks and trails we did around the campsite. The forest there is so beautiful. She prefers to climb trees, pick wildflowers and dig into the sandy beach on the lake when she isn’t swimming. If you stay in hotels she often doesn’t get any nature time that she loves so much. So for her, I would say this might be one of her favourite holidays surround by trees and a lake. What’s not to love about all that?

There was so much for my eldest to do for 12+ that some days he only checked in with us to when he was hungry. Whether he was off playing soccer with friends in the big sport area, biking around the campsite with friends or his siblings or swimming with them in the indoor pools or watching the Champions league games at night on the campsite big screen together. He was having such a great time and enjoying some independence, having so much to do. I think he was absolutely gutted the water slides and water park wasn’t open when we arrived though. As he loves water parks and slides.

What else is there to do and see in Biscarrosse, France?

Biscarrosse has lovely places to visit around the campsite too. If you are staying longer and want to see more of Landes Forest and the beautiful beaches nearby. You have numerous lakes you can visit close by although the one on the campsite is amazing so I would soak that up at your location. We went for a morning walk on Biscarrosse Beach then walked around the little clothes shops and had a lovely lunch out. Biscarrosse Beach is huge, great for surfing but most importantly it’s a stunning beach and so big. You can walk along the promenade and bask in the sunshine whilst you listen to the waves or venture onto the beach to build some sandcastles or attempt surfing if that’s your thing. We really wanted to go just a bit further to visit the famous Dunes de Pilat but we ran out of time and it would have been easier getting around in our own car instead of by taxis. Next time for sure!

Other than Dune de Pilat on our list for our next visit you have other adventures and days out to be had for families like the AquaPark which is a whole park of inflatable obstacle course floating on the lake and Bis’Aventure which is like climbing through the trees on obstacle course harnessed in.

Extra tips and advice when visiting La Rive, Biscarrosse, Landes campsite!

Biggest tip…download the app! They have their own Ciela Village app. Think of it like your weekly organiser for you. It has every event, time, map, information, services and more on it. We could click through the activities of ones we wanted to check out and it would notify us when it was about to start so we didn’t forget and where to go. The app was thinking for us so we didn’t have to. A must when you are staying at Ciela Village Campsites.

When checking in and they give you the wifi code. Do not let one of your children type it in to their device first. It’s only for ONE device. OOops. We didn’t know this and kids started signing in whilst I unpacked and we quickly realized we needed to buy wifi codes for each device for each day for each person. They have family plans and reception can help you sort that quickly for you.

Make a note when things are open and close timing wise. We were really confused the first few days when certain restaurants or cafe or the shop or the grocery store was closed. One would be closed on a Tuesday then another on Friday it’s all random so make sure you have all those. We didn’t realize this and had plans for either grocery shopping or grabbing something specific then couldn’t because it was closed all day.

There are always things you forget or didn’t know about on holidays you haven’t done before. Well, we forgot our own beach towels. Mostly because with five of us and lots of luggage for a week we barely could find a car big enough for us to fit five of us and four large suitcases in so we were limited on space. Luckily we could buy everything we needed for the beach and the pool at the little shop on site. Beach/Pool Towels were €15 each. They provide you with one bath towel but no alternative towels.

Obviously they speak french. I only knew about 20 phrases which got me by but I would say at least have a few phrases in your phone ready or google translate at the ready. I don’t ever except to visit somewhere and they speak my language I am visiting their country but we found it very, very hard that no one spoke any English at all. We used google translate everyday for almost every meal or ordering drinks and ice cream etc. But with google translate, we were fine. Thank goodness for technology.

We had such a fantastic stay and we couldn’t have done more family activities together and happily separate with new friends we made if we tried anywhere else. It definitely is a holiday to remember.

Come see our reels on instagram or check out of highlights to really see all our adventures at Ciela Village…there were just lo many photos to share all in one post! Once again thank you Ciela Village for an unforgettable press trip experience.