Pachacaid Holiday Park

6 readers found this review helpful

What can I say about this site ,Print and keep this if you are going as a family.
Read on for some money saving tips and and the truth from a family that has been to many sights.
France & Spain, we have just got back and most things are still fresh in my mind.
We arrived 9th June for 2009 16 nights, so remmenber it could completely change when the French decend on the South
of France during their anual holidays during July & August,
Travelling :
we flew with BMI tried to box clever and save money by taking less bags.
big no no they will charge £9 per kilo over. it was only £20+ for an extra bag.
We had 3 children and took this little cases as hand luggage more hassle than it's worth.
1. Money saving Tip. If you are hiring a car book while booking flights they can give about a 30% discount.
direct was expensive.
2.I looked at driving add Crossings, Fuel & Toll charges through France both ways was more.
3 Flying Remember Nice & Marcellie are about the same distance allow 2 hours for both. SAT NAV says 1 1/2 hours does not take into account
the coast road can be busy (but great drive)
4.Hiring large cars we had an Opel zafira 7 seats CAREFULL ! this has fold down seats so when the extra 2 seats are put up
no room for cases.
Camp Site :
We arrived around tea time. greeted by select camp, nice people. to be fare all the tour operators inc Key Camp etc etc are similar
caravans are similar , its the site that counts.
1. Watch out not all 3 bed caravans are 8 birth ours was only six
2. Tip Contact the site ask for a list of Owners who hire & operators could get better deal locally
3. The sight is built on a large hill so try and get low level caravans a bit of a walk to pool & entertainmemt (number 400-600 ideal)
4. A big Plus you can park outside caravans and no restrictions on times you enter & leave the site
My biggest plus goes to staff and entertainment team they are the friendlest people and did the funniest shows
I have ever seen, they made our holiday !!!!
At 9pm most night they have something on, even quiz nights are hilarous, at about 11pm you can go to the lower bar by the pool
this has a club if you feel up to and the small kids are even welcomed.
The restaurant could do more : Why do they instist on chicken nugets for kids what happened to French cuisene
Simple guys half the adult portion half price,
Prices are stupid ! average adult meal £10 Childrens meals £8
Drinks don't for god sake give the kids coke or squash £3.00 a pop is daylight robbery but these prices are the same through out
France ,
Money saving : to negitate a price for the kids drinks or threaten to give them iced water all holiday "It Free"
Beer is 5 euros: 9 euros wine litre (Rose Nice !)
Pool Area:
Fantastic : slides are great fun :take speedo trunks they will not allow Swimming shorts; don't argue just take
it's Getting france wide , Hygene issue they don't want folk wearing shorts all day, going beech then diving in their clean pool
Makes some sense.
,
They charge for sun beds but this is a good thing, we had them free when we were there, we ended doing the race with the towels families would take 8 towels down at 10am and would not see themm until 2pm
never any sunbeds.
The only downsides to this site is :
1, No Cash point or Cash Back need a car to get cash
2, No cheep airport transfers Taxi can be e £200 to an from Airports,£50 to local villages
Why the operators don't club together and bring customers via a minibus I don't know it would
encourage people to take shorter breaks more often , plus loose the cost of hiring car.
3. Supermarket expensive go to local "ED Store" 5 miles away
4 No evening dancing for younger children 7-8pm sort of time,
5 Fat men in speedo's
6, France in generally is expensive, I know they only open 4 months a year
Spain still only charge £2.50 a pint & £6.50 and adult meal.
7.Road to Beech by car scary not for faint hearted , great views of Rayol Candel
8. Poor expensive childrens food , What happened to the French culinary skills
9, No oven in my caravan No Barby allowed either.
Positives :
1, Great Staff
2, Loads of kids stuff to do
3, Beautifull location
4, No Football tops, tattoos,gold chains to be seen
5, Full of French Culture
6, Fantastic Beeches Recommend Royal Candel (look for Grande Blue ReSturant almost park on beech)
All in All 8/10
Smiths, Wolverhampton

2 readers found this review helpful

What a beautiful place, we have just returned from nine nights in paradise here... Ususally we do villa holidays, but with kids of 14 12 and 6 we thought they might get bored with that this time. We were a little apprehensive, not being particularly keen on the holiday camp type idea, but we need not have worried. The pool area is lovely, although MEN, beware- they do strictly enforce the rule that you must wear tight trunks- ie speedos or skimpy short style, figure hugging- my DH was NOT happy about this and declared he would not be swimming all holiday, lol. (He changed his mind, it was 32 degrees every day!) Even kids have to have the tight trunks. They sell them in the shop. (Bit of a money spinner that one, there were ever so many British guys walking about looking sheepish in identical trunks!)
That aside, the pool area is lovely, you have to pay for loungers in high season but they are cheaper than at beaches... the setting is gorgeous, mountains, greenery and blue skies, just perfect. The pool bar Aqua Blue is pretty good, average food really but not too expensive, for the south of France at least!
The Pacha Cafe serves great pizzas and ice cream sundaes, but we mostly ate our meals in our mobile home and popped down afterwards for a drink. The entertainment which we watched was actually pretty good. Two nights during our stay there were live bands, both excellent, and other nights there was a mixture of childrens entertainment and adult.
The area itself is beautiful. The beaches to die for. Almost literally if you are not careful going over the mountain road to reach them!! Honestly, it's pretty scary! Worth it though- Rayol Canadel is gorgeous, as is Cavaliere and La Croix Valmer, you also really must visit Port Grimaud it's so pretty. St Tropez itself is great to look at the boats, but the town itself was way too busy to be pleasurable, the people pushy and rude and the streets smelly! It's nicer off season no doubt.
We took a long drive up to the Gorges du Verdon, beautiful and worth a visit if you don't mind the drive.
All in all a fantastic holiday- but not a cheap place to go, kids icecreams were 3.50 each and a basic round of drinks for 5 of us over 25 euros for a small beer and 4 soft drinks. The weak GBP doesn't help. We would go back again anytime, that said!

Ok this year we used select camps, but we have been to Pacha using keycamps in the past and as such they both deserve complimenting.
This site although step to climb (wife, Joanne has hip problems) is just the best for relaxing and great for kids. we have 4 aged 4, 9, 15 and 17 all had fun found friends and wanted for nothing. (Murty and Co. on site entertainment) had fun all had the chance of a camp club, though we visited beaches and other off site places.
I could spend 3 weeks at this site with no problems, yes you do pay a bit more for holidays and food, but you are on holiday and in the south of france a little more euro a little more fun.

Lovely place, but men were not allowed to wear shorts in water, so had to buy swim trunks from the shop. Did not know about this, as it is not stated in any brochures. On two occasions there was poo in the pool, it was removed but bits were still floatind in the water and nothing was done, this is how people get ill on holiday. The cleaner in the toilets cleaned each toilet seat with the same cloth and then wiped around the sink area with the same cloth. Hygiene needs to be improved a lot on the site, otherwise someone is going to be seriously ill.

we had a great holiday at cote d'azur and we will b going back next year spot on well done all at pachacaid,the caravan was very nice and well eqiuped the food on camp was very good there was a supermarket within driving distance. the entertaiment was very very good all in all a wonderfull time was hsd by all oh yes and the weather was hot hot hot all the way

We have just come back after 10 nights at Pachacaid. It was superb. Everywhere is clean and security is excellent. All the staff were very friendly and the food at the restaurant was excellent. My children aged 3, 8 and 11 absolutely loved it. There was plenty for them to do. My little girl keeps telling me she misses France and the Pachacafe. They all made so many friends. The entertainment was excellent. I can't praise it enough.
I would definately go back!!

We've already booked Pacha FOR 2008 - 4 weeks for the wife & kids - just the three for me. For anyone thinking about going - do it - you will not be disappointed .
We've two girls, aged 11 and 7, who have grown up here. We can relax knowing they are safe and have their own little bit of independence and they are happy, which makes for a happy holiday all round.
This site is probably not for you if you don't like fun, scenery, relaxing, drinking, eating out and generally being entertained. If you have youngsters or teenagers, it's a definite YES. 7 nights a week in high season the underground disco (till about 2am) is in action, and the main Pacha cafe has Sky Sports on the big screen.
The new LeClerc supermarket is only 10 mins drive away, and you must not miss the Relais D'Alsace in La Mole village - this is French food at it simplest and best - beef in red wine and chicken in white wine are our favourites - when it arrives you'll think it's for 4 people, not just you.
Daytimes are best spent round the pool, with the odd dip in the open air jacuzzi, or a run down one of the seven slides (they say life begins at 40, so I'm not too old!). Finish the afternoon off in the steam room, shower, changed and out to Pachacafe, or relax outside the mobile home with a few cold beers and/or a bottle of local wine. Watch the sun drop over the hill, put your feet up and try to remember why you keep coming back to this place - it's not too hard to realise it's probably because you feel that you'd still come back even if you won £20m on the lottery. It's that kind of place.

Well, in 2006, I visited Pachacaid for the 7th time, and its as good every time!
I'm 14, and I have never been bored, so much to do: sit in the sun; go on the on site water park with 7 slides (free for campers); play around in the huge pool; lunch in the cafe/restaurant by the pool; or use the on site play area! (I haven't got round to doing everything yet in 14 weeks I have spent there!)
The on-site restaurant is super, with entertainment while you eat the excellent food. Me and my family haven't dined there too often, because we prefer to have dinner in the local villages, towns and hidden away chateaux's.
The nightlife is the best part for me, the disco is geat, I would recommend it for people aged 13 upwards, it runs from 10pm usually, until early morning. The security on the site is fantastic, and it is also very well lit at night!
I love Pachacaid, and tomorrow, I am going AGAIN!

The site is easy to find and is in lovely settings in the mountains.
The pools are nice, but you couldn’t call it a water park...just one big pool, a Jacuzzi (very large and warm), and a few slides which were not very good. There was a toddler’s pool and a climbing wall above a shallow pool but these were shut.
There were plenty of loungers but I can imagine this would be a problem in high season. The best thing about the site is the restaurant, pacha cafe, the food is amazing, very well presented, tasty, cooked to perfection at very reasonable prices. They are open all day 9am till 12am.
There is entertainment near the outdoor seating area from 9pm which is good fun.
There is another bar by the pool (aqua blue) fine for lunch but the food is nowhere near the standard of the pacha cafe. The club isn’t very good, mainly just full of the campsite representatives and no tourists; this may be different in high season.
The area is great, there is a beach in Canadel about 20min drive which is nice with plenty of beach front restaurants, or you can drive in the opposite direction 20mins to Port Grimaud which has a lovely beach.
And you can catch a ferry to St Tropez (to avoid parking problems in st Tropez)....or you can drive a bit further past Port Grimaud to St Maxime which had the best beach by far.
There are plenty of places to eat near to the site; however once you have tasted the food there you probably won’t want to go out. The wine is reasonably priced too.
The onsite shop is very expensive; however there is a supermarket on your way to port Grimaud which is only 10 min drive, and one in the other direction on the way to Canadel. They are a lot cheaper for wine and groceries.
The site itself is very steep, so not really suitable for those with walking difficulties - although they did appear to have a golf kart for taking people up and down who need it.

Fantastic holiday! I went with my boyfriend and his family and we stayed in a caravan which was family owned. The whole campsites caravans were all mixed which was fantastic and we made a lot of friends from Holland and other parts of the UK! The whole park was beautiful and there was lots of things to do. As a teenager you don’t really want to be sitting with your parents in the evenings so it was fantastic that they had an underground disco for us! This usually ran from 11pm to 2am and as it was underground it was quiet for everyone outside it!
The pool was amazing and the slides were fab. My boyfriend’s parents decided we should go self catering, so we ate most meals in our caravan, but we ate our evening meals in the resort. They were absolutely fantastic! The lay out of the food was so professional and appetising, great value for money. There was a range of snacks, both French and English for all to enjoy.
I was also very impressed with the entertainment because you never actually enjoy the entertainment that your resort gives you. Pachacaid was completely different. From 7pm to 9pm kids entertainment took centre stage, which was brilliant, then from 9pm to 11pm was adults. The nights varied from karaoke, quiz night and surprise night. Each evening and week was different.
The views were amazing from every angle of the park and there’s so much to do! Myself and my boyfriend are hoping to go there ourselves one day.