We have camped our way round a fair few corners of the Vendée now, from the sandy stretch at La Tranche-sur-Mer to the quiet lanes near Saint-Julien-des-Landes. It is one of our favourite parts of France for a family holiday. Long flat beaches, warm shallow sea, cycle paths everywhere and Puy du Fou within reach of almost every site we have stayed at.
We have now stayed at six Vendée campsites as a family, Camping Bel, La Garangeoire, Coeur de Vendée, Le Pin Parasol, Domaine du Clarys and Camping l’Océan. Below is exactly what we found at each one, the good bits and the not so good bits, so you can work out which one suits your family.
Quick picks
- Best for toddlers: La Garangeoire, two toddler pools plus a shallow 90cm lagoon beach for little ones to splash about on.
- Best for teens: Le Pin Parasol, go karts, a pump track, a BMX field and one of the longest inflatable slides in the Vendée.
- Best for the beach: Camping Bel, the sand is 300m away and you can walk into La Tranche-sur-Mer for ice cream without touching the car.
- Best for pool and slides: Domaine du Clarys, a lazy river, a dragon-themed splash area and a giant space bowl slide that even I wouldn’t go down.
- Best for budget: Coeur de Vendée, the cheapest Eurocamp week we found for those dates, €250 for four nights in the summer holidays.
La Garangeoire, our forever favourite
La Garangeoire is a Castels-group campsite on the de Kerautem family’s old estate near Saint-Julien-des-Landes, and it’s the one we keep going back to. Anne and her husband Eric still run it, and it shows. There are five pool areas (two toddler pools, a lane pool, a slide pool and a lagoon with a sandy 90cm beach) all heated to 26 degrees, plus free pedalos on the lakes for the first hour if you leave a €20 deposit, and four fishing lakes on a catch and release basis.
Our girls loved the crêpe party and the cheese and wine night on the lawn by the bouncy castle, honestly the cheese portions were generous enough for a family of five. The wifi let it down though. there isn’t any in the accommodation and only patchy free zones elsewhere, which made planning rainy day trips a faff. I also picked up a tick on one of the lake walks, the first one I’d ever had, so pack repellent if you’re wandering the 7km trail. Eurocamp guests get the exclusive Fun Station kids’ club, which is the main reason we’d book this one through Eurocamp.
Read our full La Garangeoire review
Le Pin Parasol, two campsites in one
Le Pin Parasol is split into two distinct areas, Sensations and Nature et Sens, each with its own 2500m2 pool complex. We stayed on Sensations, which has a heated indoor pool at 29 degrees, a toddler splash area and five slides including one of the longest inflatable buoy slides in the Vendée. The lifeguard was strict but fair about swim shorts. Nature et Sens next door is the calmer, more luxurious side, with a 50m lane pool and an adults only spa pool, and if you’re staying on Sensations you can only use it in the afternoons, mornings are for Nature et Sens guests.
We camped on our own pitch here and loved it, close to everything, large and grassy with sun and shade. The family who’ve run this since 1994 have just added a new stage area, and it’s genuinely one of the cleanest campsites we’ve stayed at, nothing was left out overnight to get grubby. Our honest complaints are tiny: the bar’s queue-then-collect ordering system confused half the guests, and our shower block only had four toilets open for a full row of pitches. Mike also lost his favourite hat in the Nature et Sens pool area and it never turned up.
Read our full Le Pin Parasol review
Camping Bel, small, calm and close to the sand
We stayed at Camping Bel for May half term 2026. It’s a family-run site in La Tranche-sur-Mer with a small, relaxed pool (max depth 150cm), a toddler pool with its own little slide and a jacuzzi under a glass pyramid. The real selling point is the location, the beach is around 300m away and the town is an easy, flat walk for seafood, markets and ice cream. Super U is five minutes on foot too, which made self catering easy.
Our girls were pretty much the only children at the Fun Station kids’ club and the Monday mini disco during our stay, which felt lovely and private but wouldn’t suit a child chasing a big group vibe. The heat was tough though. we had 35 degree days and our mobile home had no air conditioning, so bedtime was a slog. We also never did meet Monsieur Camembert, the resident clown everyone talks about. If you want big waterslides and loud evening shows this isn’t it, but for a calm, budget-friendly week near the beach with younger children, it worked brilliantly.
Read our full Camping Bel review
Domaine du Clarys, slides and a beach through the back gate
Domaine du Clarys is a mobile-home-only Homair resort in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, and the pool area surprised us. There’s a lazy river, a Romanesque dragon-themed splash area and a giant space bowl slide my four year old loved and I was far too scared to try. The indoor pool is good for cooler days but gets noisy. There’s a “secret” gate straight from the campsite into the Super U car park, and beyond that it’s a short uphill then downhill walk to a genuinely lovely sandy Atlantic beach with brilliant sunsets.
We booked a promo week in the April school holidays for £97, which is hard to argue with. We were upgraded to a Classic XL that still felt small, and the mini disco at 5.30pm was perfectly timed before bedtime, our daughter adored the Homy mascot and was gutted to leave without him. If I’m honest, it’s a “been there, done it” sort of site once you’ve done the pools and parks a couple of times, and the laundry card machines were temperamental. There’s no sit-down restaurant either, just a takeaway and a decent bar.
Read our full Domaine du Clarys review
Coeur de Vendée, rural, quiet and right by Puy du Fou
Coeur de Vendée used to be a Tohapi site, it’s now Homair, and it’s by far the most rural, rustic campsite on this list. It’s genuinely green and shaded, with a little no-kill fishing pond, a mini farm with ponies, goats, chickens and a very noisy donkey, and a BMX track with big hills for the braver kids. There’s a small retractable-covered pool, and when we visited at 2pm in the summer holidays we counted twelve people in it including us, the quietest pool we’ve seen during school holidays anywhere.
We arrived late at 7.30pm and found our key and map left outside a closed reception, which worked fine. There were a lot more teenagers here than we expected, and the mini disco at 9.15pm was really aimed at over-13s rather than our littles. This was also the cheapest Eurocamp holiday we’ve found for the dates, €250 for four nights in the summer holidays, and Mike called the site boring while I found it genuinely relaxing. It’s very rural though, you’ll need a car for the 15 minute drive to a big supermarket, and Puy du Fou is close enough for an easy day trip, with shows that carry on even in the rain.
Read our full Coeur de Vendée review
Camping l’Océan, great for a damp week
Camping l’Océan in Brem-sur-Mer belongs to Cybele Vacances rather than Eurocamp, so you book direct. It earned its keep on a disappointingly cool June stay thanks to a genuinely good indoor pool area, lazy rivers, flumes, a toddler splash park and a toddler pool, plus an outdoor Aqua Fun zone for warmer days. The beach is about 600m away through the Dunes de la Gachère, but it’s a sandy walk rather than a flat one, so skip the pushchair and bring a baby carrier instead.
We stayed in the Gamme duo premium plus mobile home, which has its own hot tub on the decking, easily one of our favourite mobile homes we’ve stayed in. Pets under 10kg are allowed too, which meant our cat came along and made (reluctant) friends with the campsite’s stray cats. Our only gripe was the weather (not the site’s fault). we’d love to go back in high season to catch the live music and bigger entertainment programme we missed.
Read our full Camping l’Océan review
Getting there
Most of these sites are easiest reached on the Portsmouth to Saint-Malo ferry with Brittany Ferries, which puts you roughly 3 to 3.5 hours from the Vendée depending which campsite you’re headed to. Calais is much further, it’s roughly 6.5 hours of driving from Calais to La Tranche-sur-Mer, and at Le Pin Parasol we met lots of guests who regretted an 8 hour drive down after a cheaper Calais crossing. If you’re flying, Nantes and La Rochelle are the closest airports, and we’d always hire a car rather than rely on transfers once you land. For the full picture on crossings and routes, have a look at our European driving guide and our guide to Eurocamp sites near an airport.
When to go
We’ve camped the Vendée in April, May half term, June and the summer holidays, and the weather has swung every time. April at Domaine du Clarys gave us around 18 degrees in the day and 3 at night. May half term at Camping Bel hit a sweltering 35 degrees, while our May half term at Le Pin Parasol the year before started with rain before turning warm. June at Camping l’Océan was disappointingly cool. In the summer holidays at Coeur de Vendée we had mid to high 20s with the odd cooler spell mixed in. Basically, pack for all of it and don’t fully trust the forecast.
FAQs
Is the Vendée good for toddlers?
Yes. La Garangeoire has two dedicated toddler pools and a shallow lagoon beach, and Camping Bel has a toddler pool with its own slide plus a soft play and baby room. For more ideas across France, see our guide to campsites for toddlers.
Which Vendée campsite is closest to the beach?
Camping Bel, the sand is around 300m from the entrance. Domaine du Clarys is also close, a short walk through the Super U car park gate.
Can we visit Puy du Fou from these campsites?
Yes, it comes up as a day trip from nearly every site we’ve reviewed here. Coeur de Vendée is the closest of the six. The shows run even in the rain, which we can vouch for from our own soggy visits.
Do you need a car in the Vendée?
It depends on the site. Camping Bel and Domaine du Clarys are walkable to a beach and supermarket. La Garangeoire, Coeur de Vendée, Le Pin Parasol and Camping l’Océan are more rural, so we’d always hire a car for those.
Is Coeur de Vendée still called Tohapi?
No. It used to be run under the Tohapi brand, but it’s Homair now, like most of the group’s other Vendée sites.
Not sure which of these would suit your family best? Try our find your campsite quiz, or have a browse of our full best campsites in France guide. If swimwear rules matter to your other half, our guide to campsites that allow swim shorts covers a few of these sites too. And if you’re eyeing up a May half term trip like ours to Camping Bel, check our Eurocamp May deals first.
Planning your days out? Our things to do in the Vendée with kids guide has the places we’ve been from these campsites. Camping somewhere else in France? We’ve also got guides to Brittany, the Landes and Hossegor, the Gironde and the Dordogne.
