Pierre & Vacances Belle Dune Apartment Review

Overall Rating

Beautiful lakeside setting close to beaches. Luxury apartment with dishwasher and coffee machine. Good range of activities for teenagers as well as younger children. Magnificent swimming pool.

Not enough to do in the evenings. Cost £1,200 for three people.

I stayed at Belle Dune Apartment last summer with my husband and just 16 year old son. Most visitors are French, with a smattering of German and English. Staff spoke just enough English so we could understand each other and enjoy the facilities. We booked a two bedroom second/third floor apartment (lakeside houses also available)sleeping 6 and on two floors. The furnishings were very stylish with a large fully furnished balcony off the living room with a view of the piazza and the surrounding forest. The beds were very comfortable and there was a shower room as well as a bathroom. TV available to hire although the only english station was news - The Simpsons aren't quite the same in French! Everything centres on a central lakeside piazza with a restaurant, a bar, 2 shops, bicycle hire and entertainments house. There are many free sports sessions for adults, including bike ride and step aerobics and childrens/teens clubs every day offering vollyball, flagfoot!, beach games etc. The little ones have an indoor play area and a mini zoo. There is also a sailing school with little dinghies which tiny children were mastering single handled.The site has a highly recommended golf course too. There is a free road train going to and from the lovely and lively seaside resorts of Fort Mahon and Quend throughout the day and games and puzzles available at reception if the weather turns nasty. The beaches are clean,wide and sandy and patrolled by lifeguards. The area around Belle Dune is forest on one side and never-ending protected sand dunes on the other. There are cycle paths everywhere, with Belle Dune itself being pedestrianized. Many people brought their own bikes but you could hire everything from a tandem or a toddler bike to an electric scooter. The swimming pool, which is free to residents, is in two parts, with jacuzzi, jets, sprays and the most exciting wave machine I have ever encountered. The kids loved it! The only downside to the holiday was the evening entertainment, which was based open air outside the bar. There was something on everything evening but, apart from a duo one evening, wasn't up to much. Good place for romantic evening walks around the lake though and you could, as the teenagers did, be in Fort Mahon in five minutes (car) or 15 minutes (walking along safe paths) and hit the bars or the nightclub. This was a wonderful holiday which we will repeat - but we'll take friends with us next time and make our own evening entertainment.