Huttopia Glamping Experience in France

So this year, for our main Summer holiday we decided go on another great outdoor adventure and to try Glamping once more. 

The last time we had the chance to glamp was two years ago when we visited the idyllic coastal location of Finistère, in Brittany France.

We enjoyed that experience a lot, so it felt like the time was right to enjoy a little bit more of the 'good life', be in the outdoors and go glamping again.

On that occasion, we were lucky enough to spend a memorable week with the glamping company Canopy and Stars. They provide excellent accommodation and holidays in some ideal outdoor locations. Our stay at Bot Conan was a fabulous one and it turned out to be a very peaceful week, in a glorious natural setting. It turned out to be rather luxurious, as camping goes and during that holiday we found it to be thoroughly worthwhile experience.

This time around, we opted to see what the camping company Huttopia had to offer and after a little trawling the internet for camping sites/holidays, we stumbled upon a perfect site on the Ile de Noirmoutier, which is an island located just off the French mainland and its Atlantic Coast.

A pretty inspiring view from the tent, each and every morning. It was a great pleasure to brew a coffee (early in the morning) and watch the sun come up.

The Campsite

 

The campsite itself is ideally positioned on the Ile de Noirmoutier. Its location is found on the sheltered side of the island and is conveniently overlooking the sea.

This campsite is relatively narrow but stretches a fair distance up the coastline, and houses plenty of campers. All pitches are well laid out and have easy access to the clean and family-friendly beach, which stretches along the entire island.

Throughout the campsite are a series of pitches for campers using tents, caravans and campers, together with a selection of four and five birth glamping tents, that are perfect for you to just turn up and enjoy the camping experience.

The glamping tents are at one end of the site and the rest is given over to other campers. These pitches tend to be fairly close together so room is somewhat limited, but there is enough space to have a quiet haven next to your tent.

In our case, we opted for the glamping style tent as we flew from Amsterdam to nearby Nantes airport, hired a rental car and all our essentials. Everything else we needed was waiting for us in the tent when we arrived.

You can see the campsite here.

In and around the campsite. The campsite is well laid out and in close proximity to the sea and beach.

Amenities

Huttopia glamping tents cater for everything and throughout the park, there are sufficient parking spaces to leave the car. Adequate toilet facilities, in the form of toilet blocks. Plenty of shower facilities, washing machines and ample space to wash dishes after eating food. 

These facilities are good and they are regularly cleaned, but I felt they could have been a little bit cleaner, or perhaps modified a little more.

On-site, there is a shop that sells all the essentials items. If you are looking for more, then you will need to visit the bigger supermarkets close to the centre of town.

Besides this, there is a food truck permanently on-site that cooks great pizzas and burgers. Serves a selection of drinks and in the morning is the location to collect all your fresh bread and croissants - something we all need in France.

What did we get?

For this visit, we hired a four-person Glamping Tent. It was pitch 72 and was ideally located in a quiet spot, with views overlooking the sea. 

During the booking, we did request a sea view, and we really could not complain with what we finished up with. It was excellent, with perfect sunrises, no one to the front or back of us and it was sheltered from the wind.

Inside the tent comprises of two bedrooms. One with a double bed and the other with two singles. There is some small amount of storage in the room itself. This is in the form of a partition wall, which can house shoes, socks and toiletries. All other items can be hung on the coat hangers found inside.

At the front of the tent is a spacious sitting area (two chairs) and kitchen storage for food. There is a fridge to keep essential items cool and a freezer compartment positioned above.

The front of the tent has a raised wooden terrace, where you will find a table and four chairs. This is great for dining on or sitting out, playing board games. It is sheltered as the canopy that drapes above will keep you conveniently warm and dry in all types of weather.

Other tents are located close by , but not necessarily that close. We found it to be private and the neighbours really pleasant. 

The vast majority of camping pitches were filled with families, so the whole site had a good feel to it. Family-friendly is always very good, so noise levels were kept to a minimum!

Further images from the campsite.

Activities

Clay crafts are very popular for the children.

There is a wealth of good things to do on the campsite and also on the island of Noirmoutier.

An entertainment schedule has been set up and it is different every day. There is plenty on offer for children and families to enjoy, from Yoga in the mornings, horse riding, cycle hire, canoes, craft workshops and magic clubs to name but a few. 

There is also the option to listen to some live music and watch an outdoor cinema show during the week.

You have the beach on your doorstep with an incredible sands and others close by. The water is calm, it is tidal, but perfect for all the family to enjoy.

During low tide, you can enjoy exploring the sandbanks and harvest some jewels from the sea. We did this on several occasions and certainly enjoyed eating them as part of the evening meal.

Throughout the island, there is a lot of great activities for all the family to enjoy. You can view a wide range of activities by accessing the main tourist website here.

When the tide is low there is nothing better than getting outside and simply doing what the locals do. Looking for crustaceans was great!

To conclude

In summary, I personally found Huttopia to be very worthwhile and it turned out to be a great stay for us. It offered such a lot, in the great outdoors and it did not disappoint. 

As with all of my reviews I want to create a fair and balanced viewpoint for other potential visitors to read. Therefore, I will break down my thoughts into a series of bullet points, which highlights both the positive and negative points of our stay.

Pros:

A GREAT location - situated on the sheltered side of the island.

Wonderful beach and surroundings.

Plenty to do on the campsite and nearby.

Well equipped accommodation, with everything you need for a comfortable stay.

Family-Friendly, Safe.

Cons:

The site needs a bigger onsite shop, with more essential items available.

Toilets could be modernised and always a little cleaner. 

All views are my own and taken from my own experience.

I was generally very pleased with the stay and all in all, we had a pleasant stay.

I would definitely go back again and would recommend this and other sites to anyone who is interested.

I have also written a travel article about the rest of the island, which focuses more on places and things to do away from the Huttopia site.

To read that please click here.

Thanks for reading

If you liked or dislike this review, found it useful or not. I would love to know. 

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