Information about camping and camping holidays in the Vendee, Western France

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Geographically the Vendee is on the Western coast of France, staring out into the Bay of Biscay, and it is immediately below Brittany.To say that the Vendee region starts just above Beauvoir sur Mer in the North and ends a few kilometres further down than la Tranche in the South would probably mean a lot to a holidaymaker looking at a map, and at the same time outrage anyone who actually lives there, but between those two towns on or near the coast lie the majority of the camping sites the Vendee has to offer, though there is still a great deal more to the Vendee than that as most of the area lies inland as a look at the map will show.

The weather is a few degrees warmer than in Brittany and the area boasts a massive amount of sunlight hours per year. Is it too hot for you? Well, we have known it to be over 30 C at 10 pm in late June before now, but generally it's less than that at night. The heat is a dry heat though and is not the same sort of humid, draining heat which we have in the UK (when we have any at all that is).

The Vendee has two main industries; farming and tourism. Farmers should be ok this year (2009) as they always are in France because they are heavily subsidised by you and I, but when it comes to tourism then there will be some hugely disappointed site owners this year, and in 2010 I believe. Silly really, because a couple of weeks camping in the Vendee works out cheaper by far than a couple of weeks in the same accommodation in the UK. By camping I mean staying in a mobile home with all mod cons.

Getting there is a doddle though it could be a very long day's travel depending on where you live in the UK. We are in the Midlands and have a five hour journey to the port, usually Poole, from where we normally take the ferry to St Malo which docks at around 7.30 pm French time. We need to set off from home at about 7 am and the journey from St Malo to St Jean de Monts for example takes between 3 and 3.5 hours. So it's a long day.

If you have booked your camping holiday through a tour operator then they will no doubt have included a Dover/Calais ferry crossing in the price, but you can ask to have your ferry from anywhere you choose - Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg - though this may well cost extra. Doing this means less time spent driving though and you could possibly break even if you work out the extra cost of your ferry against the projected amount you would save in driving the extra miles from Calais. French petrol is about the same price as ours so working that out shouldn't be too difficult.

Now, I am slightly biased because the Vendee and Charentes areas are probably my most favourite places in the world for camping holidays and we have been going there for the last twenty years or so. Some places grab you like that, and so it is with us and the Vendee region. The whole area is famous for it's beaches; some are nice and gently sloping and others are famous throughout Europe for being some of the best surfing beaches on the continent - that takes some doing I can tell you.

There is a Europe renowned surfing beach near to Longeville at the Southern end of the Vendee, and surfers come from all over Europe for weekends when the surf is up. They sleep in cars, they sleep in vans, some camp and others just put their heads down wherever they can, sleeping bags under the stars.

I can honestly say that I have never yet met anyone who didn't enjoy a camping holiday in the Vendee.

Geographically the Vendee is on the Western coast of France, staring out into the Bay of Biscay, and it is immediately below Brittany.To say that the Vendee region starts just above Beauvoir sur Mer in the North and ends a few kilometres further down than la Tranche in the South would probably mean a lot to a holidaymaker looking at a map, and at the same time outrage anyone who actually lives there, but between those two towns on or near the coast lie the majority of the camping sites the Vendee has to offer, though there is still a great deal more to the Vendee than that as most of the area lies inland as a look at the MAP will show.

The weather is a few degrees warmer than in Brittany and the area boasts a massive amount of sunlight hours per year. Is it too hot for you? Well, we have known it to be over 30 C at 10 pm in late June before now, but generally it's less than that at night. The heat is a dry heat though and is not the same sort of humid, draining heat which we have in the UK (when we have any at all that is).

The Vendee has two main industries; farming and tourism. Farmers should be ok this year (2009) as they always are in France because they are heavily subsidised by you and I, but when it comes to tourism then there will be some hugely disappointed site owners this year, and in 2010 I believe. Silly really, because a couple of weeks camping in the Vendee works out cheaper by far than a couple of weeks in the same accommodation in the UK. By camping I mean staying in a mobile home with all mod cons.

Getting there is a doddle though it could be a very long day's travel depending on where you live in the UK. We are in the Midlands and have a five hour journey to the port, usually Poole, from where we normally take the ferry to St Malo which docks at around 7.30 pm French time. We need to set off from home at about 7 am and the journey from St Malo to St Jean de Monts for example takes between 3 and 3.5 hours. So it's a long day.

If you have booked your camping holiday through a tour operator then they will no doubt have included a Dover/Calais ferry crossing in the price, but you can ask to have your ferry from anywhere you choose - Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg - though this may well cost extra. Doing this means less time spent driving though and you could possibly break even if you work out the extra cost of your ferry against the projected amount you would save in driving the extra miles from Calais. French petrol is about the same price as ours so working that out shouldn't be too difficult.

Now, I am slightly biased because the Vendee and Charentes areas are probably my most favourite places in the world for camping holidays and we have been going there for the last twenty years or so. Some places grab you like that, and so it is with us and the Vendee region. The whole area is famous for it's beaches; some are nice and gently sloping and others are famous throughout Europe for being some of the best surfing beaches on the continent - that takes some doing I can tell you.

There is a Europe renowned surfing beach near to Longeville at the Southern end of the Vendee, and surfers come from all over Europe for weekends when the surf is up. They sleep in cars, they sleep in vans, some camp and others just put their heads down wherever they can, sleeping bags under the stars.

I can honestly say that I have never yet met anyone who didn't enjoy a camping holiday in the Vendee.