Camping Urbión

We spent 10 days here in our motorhome and found the site peaceful, especially after the August public holiday. The pine trees give it a pleasant, open feel, and there’s a large lake and beach area beside it. There are lots of hikes nearby, plus good restaurants. The small shower blocks are dotted around the site, so they didn’t feel crowded, and they were cleaned regularly. The shop has a surprisingly broad selection for its size, including meat, fresh bread and ice. With the nearest other shop at least 15 minutes away, its prices seemed reasonable. The pool area and adjoining bar were good. We skipped the restaurant because its reviews were poor.

We stayed in the lower part of zone 9 and found a good pitch for our large motorhome. It’s a lovely wooded spot with the scent of pine, and fine for a few days. We didn’t use the pool or try the restaurant, as the restaurant had so many bad reviews that we didn’t want to risk it. Food shopping is limited. There’s a small onsite supermarket with basics, including meat and vegetables, but it costs more than a normal supermarket. The small offsite supermarket we found was a 20-minute drive away. A few restaurants are outside the campsite, around 15 minutes by car. The zone 9 shower block was clean, though only two push-button showers were working. There were no shelves for clothes, and just one shower had hooks. The hot water took a while to arrive, but was lovely and hot once it did. My main complaint was an upsetting incident with the toilets. At 9:15 in the morning, I was in quite a bit of pain and urgently needed to go. The young woman cleaning tried to stop me entering. I explained that I really needed the facilities, but she carried on cleaning and banged things loudly, which made it clear she was annoyed. Another woman came in and used the facilities too. People should be able to use the toilets when they need to; being stopped and made to feel uncomfortable was incredibly insulting. Please ask staff to respond kindly and offer a solution instead of confronting customers rudely. I hope this was a one-off and doesn’t happen again. Cars also race around the campsite. A few painted reminders to slow down might help prevent an accident.

We came back to Camping Urbión because we’d stayed here several years ago, when we hired canoes on the lake and ate at the bar/restaurant. This time, in mid-May, the bar was shut and there were no activities at all, apart from bike hire, which we only found out about on our last day. With two teenage boys, that left us short of things to do onsite. The location is beautiful and peaceful, right by a huge lake. Our reasonably priced 'superior bungalow' was fairly roomy compared with other campsites we’ve stayed at, and the lake was right beside it. A high metal fence running the full length did spoil the view a little. For a bungalow advertised with beds for five, the seating was odd: inside there was only a small sofa for two, and outside were two benches with no backs. We had nowhere comfortable to sit together at the end of the day, so the boys ended up lying on their beds instead of joining us on the terrace. The smoke alarm also went off regularly, with no way for us to switch it off. We had to open every door and window and wait for it to stop by itself. Staff didn’t seem well trained. Whenever we asked something, they shrugged and said they didn’t know. We were first told there was no bike hire, then saw people leaving on hired bikes on our final day. It’s a lovely campsite in a great spot, but the lack of activities and staff who couldn’t tell us what was going on made the trip less enjoyable than it could have been.

I spent two nights bicycle camping here from Sept 11. It was quiet, and full marks for staying open in September. The staff were brilliant. If you need something from the shop, just ask and they’ll open it. They also go to the village and bring guests fresh bread and croissants each morning. Great location, and the toilet and shower block stayed very clean even after the rain left everything wet and muddy.