Camping Le Cernie

A friendly family-run campsite in a terrific spot, with helpful staff and fresh bread available every morning. The road in is the one real drawback: about a kilometre of rough gravel full of potholes.

The facilities were great and the location was incredible. I could happily have stayed for weeks longer, and can't wait to return.

It's a nice spot right by the beach, but we left after being snapped at when two of our kids needed the loo as we arrived, before we'd even had a proper look around. The state of the toilets confirmed what we'd heard about cleaning not being a strong point. If a 4- and 2-year-old needing the bathroom before check-in gets grumpy comments, we'll find somewhere friendlier a short drive south.

We left the same day we arrived and found a nearby hotel. The place could be great, but our stay was a complete misrepresentation of the quiet, peaceful retreat advertised, and they refused our refund request. I've since heard it was removed from air B and B and trust adviser. Avoid. Getting there meant taking a dirt track better suited to a 4x4. In late June we checked into a mobile caravan by the sea, but it looked nothing like the website photos: it was dirty, old, worn, smelly, and mouldy in places, with ants coming out of crevices. The sheets and towels were damp and very old, and the cooking utensils seemed to be from the last century. Our shabby pitch had old equipment and furniture left out to rust or weather. The Wi-Fi didn't work, the shop was closed, and reaching the beach with the kids meant climbing through a chicken-wire fence. I complained to Claudio, the owner, who rode around in a battered, smoky golf buggy with a trailer and gave a grumpy, confrontational response I could hardly understand. His soft-spoken wife Francesca seemed more approachable at first, but that turned out to be just an act. The ageing couple running it seemed to have no idea what they were doing.