We recently visited La Rive in Biscarrosse which is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
La Rive offers one of the largest indoor and outdoor swimming centres in the Aquitaine area and is a splash-a-minute family paradise not too far from famous vineyards. The 5,000m2 water park includes pool options for all ages, as well as water slides and fun water spray characters including monkeys, parrots, and snakes. When venturing out of the park, the nearest town is Biscarrosse, which is only 7km away and is home to a stunning sandy beach on the Atlantic Coast. Heading further afield for a day trip, you’ll find the port city of Bordeaux, which is regarded as one of France’s most famous cities. We didn’t visit Bordeaux on this occasion but have done in the past and it is beautiful, definitely a city not to be missed.
We were invited to stay at La Rive by Al Fresco Holidays. Al Fresco Holidays is one of the largest mobile home operators in the UK, with over 17 years of experience as European specialists in mobile-home holidays, offering a wide range of the best quality 3-5 star camping resorts.
La Rive holiday park
La Rive is like its own little village, as well as the swimming centre, there is also a spa, soft play centre and amusement arcade. There is a bar, a cafe, a takeaway pizza outlet and a restaurant. There is an outdoor play area with equipment for toddlers to older children and table tennis tables. There is a newsagent, clothes shop, small supermarket, wine shop, laundry room and bike hire.
There is also daily entertainment for children and adults, we saw people taking part in exercise classes in the morning and a children’s club. I did ask Lucas if he would like to try the children’s club but he didn’t want to. Every evening at 8.30, there was children’s entertainment, mainly dancing, which Lucas loved attending each night, he even attended his first foam party! At 9.30, there was evening entertainment for the adults too. All of this that we saw, was completely in French, I’m not sure how much English the kids club spoke so that might be worth investigating before your children attend.
We were very pleasantly surprised to find a lake beach on site too! On the lake, you can rent various equipment for watersports. You can play volleyball on the beach or the giant chess set. The water was shallow enough for Lucas to be able to walk out really far which meant there was plenty of space as the smaller children didn’t all need to stay on the edge of the shore.
Wifi
WiFi is available on site but this is an extra cost. It cost me €40 for the week which covers 3 devices, they are the same devices too, you can’t log out of one device to add another to take turns or if you need to log on to a work laptop for example. The coverage isn’t great either so unless you desperately need to try and get WiFi, I wouldn’t recommend it. I found it was a complete waste of money.
La Rive accomodation
When booking through Al Fresco, there are various standards of mobile homes you can book to suit your budget. We stayed in a 3 bedroom azure plus home with air-con. It had an interior of 32 m2, an open plan lounge, dining and kitchen area, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. One of the bedrooms had a double bed, one bedroom with bunk beds and one bedroom with 2 single beds. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and shower. There was also a decking area with a canopy overhead, outdoor furniture, a maiden and BBQ.
The beds were very comfortable and the whole home was exceptionally clean. The kitchen is small but has everything you need for your holiday, we used the BBQ most evenings, we didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen on holiday!
You can also request baby and toddler packs for free when you place your booking. These include cots, highchairs, booster seats, baby gates on the terrace etc depending on the home and park you book.
You can set off on your holiday stress-free knowing you have all the essentials and goodies ready for you on arrival by purchasing the welcome pack. This includes fairtrade filter coffee, fairtrade tea, sugar, creamer, 2 x jam (30g each), olive oil, salt & pepper (8 Sachets each), 2 x bottles of water (500ml each), 2 x bottles of orange juice (200ml each), crisps (45g), red wine (18.7cl) and white wine (18.7cl) for £12.50.
Outside the mobile home was also space to park the car.
What did we think of La Rive, Biscarrosse?
We had a great week. There was everything in the park we could need and didn’t really need to leave. With the lake beach on-site and the swimming centre, Lucas was more than happy playing in those. The food and shops were reasonably priced rather than the usual extortionate prices having a captive audience.
The mobile homes are very close together though so it only took some noisy neighbours to disturb everyone’s sleep and unfortunately we did have this a couple of nights but I think that is the same wherever you go, whether you are camping or in a 5-star hotel room.
Lucas has already asked if we can return next year but I think we will have a look at one of the other parks, Al Fresco has so many parks, it would be a shame to not explore another area!
Days Out from La Rive
- Biscarrosse town and beach
- Bordeaux
- Bassin d’Arcachon
- Dune du Pilat
- Au Paradis du Papillon
Al Fresco Holidays Discount Code
To get a 5% discount off your holiday booked through Al Fresco, click on this link
Al Fresco Holidays offers a seven-night holiday at La Rive on the 16th April 2022 from £163.80 (discounted from £182.00) and is based on a family of up to six sharing a two-bedroom Classic mobile home including air conditioning.
