Les Sapinieres

Overall Beermountain Rating 

Camper Profile

Friendly refugees from other overbooked sites thankful they have somewhere to camp!

Current issues
No water on site.

OUR RATINGS

CATEGORY	RATING	COMMENTS
OVERALL		"BETTER THAN I EXPECTED"
SECURITY		AVERAGE, KEEP VALUABLES LOCKED UP
TOILETS / SHOWERS		CLEAN AND FUNCTIONAL
NOISE		YES
ATMOSPHERE		RELAXED AND FRIENDLY

Summary

Added for 2016 as an emergency campsite as a result of poor weather.

Pros:

Somewhere to camp when your original campsite becomes flooded.

Cons:

Facilities limited but okay. No water standpipes.

2016 review by Mr AwesomeDawson:

Originally booked BSJ - arrived 14:30 on Friday. Due to the rain I think they had filled the dry spots and were directing people to Epinettes which looked nice when we drove past. However, Epinettes sent us on our way as well - 'Complet!'. So we were directed to Les Sapinieres, told to carry on through the inside of the circuit to Tertre Rouge and go straight on.

We were one of the first 20 cars to arrive. Freshly mown and wonderfully dry. We asked to go over by the trees and they were happy with that. It got a little muddy in the entrance way, however on Saturday morning they turned up with a load of gravel which sorted it right out.

There was a bit of trouble with water, as someone had originally passed the tap that went to the RV park next door through the fence, which was great for Friday evening and Sat morning when we stocked up a kindly donated 5L bottle from our neighbours. Unfortunately the tap was passed back under the fence and made inaccessible at some point on Saturday. Therefore there was no running water or showers on site which is a bit of an issue. The officials advised us to go to another campsite and say we'd come from Les Sapinieres and they'd sort us out... We will definitely make sure to take at least 1 of the 5L water bottles next year just in case.

Portable loos turned up late on Friday eve, which were kept absolutely immaculate until Monday morning when they suddenly got a bit filthy and blocked (showing what a great job the cleaners did over the weekend!!).

The campsite was around a 10 minute walk from the inside Tetre Rouge viewing area, and it took about 30mins ish to get to the Dunlop bridge. There was a bus running during the race to the East entrance which was only a bit quicker than walking due to having to take a bit of a roundabout route - much quicker on return to campsite as direct route. Due to the trees between the track and the campsite, there wasn't much noise during the race.

Not sure how many pitches there were, but they were cramming them in, however most people had a pretty decent sized spot. At least a couple of hundred pitches I'd say?

The Good:
- Dry
- Close to track but quiet
- Dry
- Friendly neighbours
- Security was good (probably because nobody knew it was there!) though we did hear of a few chairs going missing and an opportunistic van collecting 'rubbish' on Sunday afternoon
- Clean toilets/portaloos (until Monday morning at least)

The Bad:
- No running water
- No showers

Overall we had a fantastic weekend, and we were just glad to be in a dry field having driven past some of the other campsites filled with water, and it really was dry, no-one got stuck or muddy feet at all. The location was excellent, it's a nice field and I think if there had been running water and showers (an easy fix if it were made a proper campsite) then I'd heartily recommend this campsite if they open it next year. Overall, even with water issues, we preferred it to BSJ where we stayed last year, and had liked.