I stayed at Belle Dunes Resort for a week with my parents, im 19 years old. We all had a good time.

Accommodation
We stayed in a 5/6 person house. There was only 3 of us. The house was quite small so i would say if you were a group of 5+it may be worth staying in a bigger house. The house had everything we needed. An open planned kitchen and lounge, the kitchen was very small but we didnt really need to use it much. Upstairs there were to bedrooms, both good sizes, one double and one twin. There was a toilet downstairs and a bathroom upstairs. It had a bath with a shower, the shower was low due to the slanted roof in the bathroom. The house was clean and airy. We had a little garden area with chairs and tables and we were right next to one of the lake. The view was lovely and open, but you still had your privacy with a hedge dividing you from the neighbours garden. The houses are terraced, we couldnt hear much noise from one neighbour, but unfortunatly our other neighbours were very noisy playing loud music at 1 o'clock in the morning and constantly playing their guitar, this let it down a bit but other then that it was great.

Activities
I took part in the archery which was good. Vallery (sports entertainer) was very good. He split us up into two groups. (one English and one French) this made it easier to understand what to do. We got loads of time to have a go.
I also did sand yachting, which was excellent- I would recommend this to everyone who enjoys outdoor acivities. We book the 3 hour session at our welcome event at the resort. It was run by a local company on the nearby beach. I was the only English person taking part and the instructors were happy to translate everything to me

Location
All the houses are built around lakes and the views were lovely. The houses were painted in different colours. The resort is quite big I recommend that you take your own bikes or hire them. The resort is locacted 2km from Fort Mahon and 2km from Quend Plage. Both of these places are accessable by bike due to the bike path from the resort. These two places have beautiful sandy long beaches with plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Restaurant
The food in the resorts restaurant was lovely. We had 3 meals in there and everytime had the set menu. Somedays there was a buffet for starter and dessert with plenty of choice and you could go up as many times as you like. The waiters and waitresses were very friendly and could speak english too. There was a good choice from fish, meats and pizzas.

Swimming Pool
The swimming pool is open to the public too as it is not actually run by the resort. It is a massive water complex but is free to use by those staying at Belle Dunes. There is a sauna and massage area (local fee) but also large indoor and outdoor pools with flumes and slides, wave pool and jacuzzi.

Evening Entertainment
We went to a few of the evening entertainment. The light and sound show is good andtells the story of Belle Dunes with dances, this show is told in part English and part French. There was also a Casino night, which was very good. They give you a handful of chips(for free) and the staff run little tables with roulette, backgammon and poker, there was a friendly, fun, family atmosphere. The funfai night was aimed for children and you could win different prices depending on your scores. On the Friday night the entertainment staff did Michael Jackson story- we caught the ending and it seemed good. We also went to the line dancing night ( a group from outside the resort came, it was all in French and repetitive) and wasnt as good as the other entertainment nights. Unfortunatly the firework disply night got cancelled due to the weather.

Overall
We all had a good time and would come here again. All of the staff could speak english and were helpful. The resort was quiet where our accommodation was (except for our neighbours sometimes) but still had lots of activities going on.

Weve just returned from a really lovely family holiday at Belle Dune - Pierre et Vacances. We went for a week and stayed in a 5-6 bedroom villa overlooking the lake. The view was fabulous and there was a little garden area at the front for the children to play out in and every morning they fed the ducks. As others have mentioned, the Villas are very small. I would definitely recommend staying in a villa larger than you require. There were 4 of us and the 5-6 person villa was not really big enough. It is reasonably modern and clean, but small. However, it doesn't really matter because there is so much to do around the area anyway. The weather was terrible for our stay but even so we still had a great holiday. We were central, situated on the Grand Lac, and only a 5 min walk to the centre. It was very peaceful in the day. There is entertainment every evening in the central square and the noise really carry's across the lakes and is very loud, very late at night but our two slept through it nonetheless..although I didn't!!

One word of advice - don't go to the circus that comes to the site... it consists of 4 dogs, a monkey, a goat, a llama and two young girls who look very bored.

We hired bikes which was good fun, there's lots of places to bike around and there are two nearby towns Quend and Fort Mahon - neither are that great, shabby beachside resorts with not a lot going on, but both got lovely beaches and are okay for a visit. Far more superior is Le Touquet which is a half hour car journey, but a much nicer place to visit, more stylish, great shops and places to eat.

On site at Belle Dune there is a restaurant. It is situated in a lovely place, it has great views and is set out nicely in the square. The food was lovely. However, the service was TERRIBLE! The staff were very miserable, offish and totally unfriendly. They were was no smiles, no rapport and absoloutely no acknowldegment to the children, not even a hello?? During our stay it was our twins 7th Birthday, I had bought them two little birthday cakes and some candles as a surprise. After we had finished our meals and desserts I showed the staff the cakes and asked if I could light the candles. I hoped that they would take in the cakes as a surprise and perhaps sing happy birthday in french? But they just looked at me and said they didn't have any matches and walked off. I persued this with other staff who all rushed past me or ingnored me and just shook their heads! Eventually I got very miffed and the lady behind the bar told me they weren't allowed to give matches, all I wanted was them to light the candles at this point as it was obvious they wouldnt take cakes through. Anyway, long story short, eventually I was given matches. I carried cakes, sang to them myself and was really disappointed. They were really off and I will be writing to Pierre et Vacances about this.

If you like activities there is a full programme of activities, sports and children's clubs, we didn't do any of these so can't comment, but they looked fun. Although not sure young children would understand things as it appeared all french speaking.

We had a great holiday. The pedalos are great fun, the bikes are great and the aqua park is worth a visit although was very busy. It feels a very safe place and you come away feeling very relaxed.

Apologies for the long review but wanted to answer the sort of questions I had before we went. Given that our expectations were informed by the TA reviews, we went with a qualified confidence. Belle Dune sounded good but obviously wasn't right for everyone.

We were situated at Maison de la Plage, what appeared to be a new addition very close to Quend Plage. At first we were a bit miffed at not being in the centre of the resort but would now definitely choose to go back there in future (reasons below).

We stayed for two weeks and although the weather was less than stunning we can't really fault the place. We had booked a house for 5-6 people but may have been lucky in being placed in one for 7-8 - we had a double and twin bedroom upstairs and a single downstairs. The rooms aren't spacious but seeing as they were just for sleeping in they were fine. There was an upstairs bathroom and downstairs shower room - given the layout we suspect this property might normally be reserved for families with an infirm / disabled family member(s). Given the reviews of the beds we took sleeping bags in case we needed something to soften them but they weren't needed. The mattresses are firm but completely 'sleepable'.

As others have said the kitchen is small but we knew in advance what it had / didn't and planned accordingly. The coffee maker and the kettle were put to good use throughout. The lounge area had two comfortable enough sofas (which were also fold out beds). Most evenings we had dinner outside, with a good mix of privacy and communal activity.

The best thing about Maison de la Plage was the swimming pool. A good size, open from 10.15 am - 7pm. The kids were hardly ever out of it and the freedom for them to swim meant that they all improved their confidence / ability over the holiday. The little playground next to the pool was never meant to be Alton Towers but it's amazing how kids can make the most of anything and happily spent hours there with the friends they made. The sounds of gravel going down the slide is an abiding memory!

While we were about 15 minutes walk from the village centre, it was easily manageable and the kids loved cycling on the cycle tracks (beware though, pedestrians are very much second class citizens!). While we tended to stay around the pool at Maison de la Plage we did hire go-karts, kayaks and a pedallo from the centre and enjoyed them all. The attitude from the staff was friendly, efficient and helpful throughout (just don't expect them to help you in / out with your kayak etc). The only slight disappointment was the aqua club. While a great facility, the requirements for all kids under 10 to wear armbands was both ridiculous and upsetting for our children (who are all strong swimmers). The reality was that most people ignored this rule and a common sense attitude prevailed amongst the lifeguards ("Nager?" "Oui, tres bien" "Ok") but it meant we were swimming with one eye over our shoulder the whole time wondering if we were going to be thrown out! As a result we didn't go back and just enjoyed ourselves at the (apparently) rule free pool at Maison de la Plage.

On a personal note the two young women at the reception at Maison de la Plage could not have been more helpful - particularly when liaising with the Citroen garage on our behalf after a breakdown.

As for the surrounding area, Quend and Fort Mahon plages are in effect one long beach. Quend was a 10 minute walk from our house. The approach to the beach at Quend is slightly shabbier than Fort Mahon, more Southend than St Tropez but you can get a ball, bucket and spade and ice cream so the kids were happy - and the patisserie was very popular for breakfast croissants and loaves. The beaches themselves were very clean and when the tide is out, very deep. We never felt crowded there. Further afield, Le Crotoy is more stylish and definitely worth a walk round.

Like others we hired bikes for us (we'd taken the kids' bikes). Unlike other reviewers though we thought the bikes were excellent and very well maintained. Given that we hardly encountered an incline worthy of the name (and my wife's preferred cycling destination is Holland!) they were easily up to the challenge. The excellent cycle paths around the area meant we didn't have to have to touch the main roads and we will definitely look to go further next time (but yes the path to the village centre is certainly bumpy!). We didn't think the price was extortionate - 24 francs for two bikes and a baby seat for 24 hours. It's stating the obvious but if cycling is going to be a big part of your holiday then take bikes or factor the hire costs into your budget. The overall prices at Belle Dune were reasonable - you could probably find everything cheaper elsewhere but not in one place and everything was of a good standard.

Overall we had an excellent holiday. The kids made great friends, the site was safe enough for them to have a good degree of freedom given their ages. Everything was well maintained. The weather was a bit mixed but when the sun shone everything was great. How could it be improved? For us a bigger space for the kids to run around / kick a ball would be good - surprised a window didn't get broken with all the football.

One final note: don't take traveller's cheques! Due to credit / debit charge fees we did and it was a big mistake. It was almost impossible to cash them. The tourist information didn't know about them. No bank would touch them. Eventually we found a post office about 10 miles away that would (not all will) and it took them half an hour to process the request (given it seemed to coincide with benefits day and big queues, it spoke volumes for French attitudes that no-one complained, tutted or moaned in any way).

We have just returned backr from holidays. from the above resort.

Although we had lot of fun in France, I would never go to this resort. Accomodation is very basic and the cottage they are hiring out for six just about fits four people. Kitchen, one person can just stand in this area, there was no oven. Microwave had a grill. Lounge had one softa for two people(in a cottage which was meant for six people) and was placed sideways to watch TV. Although they had supplied six chairs for six people, six people couldn't sit at the table, you would not be able to get up from the table and come out without disturbing the first person. Stairs to the first floor are horrible. When you go up steps it makes noises like its about to break. If you got up in the night to go the toilet there was so much creaking noise that you would wake everyone up in the house. Although superficially the place looked clean on day one, but if you walk bare feet you would feel sand, i.e. the place was not cleaned properly.

Luxury price but not luxurious accomadation.