I’ll try to be as constructive as I can, my wife and I thought we knew what sort of site this was, but nothing had prepared us for the reality of Union Lido…….. I wrote this review in June '11, but still feel strongly so felt I should post a review. I dont't usually write reviews

Positive Points

Short bus ride to ferry for Venice.
WC block very clean most of the time.
On-site shops reasonably priced and well stocked.
Mainly polite & helpful staff on sundry matters (See negative points though)

Negative Points

Management who only offer a machine like apology. The first staff member I asked who I could talk to about some issues could not believe I wanted to and offered me a campsite feedback form – we all know what happens to the ones that highlight negative points so I persevered and spoke to the supposed manager instead. He frankly seemed more interested in gazing at me blankly – he had no interest in saying “Sorry” until I asked him for any comments. If I hadn’t have asked for his thoughts I was under the impression he would have just said nothing! They do hold your passports until you have paid the full amount (even though they have your credit card details). Whilst this is fairly common practise it shouldn’t justify their complete lack of interest in offering solutions to issues.
Cramped pitches with little privacy – we had a luxury pitch as well.
Over-crowded pools & beach.
- Noisy. I.E. Lorries making deliveries to on-site shops from 7AM
- Union Lido Express gas powered kiddies train circling endlessly until 10:30PM. It makes your motor home shake as it goes past.
- Tannoy announcements to inform you that you need to read rules.
- Poorly enforced siesta.
- Snippy staff telling you where you can (or can’t) put your windbreaks.
- Ropey internet reception at best – included in luxury pitch price!
- One motor home service point - this meant a long wait to empty grey water.
- Restaurants offering virtually identical menus.
- Clothes washing sinks with no plugs, forcing you to pay 4.50 euro’s for a machine wash (Plenty of machines surprise surprise).

A point to consider before booking….

If you cancel at anytime before arrival Union Lido will keep at least 100 euro’s of your deposit to cover booking! If you turn up three days late they will probably have given your pitch away, don’t forget they will also have at least 100 euro’s of your deposit as well, but probably 50% of it.

They are very clear that they never give deductions for early departures, no matter what the circumstances – possibly a question they get asked a lot.

We will never return to Union Lido – we only wanted it as a base for exploring Venice, but frankly it nearly overshadowed that. I can’t understand who would like staying here – it is everything that is bad about camping/motor homing and if this was the only place I could ever come to do it I would sell our motor home tomorrow.

Avoid like the plague – your sanity and happy holiday may depend upon it! My wife and I were very glad that this was only the middle week of our three week holiday. Would we bring our recently arrived child here..... only if she had been very naughty.

We stayed in Union Lido in August 2010 and as we are looking at booking next year's holiday and always appreciate other comments, thought would leave some feedback. We are seasoned campers with children aged 17,15 and 10 and have stayed all over Europe. Union Lido we found to be a large, well organised, clean and attractive campsite. Best parts; reserved sunbeds on the beach (but you have to pay for them), nice food, well priced in the camp and beach restaurants, nice, friendly staff, good service. Shops good and fairly priced for the area. Nice little market stalls in the evening. Worst parts; self concious teenagers refused to wear compulsory swimming hats so did not touch the pools, mosquito problem evident with mobile sprayers out every evening - spraying towels, dinners, people if you didn't move fast enough! No real entertainment which is now common is larger campsites...and what was provided was really awful (and we like cheesey entertainment!). Also, very dominated by Germans and Dutch (which we have no problem at all with but felt very unwelcome as minority Brits).
Overall, a nice campsite, well located and easy to get to and from Venice for sightseeing. Would we go back? probably not as we have experienced much better.
WORST mistake we made was booking with Thompson. I can echo other reviewers who have said that they are expensive, do not deliver on service and are to be avoided at all costs. Our tale of woe is long but we were given a filthy mobile overlooking the communal toilets (concentration style lightening on 24/7) and busy road at back and side. Nightlife kept us awake till 2/3am each night as drunks shouted up and down the back of our mobile without ever been addressed. To add to this, we had no hot water for 6 of the 7 days there. The Thompson reps ignored us (10 call outs in 6 days), but let us know they fixed the problem after we left. Great, that made us feel a lot better! so very expensive and really sub standard. AVOID PLEASE.

We stayed with Eurocamp in a mobile home. The site is very large but is very well maintained and the facilities are excellent. Pools and supermarket were great. Site is flat and backs onto the super beach. Ferries to Venice leave from Punta Sabbione, about 5 miles away. The ferry costs 6.50 euros each way. Eurocamp accommodation and staff very good. Site staff were very helpful when our car battery packed up, their mechanic arriving in minutes to get us going. We would happily stay again.

We stayed in tompson al fresco with family, myself and my partner, my parents, and my brother his partner and my nephew. So there is a big difference in age, from 3-57 ! We stayed for 2 weeks in june 2011
Al fresco acommodation
I would describe this accomodation as basic, it has 2 bedrooms, a double bed with no space to walk round the bed and not much storage space for 2 weeks. The other bedroom has 2 single beds in and is smaller. It has a table inside and a kitchen with plenty of facilities, a bathroom with a sink and a shower and a seperate toilet. outside there is a good size table, a bbq and 2 sunsbeds. It was good for what we paid but we wish we paid more for the larger caravan as it was a bit cramped for 2 weeks.
Location wise it is a bit of a trek from the centre but i didnt mind this. There is anew swimming pool 2 minutes walk which is handy.
Union lido
i cannot fault the site much, it has everything you wish for, great for kids they always have stuff going on. Price wise it was ok, not as expensive as we expected, about the same price as the uk, a large beer was about 3.5 euros. They mainly cater for german tastes with food and beer but we liked that. There is a supermarket on site but if you have a car turn right out the site and drive straight on for about 5 mins and there is one on the left, alot cheaper. We didnt have a car we walked and put kegs of beer in the pushchair lol
The beach is amazing and always life guards on duty, there is a bar either end of the beach. There are 2 swimming pool complexs and they do mske you wear a ht, they want you to wear swimming caps which is annoying!
Venice
This is a must do, you can buy tickets on site and get the bus yourself from outside the site. good value abut i wouldnt try and do venice and island hopping in one day as we ran out of time, so we went again another day. Venice is expensive so take drinks with you if you can.
Overall we had a great holiday and the facilties are very good, spesh the beach and the pool. This is the 4th time to this site and it wont be the last. Great for kids!