AD – Our Holiday with Eurocamp with an Accommodation Review at Duinrell Holiday Park, Holland

This summer we were so lucky to have a very long overdue family holiday! Since Covid kicked the world on it’s backside, going for a holiday has been missed by so many worldwide. Us included! This year, we were hosted by the very kind Eurocamp team and we chose to visit their Duinrell Campsite Holiday Park in The Netherlands.

Holland is a part of the world we had never visited before and spoiler alert? It was stunning! More on that later, though! Throughout this post I am going to share our experience and holiday with Eurocamp at Duinrell, our accommodation, how we found the staff and more. I will be sharing a separate post all about the Duinrell Holiday Park and our thoughts.

A Holiday with EuroCamp

If you follow me on social media, then you will know that this Eurocamp Holiday was a Press Trip. And how that works is we were kindly gifted our accommodation for the duration of our stay and everything else, from flights, food etc, we paid for. We have worked with Eurocamp before when we visited La Croix Du Vieux Pont in the South of France a number of years ago.

Accommodation

During our holiday with Eurocamp, we stayed in a 3 bedroom Azure Plus Caravan with a sizable decking out the front. Upon arrival, which was very late at night {around midnight – due to flight delays and taxi delays} we were met by a lovely member of Eurocamp at reception.

We checked in and were given our keys along with a map and directions to our caravan. With previous holidays with Eurocamp, not only was our luggage taken for us, but we were also shown to our accommmodation. Finding it was an adventure because it was dark and in a heavily wooded forest! But, we found it eventually. We were in the Eiland part of the park, which was quite close to both the onsite theme park and the TikiBad Water Park.

The surroundings of our accommodation were sadly very unkept and shabby. And from looking back at our holiday with Eurocamp in France a number of years ago. It is clear to see a decline in not only the standard of service from the staff, but the standard of accommodation too. And following our most recent stay, it is sad to see less maintenance and care going into their mobile homes. 

On the website, it states that there are mosquito nets and black out blinds on the windows. This was not the case in our accommodation and the mosquito nets is something we certainly could have done with. It also says there is a toaster, but we did not have one of those either, sadly. 

Three-bedroom Azure Plus Accommodation

For a family of six, the Azure Plus 3 bedroom caravan is a tight squeeze. For the bedrooms, one had a set of bunkbeds, the other had 2 twin beds and then the main bedroom had a queen-sized bed. The seating area can also be made into another double bed, if needed. All bedrooms had storage, however, this is minimal.

The main bedroom {seen below} has two plug sockets, whereas the bunk bed and twin room both only had one single plug socket in each room. Each of the beds all had thin mattresses and wooden slats underneath. You are only supplied with one pillow, so if you are two pillow people, like us, you might wish to bring along another for extra comfort.

*All images have been taken with a wide angled lens

Our caravan had a dining area that doubled up as a seating area. A narrow kitchen with a fridge freezer, microwave, dishwasher, coffee machine, kettle and a gas oven & four hobs. For the kitchen area, there was 2 oven trays, a small selection of kitchen utensils, crockery and glassware for personal use during our stay. There was a single tea towel, so my advice is to pack a few extra teatowels for your stay. 

The shower had really good pressure and even though the shower itself is in serious need of an upgrade. It was still lovely and did the job. Four packs of towels {containing two towels each} were included in our stay, but this would cost you an additional £50. For 4 single beds linen, it can cost you upto £80. For the Queen sized bed linen, an additional £27. So all of those little things, that in my opinion, you should not have to pay for, add up! 

The Eurocamp Welcome Pack

We also arrived to a welcome pack in our accommodation. This is something that you can pay for as an added extra before your arrival. However, I have to be honest and say that it’s not worth it. You get two small bottles of wine {one red and one white}, 2 juice boxes, 2 small jars of jam, 2 bottles of water, sugar, salt, pepper and some coffee. In my personal opinion, a welcome pack, especially for guests arriving so late and with everything around us closing at 2200hrs, a welcome pack consisting of a small loaf, some milk and some butter would have been much better suited. But that is just my own personal opinion.

You are also supplied with a single sponge, one black bag and a few other little pieces. No dishwasher tablets or washing up liquid is provided. However there is a supermarket onsite to get in any other supplies that you will need for your stay. 

Outside decking area

We had a lovely decking area, with two sun chairs and an outside dining table for six. It also had a canopy that allowed you to still sit outside, even if it was raining. Luckily, rain only visited once during our stay, so sitting out in it, but remaining dry was lovely. As beautiful as the decking area was, it had seen better days and clearly has not been maintained very well.

My son gained a few splinters on the fencing during our stay. I sadly doubt the wood had never been treated since it was built. Again, just my own personal observation and it was sad to see it not being maintained very well. But nevertheless, it’s a lovely space to have to enjoy with the family.

However, the decking was still a lovely feature to have on our accommodation during our stay. It firmly became my favourite place to sit in the mornings with a book and a cup of tea. With nothing else to listen to than other campers preparing their breakfast and the birds singing. 

My thoughts on the Eurocamp Staff

On arrival, the girl who checked us in was lovely. A really nice young girl and she was really helpful. However, during our stay, our accommodation blew a fuse on two occasions. The first time was when we had the dishwasher on as well as charging 2 mobile phones. When we popped round to inform the Eurocamp staff, the first time, the guy we spoke to wasn’t really bothered. He asked us if we had lots plugged in at the same time, which we did not. And  he informed us that someone would be out at some point that day to have a look.

Within the ten minute walk back to the caravan, someone had already been out to replace the fuse. However, this blew again the following day {again just charging 2 mobile devices} and once again we were asked if we had too many items plugged in at the same time. The guy who came around late that evening was really nice and was in and out within 5 minutes.

Eurocamp staff in need of further training

We also had an issue with our BBQ during our stay. The one we had initially only lit at the bottom corner, so we popped round to inform the Eurocamp staff. The staff member we spoke too wasn’t very bothered {once again} informed us that the majority of their BBQs do not really work and it is something that they are embarrassed about. He asked us if we wanted it replacing, which we did and he said he would see what they could do.

Within an hour or so, we were all hanging out in our accommodation {my Husband and I in the bedroom, lying down} and my brother in law came in to let me know that some guy has just left, regarding the BBQ. The Eurocamp staff member approached my 13yr old son and showed him how to use the BBQ. He did not ask for his parents, nor should he have shown a child how to operate a gas BBQ.

My Husband and I immediately went round to inquire about this. The guy who came to our caravan was there and we asked him why he showed a child how to use a gas BBQ. He said that we were not there at the property and I replied with, “did you ask my son if we were or not?” And he said “no, I did not”. He was informed that he shouldn’t be showing any child how to operate a gas BBQ and that the BBQ did not work in the way that he implied it did. Which is why we informed Eurocamp of it not working in the first place. He then hestitantly asked if we wanted a replacement.

This was replaced within the hour and we were then able to enjoy a BBQ with the kids. Perhaps to avoid this in future, the staff at Eurocamp require further training?

WiFi onsite?

There is no free WiFi onsite, per say! To get free wifi, you’ll need to pop to the Duinrell Pub inside the La Plaza for that. And in fairness, it’s a decent connection. However, for WiFi to your accomodation and for multiple devices, you will need to go to the main reception and pay for however many days you are wishing to have wifi for.

I must warn you though, they already inform you that it is for basic wifi i.e. for whatsapp, texting and emails. Although, from our experience, the wifi kept dropping out every few minutes and sometimes did not work for hours at a time. This cost around 32 euro for 2 devices for 4 days. Not great at all, or worth it. This is specifically for Eurocamp, so I can only assume they have their own wifi router for the park.

In my opinion, the wifi that you are given the option to buy is not worth it, in the slightest. My advice, is to do whatever you need to do over a pint of beer or a cold glass of coke in the Duinrell Pub. The pub opens from 4pm until whenever they decide to close. This differs depending on how busy it is. The connection is good and you can do whatever it is you need to do as the kids have all kinds of fun on the arcades, or playing pool or air hockey.

Overall Thoughts?

We honestly had a really great time away, guys. But I have to be honest and say that Eurocamp really didn’t tick all the boxes for me this time. And I am not sure if that is down to them being understaffed and overworked. Or perhaps their standards have just slipped? Perhaps it is just the Eurocamp staff at Duinrell? Who knows! But the majority of the staff conversations I had, they really did not care and sadly that spoke volumes. 

Here are a few other points:

• Cooking in the caravan was tricky, especially for a family of six. This could be down to us not being familiar with how to use a gas oven effectively. But food was either overcooked or undercooked and we could not get it right. This resulted in us eating out most evenings.
• Staying with Eurocamp also gets you into the TikiBad Water park for €10 per person. You will be given a particular amount of vouchers upon checking in, depending on your length of stay. For our 7 night stay, we received four vouchers. One voucher can be used for a whole family, however a €10 fee is still required for each person. I heard from other people who stayed before that it was only €5 person, so that has doubled recently. It also makes going to the swimming pool very expensive, especially when you have a larger family. It is open from 10am to 10pm!
  
• For context, a non holiday park resident would need to pay €20 per person to gain access to the TikiBad. However, if you stay with Duinrell directly, I understand entrance into the TikiBad is free, however you still have to book time slots and receive vouchers upon check in, just like you do with Eurocamp. 
• Seagulls are a bit of a nuisance in the park. So try not to leave out any food on the outside dining table or your outside bin open! 
• There is no TV, which we did not expect. But that’s OK. Just pack some extra card games and you can download shows onto offline Netflix/Disney Plus at the Duinrell Plaza!
• There is no doubt that the Duinrell Holiday Park that we stayed in, was beautiful. I will be sharing a whole separate post on the holiday park as I feel it does deserve it.
  

Lastly…

There you go, guys. My review of our accommodation with Eurocamp in Duinrell Holiday Park, Holland. We did have a good time, but I do think it is a shame to see Eurocamps standards slipping and I hope they can rectify the issues because we do love the brand and have enjoyed our experiences with them thus far. But I pride myself in my honest reviews and do keep an eye out for my Duinrell Holiday Park review coming soon. 

Update from the Eurocamp Brand Manager

After publishing this post, I received an email from the Brand Manager of Eurocamp. She was immeasurably thankful for my honest review, and even more thankful our experience was brought to her attention and that any issues were now able to be fixed by themselves, in this particular park. I would like to thank Eurocamp for being so professional, understanding and appreciative. And I am so pleased that all issues we experienced will be rectified for any future visitors to the Eurocamp accommodation in Duinrell. 

Disclosure: This was a gifted stay for the accommodation only. Everything else, travel, food etc we paid for ourselves. All thoughts, photos and opinions are entirely my own.