Playa Joyel

Rated 4 of 5

Rated 3 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Very good site next to a beach

All campsite facilities were good, though reducing as it was closing one week later. Excellent beach direct from the site, with lifeguard and beach bars and restaurants a short walk away, as was the interesting little town of Noja. Definitely worth a visit.

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DiscerningDuo

Reviewed on 17/10/2024 07:57

11 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 2 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Fabulous location

We stayed at this site for 3 nights at the end of a 22 night tour of northern Spain and Portugal. Excellent location just over an hours drive from Bilbao for the ferry home. It’s a large Spanish site with smaller pitches. When we arrived many people were dismantling what looked like long term setups of awnings and other equipment. It was quite noisy but the location right on the beach was fabulous. I took my yoga mat onto the deserted beach each day and we carried our chairs there at other times to relax away from the campsite noise. There is an on-site panel court which we used twice. No one else seemed to use it. We walked across the beach and waded through a river at low tide to access the the next village along where we had tapas before going on a coastal walk with spectacular views. We had some amazing tapas in the town which was a half hour walk away. There was a restaurant on site but nothing really appealed to us. We did have drinks at the bar. Super beach location that we would return to but not in high season.

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Batches

Motorhomer

Reviewed on 07/10/2024 13:19

5 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Very large site

We stayed for 3 nights in September on our way back to the ferry in Satander and found the site to be reasonable and quiet at the time of our stay. Don't know if it would be so quite during the high season. We found a pitch way up the site in the 800 numbers as we were practically on our own there. At this time the adjacent toilet block was closed and it was a fair walk to the toilets that were open, but that was explained to us on arrival. The pitches closer to the main reception and excellent swimming pool were like a shanty town, with mainly Spanish outfits back to back with caravans, awnings, gazebos, fridges, etc crammed onto the pitch, which seem to be seasonal pitches. The shop was well stocked and the bar was satisfactory. The main selling point for this site if the weather is kind is the fantastic adjacent beach, with surf and glorious sand and views. Headland walks from the site were lovely. The site is well placed for the ferry in Santander being only 45mins drive. Overall a pleasant stay.

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Grabo123

Reviewed on 24/09/2024 18:50

6 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Good site for access to one of the best beaches we've seen

This was our 3rd visit to Playa Joyel in August. We know it is a Spanish site and accept that the pitches are much smaller than on UK sites (it mentions the pitch size in the CAMC brochure). We also appreciate the Spanish keep different hours to us Brits. This is what make our holiday abroad interesting. Facilities are excellent with a cleaner in each loo block throughout the day. There is always bags of hot water and adjustable showers make a very pleasant change from the usual push button type. The shop is very reasonable and coffee in the restaurant beats most we had had in France both for taste and price! Much as we love dogs, it is a most refreshing change to find such a large site completely DOG FREE and walking on to a wonderful dog free beach is a real bonus (though dogs are allowed on the inlet side of the huge beach). There are a couple of good walks from the site. A 5 mile walk round the headland through interesting woodland and cliff tops, to Noja's Trengandin beach for a coffee then back through the town, gives way to some fabulous scenery along the coast and is popular with joggers. Another walk past a REALLY crowded camp site to the nature reserve and historic tidal mill is also very interesting. Coming back via the beach may mean wading a bit if you get the tides wrong. We should mention that there are some very large quiet grassy pitches at the very end of the site beyond the huge playing field where few people go.

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devonduo

Reviewed on 06/09/2018 15:48

7 reviews

1 Helpful note

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 3 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Large site

Stayed here for a few nights in late April after arriving at Santander. Site very large, pitches in rows and there are lots of chalets, plus permanent caravans with awnings and side tents left up all the time. Reception helpful,shop ok for bread etc. Arrived after Easter break so first day lots of people around in these areas. Then everone left. Pitches for campers quite small, and very close together. Fine when its not busy. Only one sanitary block open so quite a long walk. It was open to the elements (no external doors) so showering a bracing experience. Fantastic beach adjacent, lovely sand and rocks, great when suns out, not so good in the rain. We had 2 days rain, so maybe affected our views. Restaurant/bar serves pizzas, not much else. Surrounding town shut up and empty.

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Ional

Caravanner

Reviewed on 20/05/2017 14:56

3 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 4 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Beautiful beach

Two nights would probably be enough at this sight but the beach is the best we've ever seen ever. Will love to come back some day, only to see the beach though. Pitches are far to close for comfort, in places it Looked like a shanty town etc

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gaz10

Caravanner

Reviewed on 29/09/2016 19:21

8 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 1 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 2 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 2 of 5

Location

Rated 1 of 5

Good for families

Playa Joyel...hell on earth

We chose this site as it was part of the Caravan club and are used to their standards and this site falls far below them. The check in process is ridiculous (considering the size of the site) you go and find a space on foot and leave the caravan outside, you have to choose a few sites as their are numerous other people wandering the site choosing possibly the same numbers (the site is huge!). the pitches are very small & very close together so you have no privacy at all. Considering how the caravan club usually have the sites and specified distances between the caravans this is nothing like that. There are alot of permanent very noisy residents who have very little respect for any one else, whether that's whilst you are walking around the site or when they are screaming & yelling at 11.30pm. Even though we were a couple with no children I would find it hard to believe that a family would find this acceptable. The only good point is it proximity to the beach but I would rather have a nicer site and a drive to a beach than that. We even left earlier than the days we had booked.

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richardtw

Caravanner

Reviewed on 14/09/2016 09:05

1 review

2 Helpful notes

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 3 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Lovely site, great for families

Visited around 20th August 2016 for one week. Our first trip to Spain and use of long ferry crossing, but it was very much worth the extra cost! This site is about 45 minutes from the ferry, easy to find. At first sight you might be a,little put off, it is very big. it's very busy with a mixture of nationalities, notably Spanish and Brtis but also some Dutch and German. The smallish pitches are arranged so that each one has some privacy. We had almost total shade which suited us as the weather was quite warm. The beach is really lovely and fantastic for children of all ages. Noja is nothing to write home about but not bad either, Santander makes a good day trip (hire a Boris bike, they are great fun!). We hiked up the hill at the back of the site called Monte Cincho which takes about an hour after driving the sort distance from the site (well marked path, suitable for kids) and the view from the tower at the top was superb. All in all a great introduction to Spain and we will return!

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Chewyjoint

Reviewed on 02/09/2016 08:20

3 reviews

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 5 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 5 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Spectacular beach holiday

If you are looking for a relaxing beach holiday, with good proximity to a local town, look no further. This is a lovely site, very well equipped for long stays (my husband had his hair cut at the hairdressers on site - very good job!). You have to queue for showers at peak times (ladies) but there are some really good shady pitches. We found it surprisingly peaceful for a large family site. Walking to the beach from the site is easy (I noticed it would be good for pushchair access) and although the waves are like those in Biarritz (for surfing) with a lifeguard (this is high season) the beach is so large that if you wander along to the left of the site, you can access little warm pools to paddle of even swim in (some were quite deep). We went for lovely walks along the beach - absolutely beautiful spot. The local town has all you need and is walking distance. We ate at a small mexican restaurant at the end of the road from the site (just off the roundabout) and it was very good. We stayed 7 nights and didn't expect it to be so relaxing - it was lovely. Also got to see some shooting stars, so lovely for stargazing. The shop stocks many things so there is really no need to leave the site if you don't want to but I was not too happy with the butcher section - meat did not look too healthy to me but I tried some chicken kebabs and we were alright, so... but I walked in to Noja to the small Carrefour for meat. So good pitch, lovely aspect for beach holiday, good for town and shopping. NO DOG POLICY - so it was a very clean site (see my following review for Pena Montanesa...- we have been dog owners and have no issue with the dogs, just lazy owners who do not pick up after their dogs). I can strongly recommend this site for couples (like us) and families alike. Enjoy!

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LaDolceVita

Motorhomer

Reviewed on 27/08/2016 14:47

24 reviews

1 Helpful note

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Rated 4 of 5

Rated 1 of 5

Peace and quiet

Rated 4 of 5

Facilities and cleanliness

Rated 5 of 5

Location

Rated 5 of 5

Good for families

Noja rocks!

Great location children adore it. V friendly. Can be noisy esp Tues and sat eves. Park party in high season goes on well into the night.

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spanishdave

Caravanner

Reviewed on 13/08/2016 21:25

1 review

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