Chalet Portland - 6 persons

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We’ve visited several Huttopia campgrounds in the past and have generally been very satisfied with them. That’s why we were looking forward to our stay at Huttopia Serre-Ponçon. Although the location is truly stunning, this campground ultimately disappointed us.

The campground’s absolute strongest point is, without a doubt, its location. It’s beautifully situated on Lake Serre-Ponçon, with excellent and easy access to the water. It’s an ideal spot for swimming or stand-up paddleboarding, and the swimming area feels safe for families. Moreover, this part of the lake seems less exposed to the wind than other locations around Serre-Ponçon, which makes the stay even more pleasant.

Unfortunately, there are a number of significant drawbacks. The staff is very young and often came across as unprofessional and not very customer-friendly. Early in the morning, staff drive golf carts across the grounds. Due to the many speed bumps, this causes quite a bit of noise, so sleeping in is often not an option.

The swimming pool is also a disappointment. It’s far too small for the number of guests the campground accommodates. During peak times, this leads to overcrowding and murky pool water. Additionally, there was no visible supervision at the pool, which surprised us given the large number of children present.

We also had our reservations regarding safety. The campground borders a public beach and is freely accessible. Yet at night, there is no form of security or supervision whatsoever. That doesn’t always make you feel safe.

The food and beverage options meet only basic expectations. The restaurant and bar consist of self-service stations where you can mainly pick up drinks and pizzas. Guests are expected to return their empty glasses themselves. In practice, this doesn’t always happen, so tables are often left full of used glasses and aren’t cleared away properly.

The restroom facilities are also clearly not adequate for the capacity of the tent area. During our stay, there was no hot water available in one of the three restroom blocks. Furthermore, one morning, two of the three blocks were unexpectedly closed for urgent maintenance. When I accidentally tried to enter a locked building, I was addressed in a particularly unfriendly manner by a staff member, which didn’t exactly improve the experience.

The campsites themselves also leave a mediocre impression. There was a visible effort to landscape the grounds, but much of the vegetation had withered due to a lack of water. The grass is barely maintained, and the sites seem designed primarily to accommodate as many guests as possible in a limited area, which comes at the expense of a sense of space and ambiance.

Conclusion: Huttopia Serre-Ponçon boasts a truly fantastic lakeside location and offers excellent opportunities for swimming and water sports. Unfortunately, these strengths are overshadowed by a lack of maintenance, limited amenities, a lack of customer-friendliness, and a feeling of overcrowding. Despite our positive experiences at other Huttopia campgrounds, we will not be returning to this location. It’s a beautiful spot, but in our opinion, it’s not managed well enough to justify the price and meet expectations.

For nature lovers, this is the campground for you! It’s very clean, offers daily activities, is located right on the lake, and is just a stone’s throw from the municipal beach. However, it’s far from any town, so you’ll need a car and should plan for a significant travel time when visiting nearby attractions. On the plus side, there are free shuttle buses that connect the various key locations.

We had a wonderful time by this beautiful lake—we weren't bored for a single moment. We'd love to come back.

We stayed for 6 days in early August.
The atmosphere, the overall setting with the lake and the pool—it’s all pleasant and has a great vibe. Our bungalow (Arizona) was clean, in good condition, well-appointed, and comfortable. The bungalows aren’t too close together, and the view of the lake is quite breathtaking, which makes you forget the lack of shade.
The front desk staff, maintenance technicians, and activity leaders are efficient and friendly.

BUT BEWARE, there’s a big BUT: the Huttopia Lac de Serre-Ponçon campground has one major flaw—it’s divided into two parts (separated by a public water sports center with a large public parking lot):
- the main section, where you’ll find the reception desk, the pool, the restaurants, the children’s play area, children’s activities, and the lake, of course
- the adjacent section, where there’s the lake and a poorly equipped multi-sport field (soccer and basketball). PERIOD.

Upon arrival, we were unpleasantly surprised to learn that our bungalow (Arizona 267) was located in the adjacent area. And that completely changes the nature of your stay—and not for the better: when you have, like us, three young children, getting to the pool, the kids’ activities (in the morning), or simply going out for a pizza one evening quickly becomes a hassle!! It took us about twenty minutes to get to the pool or the activities from our bungalow. On top of that, the path isn’t paved and isn’t lit at night (even when walking along the road), so it’s not easy at all with young children.

No playgrounds, no food options. The grocery store is a 10-minute walk away
No composting facilities in this part of the campground either.
There’s only one washing machine in this part of the campground, and it barely spins! Luckily, with this heat, everything dries quickly anyway.

Our daughters loved the morning kids’ activities, and the two activity leaders are very nice, but with just two of them for 40 kids, that’s a lot to handle!

So, to sum it up: if you’re traveling with your family and want to take advantage of the activities offered, you should head to the main part of the campground. If you prefer to be close to the lake and don’t want to go to the pool, the activities, or the kids’ play area, maybe the “Hameau du Lac” section—“away from the hustle and bustle” (as the brochure describes it)—will suit you better.  For us, it definitely ruined our stay.

We had a very bad nigthrest as there was a lot of noise in the bararea at night in between 11pm and 2am. We adressed this several times at the reception and the staff listened to us politely, but nothing was solved. The campsite has a policy that 11pm thing should be quiet and they askes us to call the number that was given to us after 11pm which we did several times, but only one time is was possibly solved after an hour and 2x calling. One time we got to speak to a staff member that was actually sitting and chatting in this group at the bar rea at midnight, not exactly respecting the campsites policy.
The last 2 nights the number we called was simply switched off. From the 8 nights we stayed there, we couldn't sleep properly 6 nights. Our experience is very bad, as the campsite does not do anything to control their own policy and guests rest. We spoke to different people every time and it appears nothing was communicated and the staff is not capable of taking action when needed. There was no check with us if the issue was solved or anything. This has not been a vacation for us and we have better things to do then making calls in the middle of the night in in order to get our rest and going to complain at the reception each time.