Villa Bloomingdale - 2 persons

-

Formerly the Vogelenzang campground... man, what a mess—this cookie-cutter development by real estate developers who just want to get rich quick... and what a shame for the longtime trailer park residents who are being driven out by this whole situation!!

Shame on you, Bloemendaal municipality—you should be deeply ashamed of yourselves!!!

-

We booked this campground at the last minute, and in those situations, you’re already happy just to have found a spot. In hindsight, we sort of understand why there’s still space here. We’re very satisfied with our stay, but we can certainly see why some other reviews might have a few criticisms. The campground isn’t right next to Bloemendaal, by the way, but I assume you’ll check the map beforehand. The location is great, and from the campground you can immediately set off on a beautiful bike ride toward the dunes or the woods around Aerdenhout, and you’ll be in Zandvoort in no time. Haarlem is also a nice bike ride away. Upon arrival, the campground looks very new, with its attractive new vacation homes, all recently built. Further back, you can see that there’s indeed still some work to be done; older permanent sites are interspersed with some camping spots that aren’t all equally inviting (lots of sand, unclear boundaries, and cluttered). Our neighbors on our field had initially been assigned a spot there, but decided to ask to move to the large camping field at the back instead. We were there too, except our reserved spot was occupied by two cars belonging to campers who had cheerfully set off on their bikes. The friendly man from technical services helped us find a nicer spot a little further down the field, where we had a wonderful time. Spacious spots, close to a small restroom building that’s more than adequate: clean, tidy, and with nice hot water. If the entire field is full on both sides, I do think the capacity of this building is a bit limited. Incidentally, the only lighting on the large field wasn’t working. In the morning, you can pick up fresh rolls at the campground store (with a self-scan checkout). The pool looks well-maintained, and the restaurant looks neat, too. We didn’t make any further use of these facilities. We wanted to book a late checkout on our last day, but here it was only available until 2:00 p.m. for a whopping 16.50… We’re used to late checkouts being available at least until late afternoon or early evening. So we just booked an extra night so we could enjoy a nice outing on our last day and left around 7:00 p.m. Perhaps this is something to consider changing! Also, a suggestion to look into installing charging stations at the campground. Given the size of the campground/vacation park, this would be appropriate. As it was, we had to charge in Vogelenzang, which we were fortunately able to walk to via the Kerkepad. Conclusion: a great base for biking and hiking in the area, but there are still a few things to work on regarding the camping facilities!

When we looked at the Marinapark Bloemendaal website a few months ago, we saw some beautiful photos and decided to book a campsite for the weekend. Unfortunately, the reality was quite disappointing.

Upon arrival, we were assigned a sandy spot overlooking very outdated and cluttered permanent sites. Fortunately, after speaking with the front desk, we were able to move to another spot on a large field.

What disappointed us most was the overall appearance of the campground. The campground looks poorly maintained and clearly needs some work. Fortunately, the restroom building was clean on the inside, but the exterior was very unattractive. The lamppost we could see from our spot also had severely peeling paint.

In short: based on the beautiful photos on the website, we had expected a well-maintained and charming campground. Unfortunately, that image didn’t match our experience at all. We were therefore happy to head back home.

-