Difference between revisions of "CampingF1.com"

Title

Formula 1 campsite accommodation. Spain Circuit de Catalunya, France Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Belgium Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Description

Excerpted from the website description:

Formula 1 Grand Prix campsites. Camping for Catalunya Spain, Magny Cours France and Spa Francorchamps Belgium. Accommodation package for Formula 1 2007. Modern pre erected tents, own camping pitches and motorhome pitches available. Check availability and book online.

Additional Information

Me and a friend have just got back from a week and a half holiday that included taking in the Spa Grand Prix, the circuit itself is fine, it has facilities that match what you would expect when dealing with a large volume of people. Overall a good experience.

What I would like to warn people about is the company we used to camp with. They are called campingf1 and have apparently been offering accommodation near the circuit for 3 years. Our stay certainly felt like the first time they had ever held an event. First the positives – lots of space for your tent, warm showers (when the gas was connected to them) and clean toilets, though toilet roll became a black market commodity after the first night.

Unfortunately our big issue came at mealtime, our first breakfast (Friday) arrived late due to the staff thinking that we had already received it (this is at 7:30 in the morning with a tent containing about 10 people). The evening meal that night was suppose to arrive between 6:30 and 8:30, it came at 9:45 and consisted of flash fried steak (okay if you like your steak rare) and a mixture of vegetables in a sauce that tasted of tuna. The lateness of this meal was apparently due to supply issues (where’s your backup plan?) we were later told.

Saturday mornings breakfast arrived on time but was stone cold, I ate this meal, my friend refused. You should bare in mind that campingf1’s website promises full English breakfast. What you get from them is 1 skinny sausage, 1 rasher of streaky bacon, a ladle of beans, 1 cold tinned tomato and as much bread as you can grab before it runs out. I guess this constitutes a full English if you’re on a diet but to me for the price it was poor (£111 for 3 nights). That night we did not bother waiting on the raw steak and tuna mix.

Sunday morning we did decided to avoid breakfast but that was just as well as it never arrived, allegedly it was due to the staff getting so drunk the night before that they did not manage to get up in time to cook it. Great.

Also an issue were the buses, they were late and took you to part of the track that was quite possibly the furthest point away from anywhere that you might want to go, we decided to drive from Saturday onward. Yet again another part of the package that was totally useless to us.

Another couple of campers we met had arrived on Friday to find that they would be spending the first night in children’s tents due to campingf1 having run out of full sized ones. They had pre-booked.

We (and a group of other campers) took these issues to Steve the owner of this operation on the day of our leaving. He could not have cared less essentially, hence why I am writing this now so that you can avoid his lack of organisation and rip-off prices.

'''Please see below my friends' experiences:'''

Myself and a friend have just returned from the Belgian F1 GP Weekend. Our holiday there lasted from the Wednesday before the race, till Race Day, after which we returned to the UK.

We had good and bad experiences throughout the week.

The circuit is one of the best in The World ever. The beauty of the track location is stunning for a racetrack, and the sight, sound and smell of the F1 cars were truly amazing. The only big negative about the track is the standard of toilets. Some of the portable loos were in an appaling state...!

Now, onto the experiences with our campsite hosts - www.campingf1.com :

I would like to warn anyone thinking of using campingf1, not to!!! Read on:

I had spoken with one of the company owners - Serena - a number of times in the run up to the holiday. I had been told that the company has been visiting the location of the camping for 4 years this year. They have apparently, according to Serena, been going to other circuits for 10 years...

The sheer unprofessionalism of the people running the place made it feel like this was the first EVER hospitality job they had done.

The only positives of the stay at the campsite were the pitch sizes due to the large field we were in (although people in the field next door were treated to a floor consisting of long grass and cow crap), the toilets were always very clean,and there were warm showers (when working properly - i had one stone cold shower).

We had paid £111.00 per person for a weekends camping with food and transport included.

The food was a joke. It was minimal, always cold and disgusting. One night was spend running between tent and toilet with food poisoning. I finally got some sleep that night after 1.30am.

Breakfast on friday was given to us late after the staff for some reason thought we'd eaten even though we had not. This was all happening at about 7.30am and with barely 10 people waiting in the marquee for the meals they had paid for. It made us arrive at the circuit late. We were seriously hacked off.

The breakfasts every morning consisted of: one chipolata (small + barely cooked), one rasher of streaky bacon that was more fat than decent meat, a spoon of baked beans and one single half tomato from a can - every single meal was served cold! Please keep in mind that we had paid for and were offered at the time of booking, FULL ENGLISH breakfasts!!

The dinner on Friay was scheduled for serving between 6.30 - 8.30pm, yet arrived at gone 9.45pm! It was a raw steak that had been browned for probably 30 seconds on a high heat (that was cold) and some weird mixed veg that had an unidentifiable sauce on it that tasted like gone-off tuna.

Saturday mornings breakfast was not late. It was identical to the breakfast mentioned above, yet I found it totally inedible - although my mate eat it cause he was so hungry. I couldn't bring myself to. One bite of a cold undercooked chipolata that looked like an old persons finger was enough to put me off and make me ill that evening.

Come Saturday evening, we again were given an identical meal to that of Fridays meal. Me and my mate thought it better to give it a miss, as it looked utterly repulsive. One guy had to miss out on the weekends' meals as no alternative was made available to him even though the staff were fully aware since his booking being made that he is a Vegetarian for crying out loud!!!

Sunday... No Breakfast offered AT ALL TO ANYONE due to the staff being too ill from alchohol intoxification on Saturday night.

Sunday evenings' meal apparently wasn't happening due to some excuse or other that was so unbelievable that I failed to actually register it in my mind, I guess in the knowledge that I'd be on my way back to the UK as that were supposed to be served.

The bus service we had paid for was shocking, for the coaches took everyone late, took an hour and a half to journey a 10 kilometre route on the way back from the circuit, and dropped people as far away from the main points of the circuit where you could view the track as were possible in the morning. We only used the bus once, and it was late, so we never used it again.

A few people HAD PREBOOKED TENTS and were given childrens tents due to there not being enough tents available.

Myself and my friend rallied around the campsite on the Sunday after the race and about 20 of us approached the owner, Steve, regarding the terrible service provided to us all over the course of nearly a week. He stood there not taking anything on board saying that he "Will not throw money at the problems" and "will decide within about a month whether there are grounds for monies to be refunded" for services sold to us but not provided on site.

EVERYONE LEFT THAT MEETING EXPECTING NOTHING FROM THIS UNPROFFESSIONAL BUSINESSMAN (and coward) TO COME BACK TO US.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FOR ANYTHING. ONE WORD - USELESS!!

External Links

• Alexa: Campingf1.com
• WHOIS for Campingf1.com