'A full disclosure at the outset,' writes Brian Curragh: we love Arna and have been coming here since 2011. This trip was our sixth visit but the first after a gap of five years - so we were really keen to see what has changed. The good news is that the changes are all to the positive and the site is as magical as before!’
For those of you who haven’t tried the French southwest coastline – you can look forward to a beach that is just under 230 kilometres long, stretching from fashionable Biarritz in the south right up to the Gironde estuary. A beach that long is never going to get crowded and provides almost unlimited opportunities to get that all over suntan in perfect seclusion. Apart from the four main Naturist resorts – Arna, La Jenny, Montalivet and Euronat – there are countless Naturist beaches, either official or generally accepted, but to be honest when you can be 100 meters from your nearest neighbour, who can tell what you are wearing or not!
Arna (officially ‘Arnaoutchot’) itself is located in the Landes department which is home to the largest manmade forest in Western Europe – the 10,000 square kilometres almost entirely consist of tall maritime pine trees and Arna certainly has its share of them. They give the whole site a wonderfully peaceful air as they sway gently in the offshore breeze. Walking amongst them on the way to the sand dunes that separate the site from the beach is a great way to start any day. The weather at Arna is generally much better than the UK, but as the site is bordered by the Atlantic and with the Pyrenees to the south, it can be changeable. Our first week saw temperatures up in the mid 30s while during our last few days it was not wildly different from back home, with blustery showers. We also had an unbelievable thunderstorm at 4am one morning with torrential rain but by midday, you would not know it had ever happened.
Arna have clearly invested since we last visited: there is a great deal of new accommodation which is a step away from the mobile home type and more closely resembles modern cabins, while at least one of the bathroom blocks has been replaced with a very smart facility. More new cabins were being delivered while we were there so the upgrade programme is definitely continuing. If you are looking for a stay that is more camping-orientated then the emplacements down near the beach are still there and were proving popular with campers and the caravan/camper van crowd.
The site’s facilities are excellent with – in high season - three restaurants serving local specialities, fish and pizza alongside open air bar seating. Diners at the restaurants tended to dress for their evening meals which seems to the common approach at most French resorts but there were always plenty of naked bodies in the early evening around the bar area. The wonderful local menu restaurant, La Gourmand Landaises, appears to have dropped their 3-course menu du jour, which is a shame as we used to like the choices and it always seemed to be good value. There is a well-stocked mini supermarket that will supply you with everything you need. We tended to use this for anything we had missed and did most of our food shopping at the Carrefour in nearby Léon which is a very easy 15-minute drive away – and, unsurprisingly, much cheaper!
On the entertainment front, in high season there is something on most evenings from local bands through to soirée dansantes alongside entertainment aimed at children. There are also several excellent children’s areas spread throughout the site – with a new children’s water park just being commissioned as we were there.
If the beach isn’t your thing, there are outdoor and indoor pools with top quality loungers, a huge pétanque area and the new Les Bassins d’Arna spa area which looks beautiful and includes a spa, a relaxation garden and four treatment rooms offering a vast range of treatments.
We left the site on 1st July just as Arna was beginning to move up a gear - with the French school holidays only a week away, families were starting to appear and the animations programme was getting into full operation with activities most evenings in July and August; if you want a quiet time then avoid those months.
The practicalities: we tend to fly into Biarritz with Ryanair from Stansted but there is no reason why you could not fly in via Bordeaux if that works for you better. Biarritz is a great little airport, and you can be outside with your luggage 30 minutes after touching down. All the car hire companies are there and provided you turn the right way onto the autoroute and don’t head for Spain as we once did, you will be at Arna an hour later. Technically you can’t check in until after 5pm but I don’t believe we have ever had an issue by arriving earlier. Apart from picking up your key, about the only other thing you might need to consider is hiring a bedlinen set if you haven’t brought your own.
Check-out had also changed since our last visit. You can avoid a cleaning charge of something slightly over €100 by leaving your accommodation clean and tidy – basically as you would expect to find it yourself on arrival. Five years ago, you had to book an inspection by the cleaning team for the morning of departure – which was always a bit of a hassle to get as late a slot as possible. Fortunately, this has all gone – you still leave your unit in a clean state, but the inspection happens after you have gone – so you can plan on packing up for 10am and still enjoy a leisurely breakfast.
Even though you are all packed up at this point, you can still use all the site’s facilities until you have to drag yourself away. This time we went up to the pool and made good use of the loungers until lunchtime before using of one of the excellent shower blocks to get the suntan oil off and force ourselves to return to Biarritz Airport.
In summary, Arna is a wonderfully professionally run and maintained resort with more pine trees than you will ever see elsewhere and a beach that seems to go on forever, giving you the chance to get back to nature and relax. You can take your clothes off as soon as you arrive and if you stay on site, you won’t need them until the day you head home.
I saw a sign on one of our neighbours’ cabins: “Ici, c'est le paradis” - they’re not wrong, you know!
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