Love Local with The List: Camp de Rêves

In the run up to Small Business Saturday, we are supporting local small businesses by sharing their stories with you.

 

French for ‘field of dreams’, Camp de Rêves is a local glamping site that is popular with tourists and locals alike, and it’s gaining recognition nationally. Local couple Jane and Danny - assisted by their four-legged companion Chilli Dawg - run five Safari Tents and three Shepherd Huts on their elevated three acre site on the west coast.

Jane shared their story with us.

 

 

Sustainability and environmental protection have an increasing importance in our lives, and we set out to create a low-impact carbon footprint holiday with an element of luxury.

 

1.  How It All Began

Danny previously ran his landscaping business from the site and he also made seaweed compost there. He used to camp up there on occasions and just loved the view, location, peacefulness and the wildlife. He thought other people would too, providing they could stay somewhere that was comfortable and self contained. From there, the idea of a luxury glamping site was born. As a landscaper, he had the knowledge to create an interesting site and knew what species to plant to enhance the site further.

Once he had convinced me of the site’s potential, we had to get the Planning department on board with our vision. Thankfully, they could see what the site could offer as a holiday location and approved our plans.

 

2.  Our Eco Vision

The site is set in one of the most beautiful parts of the Island, with fabulous panoramic west coast sea views and stunning sunsets. Sustainability and environmental protection have an increasing importance in our lives, and we set out to create a low-impact carbon footprint holiday with an element of luxury. Our glampsite has been carefully constructed with wildlife and nature in mind, from our energy and water conservation to supporting wildlife with wildflower planting and indigenous plants and trees.

We met so many wonderful people and made great friends while we were landscaping the site and building the oakframe Safari Tents and Shepherd Huts. Now we get to share the site with guests, many who return several times a year - and year after year - which is amazing and the feedback from them is so rewarding. It's great to hear how people just switch off and enjoy the scenery and nature and take full advantage of the beach just below and all the outdoor activities Guernsey has to offer.

 

 

 Building up the playground has been fun, especially the building of the pirate ship, which we did get a bit carried away with!

 

3.  Highlights and Challenges Along The Way 

We love reading the testimonials from the guests and knowing the glampsite has given families and couples a lovely holiday. Building up the playground has been fun, especially the building of the pirate ship (which we did get a bit carried away with!) and now we are working on linking the playground equipment and making a joined up adventure trail! Also, planting new bulbs and wild flowers and just watching how nature turns the wintered bare banks into an array of gorgeous poppies and cornflowers. And then the bees come back in a flash to feed, it's just so lovely to see. Being voted one of the 'Top 12 Glampsites in the UK With A Sea View' by Coast magazine earlier this year was another highlight for us.

But it’s not all been easy. The landscaping took a while and the digger had to deal with some enormous granite boulders which were found all over the site. The boulders are so smooth and fabulous for placing round the site - but moving 3 tonne boulders into place put the digger through its paces! 

We now have a great team around us, with support from Ross, Amy and Ellie and our four-legged helper Chilli Dawg. We all have our main roles but everyone just gets stuck in to what's needed at the time so there's lots of variety and it's a fun place to be. 

 

4.  Celebrating Local Life

We are so lucky to have lots of locals stay at the glampsite and we have made many great friends. We just love seeing them come back the following year with the newest little addition to the family - and often granny and grandpa too. We like to support other local businesses wherever we can and Guernsey has so many great outdoor activity places and equipment providers that it makes it very easy to suggest things to do, places to go, places to eat and local independent shops to visit.

We like to help where we can with fundraisers and we really enjoyed having the children from Le Rondin school staying with us this year for their summer camp. They had a wonderful time and it was humbling to see just how hard the teachers and helpers all worked, day and night, to make the stay a special one for the children.

 

5.  It Might Surprise You To Know…

When we get the time and think we can escape for a little while, we like to escape and head over to Herm on our boat. We tie up outside the harbour and enjoy a swim and homemade tasty picnic, then just relax on the boat - it feels like you have been away for days!

 

 

The List Loves...

We love that you can escape with a one night midweek stay in the Shepherd Huts this winter. Who needs a reason? Just go for it and enjoy the sunset from a cosy retreat with a log-burning stove. There's super fast wifi, if you want to enjoy your favourite local wellbeing lifestyle site (hi!) while you're there.

To book or find out more, visit guernseyglamping.com