maybe its just a case that all the enquiries people have about c brava have all been answered and people are reading the threads before posting
there again,everytime i go the hotels all seem full, so maybe its a case of it all being return business and so people have less need to find out any further info.
or, it is probably that the brits are all going elsewhere, and the c brava is being taken over by the dutch,french,italians(there does seem to be more of them recently) and russians.

Just back from Castel Montgri

Any questions just ask
BTW, Had a fantastic time!

Just about to head home from our time here!

Weather not as good as normal, but only really one day when we couldnt get out to sunbathe!

Always sad to see a holiday come to an end, but the chavs are starting to arrive now, and it's nice to get that peaceful holiday out of the way before they come!

Will give a full review of what i found when i come home ... adios!

I'm off to CM this July & looking forward to it!

Can anyone tell me if there's wi-fi on-site?

Just back from 2 not so sunny weeks at Castell Montgri. Not a lot changed from last year although the weather was nowhere near as good. Prices have gone up again on the site, don't know why they can't open earlier to keep costs down. 3.95 euros now for the sunbeds is a scandal. 3.15 for a pint of san miguel is a lot as well, especially as you can get it for 2.50 in the town.

Definetly no wi-fi on site by the way. Doubt there is any in the town either. Although there is internet access in the take away by the panorama pool and the bottom bar. 2.40 euros for 30 mins.

BTW - the swimming pools were a lot warmer this year and I mean a lot, no being chilled to the bone after 5 mins

Ok time for a review (Hey, Son of Homer, i'm like you - the weather wasn't as good as it should have been - but apart from the last two days, i think we sat out in the sun most days!)

Campsite - Like S of H above, i totally agree about the pricing, in fact, it's prevalent throughout Estartit. Happy hour prices are TOO EXPENSIVE as far as im concerned (€3.25 for a half - £2.30) rising to €4.05 during normal times, that's nearly £2.90 - who are they kidding? We avoided the bars onsite apart from one night where the wife wanted to see the spanish dancers. All the local pubs are too expensive, even the Saratoga charges €4 a half, but at least you get a good spanish measure (looks like a triple or quadruple!!) In saying that, they charge €5 for a Jack Daniels ... you can buy a litre bottle for €17!!!! No wonder the Costa Brava is losing appeal. Another thing about the campsite is that they really didn't look ready for the season. Ok, we were there first day, and the Panorama pool wasn't open, was meant to open the following day - however, i went up the following day, and it was the old Manana attitude .... there are also a lot of lights being replaced in the park down from the big pool, and they did NOTHING on it all the time i was there ... surely they should be doing this work in their mild springtime - it isn't as if they are in the arctic circle like we are!! All in all though, it's still a great site, well run and well looked after and you still have a nice quiet peaceful time - we used to sit out on the veranda and watch the portable DVD player as there was nothing really on during our first week

Estartit Town - the town just seems to get quieter every year. It's clear that Estartit is trying to attract a different kind of tourist now as more and more places seem to close. The harbour is still a nice walk though

Accommodation - Stayed in the same mid-logde that we have used before. These must be 6-7 years old now, so they are slightly starting to show their age, but still a great accom

Tour Company - Interbrava were excellent i have to say! Yes, some of the people working with them are ex-redcrest office staff, reps, drivers, etc ... so what? Aren't these people entitled to look for another job? The company has no links with the old set up as far as im aware now, and i honestly couldn't fault the whole set up. £338 all in for two weeks in the sun (well, sometimes sun) and that was including your coach travel and gas / electricity! You would struggle to beat that, plus we arrived onsite at 12pm, and i returned home before 6pm yesterday ... first ferry at Calais, no sign of any of the other coach firms and they would have had the additional delay of their interchanges! Living in the north, it's such a bonus getting a company that doesn't run an interchange, and having watched the Interbrava staff onsite at the campsite, on the buses, etc, etc, i couldnt fault any of them. Special thanks to the lovely Mandy again for her great work as hostess, and of course to her hubby Stevie for getting us there safely

Campsite clients - As i said previously, i'm quite glad to get away at the end of the second week as some of the people arriving aint always the nicest!! It's a shame, as it ruins things for the decent majority of people! Also, why do people have Union jack flags, towels, tattoos, t-shirts, etc, with ENGLAND on them .... do people not know their own identity?

All in all though, a good, mostly quiet break, and you can't argue with the price!

It might be fair to add to my review, that although we had a generally great holiday, i am thinking of trying somewhere like palafrugell next year ... so if a complete Montgri junkie of the past like myself is thinking of doing so, then maybe that should serve as a warning to the campsite and the surrounding area that it needs to do more!

I also meant to add one more thing (reminded myself when i was posting a thread about ciggies)

Have to say that the Spanish smoking ban is a joke! I was quite looking forward to it, but it doesn't seem as strict a ban, and i was amazed that the Saratoga pub had a smoking permit!

Ok, it has some open air entrances, and the stairs to the top level, but that bottom area was absolutely reeking at times, i left early one night because there was a group of chain smoking londoners next to me, i swear the kids were chain smokers too!! If the saratoga had been here in Scotland, it would have come under the ban

It might not have been nice to return home to the bad weather, but it was nice to get back to the good old ban! (sorry smokers! )

Hi Cider

Welcome Home

Glad you enjoyed your holiday (apart from the prices and smoking)

This was my 6th and last time going to CM. I did state last year I wouldn't be going back but this time it was only for 4 days and I was going with my 2 sisters, 5 kids and my mum as they had heard so much about it from us and wanted to try it. Plus it was really cheap.

Again the prices were the main issue for us on site, and as you say you can get a bottle in the supermarket for the same price as a drink on the site.

WARNING"¦ the free bottle of wine you get on site now isn't the "just about drinkable" Castel Montgri wine, They now bring the wine out from under the counter and we were all to scares to try it.

I was surprised to see a full entertainments programme so early in the season so that was good for the kids, especially when my nephew was picked to go on stage with the magician. It made his holiday!

The smoking ban here or in Spain doesn't bother me, although the 1 smoker in our group thought the "Yes" you can smoke here sign in the Saratoga was amusing.

What I didn't know before we went was that you are only allowed to bring 6 cartons of fags through France and I only noticed on the way home when I say a sign on the siesta bus loo door. It would have been helpful if the driver mentioned it to us before we arrived. We were okay as we only brought back a small amount, but 2 people on our bus brought 36 cartons each back! They didn't know anything about the rules and they were really lucky as on the way home the siesta bus on front of us was pulled in at customs in Dover.

The weather was good the 4 days we were there, only 1 day was over cast but it didn't keep us out the pool. It rained in Disneyland on the morning but that was the last rain we saw. I was actually surprised; I thought it would have been much cooler.

Again, the bus journey was great (apart from the Euro Tunnel on way out), the hostesses and drivers were fantastic, and the onsite reps were great (even assisting with a broken finger) and even the waiters and waitresses smiled on occasion.

Overall a great holiday

Ha ha, yes, the wine! I picked up the usual bottle, got to the till, and the girl said 'no' and then pulled a bottle from under the counter, some bottle of red wine .... we still drank it, though i poured some fresh orange into it to give it a more sangria taste!!!

The Saratoga's sign might backfire on them once the whole of the UK becomes more used to smoke free pubs .. i walked out a couple of times cos i couldn't stand the smoke, so they lost custom from me!

What time were your buses getting to the Calais ferry on the way home ... we got on the 6:30 one, but there were 3 Siesta coaches sitting at the side who weren't making this one, and who might have had to wait for another couple of hours to get one! What i liked was that the interbrava coaches used some common sense, consulted the passengers, and only had a very brief stop around the French/Spanish border ... this meant we zoomed up to Lyon BEFORE the worst of the traffic from the Monaco Grand Prix caught us up, as you know Lyon can be a bottleneck - i was impressed by this sharp thinking
I used to love CM for the pool, etc, but i think i may have only used it 5-6 times this year, choosing instead to stay down at the caravan for a peaceful sunbathe ... a lot of the time it clouded over and cooled around 4-5pm, so i didn't feel the need for a cooling dip. Either way, i'm happy enough just sitting by the caravan, and i think next year will be time to maybe try something a little different, possibly Palafrugell
PS I was quite taken aback by how little Club C seem to have onsite now ... maybe i missed some of their areas, but it didn't look like they had too many, plus they only seemed to start their season last Sunday, as i saw a bus coming in, but not leaving with anyone! I'm beginning to wonder if a lot of the coach companies are having a hard time still, as Club C coaches didn't look the newest, and i've heard that Siesta don't run as many as they once did either! Seems the site is more populated with companies such as Go4Spain, Eurocamp, Lifestyle, Selectcamp, etc, who are all more into the Fly/Drive clients! Times have changed!!

Well we won't go back to Castell Montgri either. We will be looking for somewhere that opens earlier in the season and so is more reasonably priced. We had one meal out in Estartit and that cost £30 for 2 adults and the food was dissapointing. The rest of the time we eat onsite or in Barracuda. Quite frankly the food onsite is a disgrace. Just english food cooked quickly and badly. At least Barracuda is great.

We drove down to Calella de Palafrugell for a look around and it looks much nicer, much more spanish we may try there or go further south to Sanguli.

As for CM's comments on the last few days building up to the bank holiday I can only agree. All the worst in England arrives on site. For all the people booked for July and August I can only hope you have a nice time, but I would never go there then.

Hi Cider

On the way home we ended up getting the 9.50am ferry crossing as we missed the earlier one due to traffic in France the previous evening. Apparently its always busy on a Sunday evening. Only 2 ferrys made it in time for the crossing, the rest had to go by Euro tunnel to keep us all together.

It was nice having a bit more space to ourselves on the camp site and I hope we didn't cause to much noise pollution for all you happy campers.

I would defiantly recommend May time for a holiday at CM, not to hot, not to crowded, and the hordes of kids haven't quite decended.

Son of Homer, i think you are right .... £30 for 2 adults does seem really steep. You used to think of places like Spain as being the places of really cheap eating out (and a drink) but you can get a better bar meal (and a £2 double!) from your local Wetherspoons!! The town really is dead too - i was going to pop into the Barracuda, but i only ever seen two or three people in it (probably you!!)

I can always recall CM opening at the start of May, but this mid-may and us turning up on opening day just doesn't sit well with me now ... very unprepared, big pool 2 days late in opening, lot of maintenance work going on, etc. They seem to be being rather cheap ... instead of having the cost of employing people to do the work in the off-season, they do it during the season. If my own caravan park at Wemyss Bay in Scotland did this i'd be doing my head in - they do the vast majority of stuff pre-season, and we have Scottish winters!!!

Also, you are right about the arriving masses ... We left on Sunday there, but to be honest, i could have come home on the Thursday and made done with 10 nights in resort, as it was becoming chavtastic with as you say, the worst of England (but don't worry, the worst of Scotland will join them in July! )

Diane, you are right ... if i go back (and no doubt sometime i will) it would be in the first two weeks of the season, and it still is a good holiday and reasonably cheap (£338 for two weeks) ... but i certainly wouldn't recommend the site with the same enthusiasm as i did two or three years ago. However, i have to say that our first week, especially the first few days were so peaceful and quiet ... bliss!

However, i have to say that our first week, especially the first few days were so peaceful and quiet ... bliss!

yeah, that was before we arrived and shattered the peace and quiet

You were in Siesta accommodation .... you were miles away from us!

can you imagine the noise levels if you were in the next chalet to them then

HaHa

Siestas not that daft, as there were 3 families with us, they put us in a block of 4 away from everyone whch was actually quite good.

A block of your own?

CM's equivalent of Guantanamo Bay, i heard!

Can anyone help me about DJ Mark's music? Does anyone have a list of the music he plays as my kids would be very interested in it.
Thanks John