Camping Duinoord Reviews

4.0
A. B.August 2021
4.0
A. B.August 2021
Advantages
+ Ameland itself 😊 + Location (close to nature in the dunes and close to the beach) + Car-free site (cars park outside) + Bicycle rental directly on site
Negatives
- Cleanliness of the sanitary facilities - Soap and disinfectant were often empty - Sometimes you stand close together
Beautiful place with small weaknesses
In the summer of 2020 and 2021 we (2 adults, 2 children) were guests at the Duinoord campsite for about three weeks each. The site is located between the dunes right by the sea. We parked our caravan in the "W" area, where there are mainly seasonal campers, so you're not as close together here as on... the front part of the site. We received valuable tips about the island from the seasonal campers who have been coming to Ameland for years.

The site is car-free and you can park in the free public parking lot directly in front of the campsite, although the campsite also offers optional parking behind a barrier, which is then subject to a charge. There is a well-stocked small grocery store at the reception, in Nes you can do your shopping at Jumbo or Spar (approx. 10 minutes away by bike). As a corona protection measure, additional toilet and washing containers with good ventilation have been set up. Without these, it will certainly be tight in the high season. The cleanliness of the sanitary facilities was acceptable, but nothing more. Soap and disinfectant were often empty. Showers and hot water for washing dishes are charged with a credit card. Wi-Fi is available and is sufficient for normal use if you don't want to stream movies. Bicycle rental is available directly on site. A children's program is also offered, but we did not use it. The big plus point is the location directly by the sea, where there is enough space on the beach without crowds.

Conclusion: Ameland is a beautiful island. The Duinoord campsite is beautifully situated and is a great starting point for numerous leisure activities. We can recommend the site, even if there is still room for improvement here and there.
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2 campers found this rating helpful.
3.0
HM
Heidrun M.July 2018
3.0
HM
Heidrun M.July 2018
Advantages
Beautiful dune landscape, cleanliness, friendliness, car-free and dog-free. Close to the beach, relatively quiet.
Negatives
Inadequate sanitary facilities.
Beautiful with weaknesses
We stayed at this campsite in July/August 2018. We had a larger family tent and had booked a pitch in the dunes. As the campsite is quite full in high season, we recommend booking early. The pitches in the dunes are beautiful, some with electricity. However, they are very rarely suitable for larger tents... and offer them a flat area. As they naturally have a sandy bottom, you should equip yourself beforehand with sensible pegs, ideally wooden pegs. We were there for two weeks, and during this time it rained heavily on one day, so that the sand under our tent was washed away and we were lying on a very sloping surface. One positive thing I noticed was that the campsite is car-free, which means that you can bring your car onto the site to set up and take down your tent, but otherwise it's parked in the parking lot. However, I found it a bit of a disadvantage that tents and motorhomes and caravans were very mixed up, sometimes very close together. Motorhomes and caravans really changed the character of the actually beautiful dune site, it was a veritable avalanche of cars. I've also often noticed - as was the case here - that campers in caravans or motorhomes are not quite aware of how noisy a tent can be. They are often very loud, even outside of quiet hours, because they are not so quiet even for their neighbors. That was very annoying here - especially due to the high occupancy. At least half of the site is now occupied by rental "living containers". If you look at the campsite from the dunes, it somehow has a slightly "tin" character. That's not nice. Most of the campsite staff are very, very, very nice, competent and helpful. There is a small store where you can stock up on essentials and get bread rolls in the morning (including wooden herrings). There is also a snack bar, the hamburgers are delicious, as are the frikandels. The children's entertainment is unfortunately more for very young children and is mostly in Dutch. As the campsite is located directly in the dunes, you can get to the sea very quickly, the beach is beautiful and not really crowded even in July/August when the weather is great. There is a bike rental service at the campsite. There are several playgrounds for smaller children. In good weather, you should make sure you have awnings or similar, as there is hardly any natural shade. So we were actually quite satisfied. BUT: The sanitary facilities are a major shortcoming of the campsite. For the main site (there is also a Duinoord Zuid site) - i.e. areas R, W, X, Y and Z - there is one (!!!) sanitary building. There are about eight ladies' and eight men's toilets in the building (each with a hand basin with soap), separated by about eight ladies' and eight men's showers and basins for brushing teeth and morning and evening personal hygiene. On the outside of the building there are two toilets with hand basins without soap and two showers. The toilet building is closed daily between 7 a.m. and 8.45 a.m. (almost two hours) for cleaning. Then there are only two toilets available for the whole site, where there is not even any soap. Of course you can use the toilets in the reception/restaurant, but that's an almost five-minute walk, especially from the dune pitches, which you don't necessarily want to do in the morning after getting up. And so there are long queues in front of the two outdoor toilets. It's such an imposition, especially as you can't even wash your hands properly. The hand wash basin in the "inside" toilets sometimes ran out of soap immediately after cleaning. There was no soap in the toilet by the restaurant during our entire stay, even though I asked for a refill several times. I then washed my hands again and again with the toilet disinfectant. I'm not normally fussy. But when I went to get bread rolls one morning after using the soap-free toilet and realized that you can help yourself there without bread tongs and by hand, it made me feel a bit different. When I expressed my displeasure, the lady at reception said that the problem was known, that it was a new soap system and that they were surprised that it had to be refilled several times a day. Despite my comments, the soap problem in the restaurant toilet was not remedied, and I don't think that's right. Otherwise, however, the site was clean and the toilets were also well cleaned. The showers have to be paid for. You get a chip card when you check in, which you can top up. Six minutes in the showers costs 60 cents. The family showers are very practical if you are traveling with children or a partner. This is a cubicle with two showers. Unfortunately, I didn't find any changing tables. There are washing machines and dryers. You don't have to bring your own detergent, it's added during the wash (bad news for allergy sufferers). Washing costs five euros, drying two euros. This is also covered by the card. You can freeze cold packs for the cool box (in the washing machine building). If you want to wash up, you should get hot water from the shower rooms; it comes out of the taps at the washbasins there free of charge. The sinks are clean and there are plenty of them, so you rarely have to wait. But hot water has to be activated with a chip card for a fee. Any credit will be refunded on departure. German and English are spoken well at reception and in the snack bar. W-lan is free, you get a password. However, there is a downside here too. There is currently one wi-fi access per booking (not per person). So if you are traveling with several people, only one person can be logged in to the Wi-Fi at a time, further accesses are subject to a charge. This was not clearly visible in the prices when booking and is a nuisance. However, the Wi-Fi network was quite good and reception was usually great! Dogs are not allowed on the site. As we have already had some unpleasant experiences with aggressive dogs and dog excrement when camping, this was not a negative factor for us. We felt quite comfortable - with a few exceptions. But the sanitary situation was very unpleasant. It spoils the vacation mood if you can only satisfy your natural need in the morning with problems and long waiting times.
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3 campers found this rating helpful.
5.0
EZ
Elly Z.August 2017
5.0
EZ
Elly Z.August 2017
Advantages
Beautiful area, very close to the beach,eateries within walking distance well maintained campsite, nice staff we have been coming here for ± 20 years!
Negatives
Maybe organize a little more for the bigger kids, but our kids have always had a good time and now come again with their kids
Super camping
A lovely quiet beautiful campsite with spacious camper places very clean and adequate sanitary facilities. All this in a beautiful setting of forest, beach and dunes. Great staff
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1 camper found this rating helpful.