Île de Loisir Vaires-Torcy Review

L‘île de loisir Vaires-Torcy or Vaires-Torcy leisure island is a space dedicated to people wishing to swim in a lake with an air of an artificial beach.

This type of place is especially present in the suburbs where it is sometimes easier to go swimming in a lake than to go to the sea or to the swimming pool.

We will see together if it is an interesting place for you and your family to spend time during hot weather.

The location

This island is located between the city of Vaires and Torcy in the Seine-et-Marne department. It’s actually quite tricky to find the exact spot where the beach is located since there are more than one space regrouping activities in this area.

Using a google map search won’t do you any favors and will most likely bring you to the place where they do kite surf or kayaking.

The location we will review is the artificial beach for family to hang out and enjoy the good weather also called “Baignade” meaning bathing.

The prices

The price of admission for one adult is 5,90 euros per adult and 3,90 euros for kids between 3 and 10 years old.

For children under 3, it’s free, which is great since our baby is still two and loves to enjoy water at this age.

The experience

Video of presentation of the location

The place is quite filled with people. If you are going to this place on a very hot day, you’ll have to queue up in line and wait a good 30 minutes.

You’ll have to pass a security check, but to be fair, it’s a bit disorganized, and tons of people are getting through without being checked.

The good thing is that they have gates with a second security check, and usually the security knows in advance who will cause problems.

Inside, the place is quite strict as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some people got kicked out as well. The place is quite jam-packed, and for me, who is an unconditional lover of empty beaches, this is kind of a nightmare.

Crowded people are a bit annoying since you have to fight for space and be extremely careful about your belongings.

Inside the space, there is a location filled with fountains for kids. My son really loves it. He could stay there all day if we let him.

The beach is quite large, actually, but most accommodations are located near the entrance. The farther you go, the fewer people there will be, but the more you’ll have to walk to get something like an ice cream.

Beach length of Île de Loisir Vaires-Torcy

Being located in the suburbs, this place is packed with suburbanites, which is fine, but some specific groups tend to be a bit loud and annoying.

I am referring to young people coming in groups of over five men, running and screaming around. Sure, they may not fight, but by experience, you know that we are always just a few words away from a fight with these people.

We can see the waterslide at the end of the beach

The good thing is that alcohol is prohibited in this area; at least people won’t be overly inhibited. Getting back to our review, there are water slides at the end of the beach, which seems like a lot of fun for kids.

The Yooyi being a bit young at the moment, we didn’t have the chance to try it. We are not overly enthusiastic about him drinking this water, if you see what we mean.

The beach was extremely hot and sunny this day. There wasn’t much space in the shadow except on the hill where the grass and the trees are.

Unfortunately, the place was devastated by some dejections looking like dog poops. I think it was another animal; anyway, it’s very unpleasant to set up near tons of crap.

We had to resort to the beach. Fortunately, we bought a small beach tent to protect our son from the sun. We had the experience in Phu Quoc of being in the middle of the sun without any form of shade.

To be honest, a real full tent would even be better since you can’t really cover yourself from the sun with an open tent if the sun is facing the opening of your cover.

The good part is that these tents for Decathlon can easily be folded to the size of a reflector.

The fountain place for the kids was quite a nice area for them to have their first experience with the water. Some of them brought a water seal to experiment with water jets.

Our son loves to play in the bath, but this time, even if it was very hot outside, the water was still a bit freezing for him since he was shaking.

There are also some Volleyball fields for people who are looking to enjoy the sport. It’s definitely not my favorite sport, but I feel like it fits with the beach. I would rather play American football with my friends.

Fancy rules

In France, there are some strange regulations concerning the Burkini. Since living in Vietnam, I’ve had the habit of wearing anti-UV long sleeves and pants to swim, and since then, I’ve never looked back.

For me, it’s normal to wear this; I mean, even people doing step paddling on the other side are wearing full combinations. But for X reasons, guards would only allow swimsuits that don’t cover the forearms or the calf.

Talking about living in a free country this doesn’t feel like it.

Verdict

7.6 out of 10.

Overall, this experience was great for our kid, but for us, it was very constraining. First, we had to find the place, since using the search bar in Google Maps wasn’t really effective.

Then we had to wait something like 30 minutes in the waiting line in total chaos. People were skipping the line and the security checkpoint.

Then we had to find a spot to sit down and install our beach tent, and finally, when it was time to swim, they didn’t allow us to wear a long-sleeve swim suit.

This is the kind of experience that makes you want to come back to Asia on a real tropical Island with real sea water, empty beaches, and where you can bloody wear whatever you want in the water.

I think I won’t come back to this place again. I would rather spend the 4 hours on the freeway going to a real beach in Normandy or Bretagne.

I just bought a pool for my son to enjoy in the garden, where I can dress however I want.