Auberge de La Calanque

Excellent hotel with extremely friendly and helpful staff. Great value for money. Decent sized double room with wonderful balcony and stunning view of the Med. Garden and pool are great. Just a few steps from the port and beach. The hotel has many interesting pictures, maps and antiques.

We had the most wonderful stay with at the Auberge de la Calanque this summer. We were blown away by the hotel, the history and the kindness of the people working at the hotel. We stayed in a Superior Room, and this was well worth the price. We had a huge room, two walk inn dressing rooms, a large bathroom and a huge terrasse. Everything was beautifully decorated. The location is great – in the center of town. You have restaurants less than 30 meters from the back entrance, and you can either walk to the main beach to the right for 5 min – or like we did – take the 10 minutes pirate track along the coast to St. Clair and have the most wonderful snorkeling – with lots of fish and even octopus. The pool is nice and not to crowded, I just wish the guests would adhere to the signing about showering before entering the pool – yes we do see that you come directly from your day out and going into the pool – no I do not enjoy swimming in the filth from your body – This is off cause not a fault of the hotel, and there is a very nice shower in the corner. There are pool towels and a small bar, so you can lounge there all day if that is your preference.

10 days of peace and relaxation in a lovely old style French hotel. Marianne and Bart who run the hotel are wonderful. Nothing is too much trouble. All the staff are welcoming and smile! Great views across the port and sea from the breakfast rooms and most bedrooms. Breakfast has a good variety of quality foods, cheeses, cold meats, eggs, cereals, yoghurts and pastries. Very good coffee and tea selection. Most visitors come for weekends or as a stop off for a couple of nights so we were unusual staying for longer. There are so many good restaurants at reasonable prices in Le Lavandou that we rarely ate in the same one twice. The hotel is so close to the town and port that a car isn’t necessary although there is parking at the front of the hotel. This is 3* because there’s no disabled access. There are steps to the various levels so this hotel wouldn’t suit those with limited mobility.

Having travelled across the south of France during this trip, this hotel was the most disappointing of all that we stayed at. Firstly, some positives - great location, beautiful views from the rooms. Good aircon. However, the negatives massively outweighed this for us. Perhaps we were unlucky with the room, but ours was extremely tired. I was not expecting luxury, but our room had chipped tiles, bizarre old pieces of furniture (a stool in the bathroom with only 2 of 4 feet remaining), and a bathroom that had obviously been only half refurbished. Biggest issue was the smell - I have never experienced anything like it. The room stank of a bizarre smell - we think actually the smell of over bleached/old towels. Genuinely repulsive. Overall feeling was of odd management - signs at places telling you what NOT to do. Don’t dare take any food from the breakfast buffet! Only one at a time at reception desk! Feels like they need to focus a lot more on the customer experience. Of our two weeks travelling the south coast, this was comfortably our worst hotel experience, and far from the cheapest. And it was the only place we stayed at where no one asked us how our stay was when we checked out. They clearly don’t care.