The Originals Relais, Clos de Vallombreuse

We stayed at this hotel with a group of friends. The location of the hotel is great; very close to the sea front with nice gardens. However, the hotel has seen better days and needs a lot of maintenance. Some rooms were better than others but the room we were allocated had frayed curtains, rotting window cills and mould on the ceilings and walls. The worst part of our package was the evening meal. Sadly, the food provided (no choice) was exceptionally poor. For example, one main comprised three or four sardines (overcooked) with three small potatoes and a knob of butter. We were given steak and chips on another day but no-one could eat the steak because it was so tough and we only had six chips each. Another day we were served ray which had virtually no fish on it. If you stay here avoid the restaurant.

Despite how run down this hotel is, there is something magic about it. It was very calming, our room had a lovely view and a comfy bed, and there was excellent, friendly service. The dinner was super, but please change the art on the walls of the dining room. Some nice old french portraits would look perfect.

positive||- a beautiful old hotel||- exactly my style||||negative||- the garden and pool were not clean, ||- the breakfast was not fresh||- smoking at the buffet (breakfast) is not ok in my opinion||

From the outside this hotel promises much. An elegant, character building in an elevated position above the coast. Inside it's less than elegant and my room was definitely lacking in character. Like other reviewers my room smelt musty and the standard of decoration was dated. Furniture had missing paint and was in generally poor condition. The bathroom and toilet looked like they had not been renovated since the 1960s. You need to develop your own technique to avoid covering everything in the bathroom with water when you take a shower due to the lack of a curtain (not unusual in France in my experience.) The room was large, quiet and comfortable with a nice view over the gardens, pool and sea. The heating swung between non existent and tropical and during my 3 day stay I couldnt find a comfortable setting. The breakfast room was a beautiful wood panelled room overlooking the gardens and the sea. Breakfast was a pretty basic French affair complete with the overcooked croissants and browning fruit salad mentioned in previous reviews. Bread was excellent and fresh one day and then stale the next. My disappointment with breakfast turned to disgust when I found I was being charged €13 per day! Almost 25% of my room rate. There are clearly too few staff with the same 2 people seeming to be ever present. Altogether a disappointing stay, nothing particularly wrong but could be so much better with a little effort and some money being spent on appropriate renovation.

Pleasant stay with courteous staff. Central location. Attention to detail lacking in rooms (no tea or coffee making facilities or tissues for example). We stayed in the modern extension and the room size was ample but beginning to show it's age. Wonderful views from breakfast room and the swimming pool looked very tempting.

This place is in a big need of renovation! It has so much potential. But right now it is old, used and everything is half broken and half ok. For example all the hangers in our bathroom was broken. The color of the doors to the rooms are fallen off in pieces. The room has an old odor. I guess the room was clean, but you can’t feel it as you have the smell and all broken things. |The pool is warm, but dirty. The wifi is veeery slow. |The staff is polite and helpful and one person in the front desk staff is really good in English. |Breakfast is bad. Everything felt old. The baguettes were so hard you could kill someone with them. Eggs were boiled in 10 minutes…|Then they have the word silence in their name. But our neighbors were fighting really loud until midnight one evening. I mentioned that at check out but the lady didn’t care.

My wife and I stayed here for 2 nights. The service was friendly, but the rooms were definitely spartan. The biggest issue was the lack of an adequate bathroom. It was a bathtub with a handheld shower - OK - I get it and have used them before. The issue was the drain in the tub never opened and I had to prop it open with one of the little plastic shampoo tubes. Next the water temp went from cold to scalding while you were using the ‘wand’, and back again. Totally unacceptable! I dreaded the second day shower! The room itself was OK, the bed was fine and the view was nice. The breakfast in the morning was average with nothing that stood out. Don’t know about any other meal since the restaurant was closed. If you want an ‘in hotel’ dining experience, you might want to look elsewhere or check with them.

We loved our time there. Not new or spiffy, but has a classiness that grows on you. Much old world charm. The proprietress works very hard to make you comfortable and welcomed as do the lovely people who work there. We did not use the spa that is included for free but it looked very nice to us as did the pool. We enjoyed the buffet breakfasts and the one dinner we had there was quite gourmet, impeccably served. If you are looking for a cookie cutter hotel like Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn this is not for you. Go here if you wish to step back in time to a slower paced elegance.