Hostellerie La Farandole

Hôtel très agréable que je fréquente depuis 5 ans

The site is great. Fantastic view from the suite on the sea. With Jacuzzi on the top roof. The beach La Gorguette is also very good, clean water and not too busy. Restaurant panoramic is ok, nothing ex optional. Only point to be improved is service from people working in Hostellerie, they are smart and friendly and try to do their best but I think they are not enough to cover all requests. So you have to wait for beach restaurant or bar service, but it's ok as they always come with a smile. So I suggest this place.

Location: Nice, directly on the public Beach but not much around in walking distance, Bandol is around 10 min drive Hotel: not in best shape anymore, there are many places where you see and feel missing maintenance. Language is an issue, even on the front desk, calling restaurant e.g. is useless Rooms: we had a stay in the attached Villa, nice as you have some privacy with a separate pool for the 5 rooms, but it open to other guests too. We had just in front of our room over the days groups of people who definitely didn’t stay in villa but occupied the chairs and place, not nice at all. Roof top restaurant: A Desaster, poor Service driven by the lady in charge when we had our dinner. Ambiance is like in a football stadium at night with flushing light, food on average level but everything over priced compared to what you get. To make it clear, if you charge prices in the Range of 5* Hotels, you have to deliver, this is here not the case, therefore just 3 points out of 5.

We were lured by the descriptions on the hotel website into paying an eye-watering price for a ‘deluxe’ suite at La Farandole, expecting it to be the highlight of our long-awaited 20th anniversary roadtrip. Sadly, it was the worst four days of our vacation. The only luxurious thing about this suite was the view. Everything else was a 3-Star standard at best. The hotel is situated at the end of a quiet beach with stunning sea views and a nice-looking pool but the property has many serious defects and problems. Strangely, the door to our suite shared a foyer with the staff entrance to a noisy kitchen and storeroom. Our ‘private’ terrace was not attached to our suite as implied on the website. Instead, there is a separate rooftop terrace that can be booked by guests. The suite itself has only a tiny balcony with two chairs and a table. We had access to the private roof terrace and jacuzzi but the stairwell is locked - ‘for staff use only’ so we had to take a slow elevator to the roof each time. This meant an awkward wait in the public corridor outside the restaurant. The water in the jacuzzi was filthy with dead insects and yellow foam. It was only cleaned on our third day. The worst problem was the nasty sewage smell in our suite. We reported it several times to the manager because the smell kept us awake at night. It was only fixed on our third day (with many apologies) and the installation of an air-freshener. The other issues were minor but collectively annoying. The bed was cheap and basic with small lumpy pillows and a bedsheet that did not fit properly. The mattress was old and uncomfortable. The bathroom and shower were good quality but there were no ‘luxury’ amenities as promised in the marketing - there was a cheap hair-dryer attached to the wall that kept cutting out. The wifi did not work in our room and the unit was eventually replaced by the manager (with more apologies), but only after a rude technician kept insisting it was a problem with our own ‘foreign’ devices. There was a coffee maker and a small mini-bar in the wardrobe but nowhere to store any wine or snacks. We received a complementary bottle of mineral water every second day but they forgot to replenish our glasses and the phone to reception was rarely answered, which meant frequent trips to the front desk. The reception staff were friendly and kind and clearly hardworking. They were very apologetic about the many problems we encountered but unable to do anything about our room or price. Housekeeping was sporadic and we had to go hunting for pool towels to use on the terrace. These were not changed for the full duration of our stay. The sun-beds on the terrace were dirty and in disrepair, with bits of old scratchy velcro where the pillows had once been. On day one we found an old cigarette butt on the lounger that was still there when we left. We tried to book appointments at the hotel spa, which looked nice, but we were told they were fully booked - even though the h

We stayed at the hotel for a wedding weekend. The hotel, pool and beach are lovely. The food at the breakfasts and thought the weekend was delicious. The staff was very attentive and the front desk was extremely helpful. We would definitely recommend and hope to return

We spent one night here with a last minute booking. You can’t get closer to the sea. The hotel is right on the beach which is public. Unfortunately, there had just been a big storm so the beach and Villa pool was closed. The Panorama restaurant too. The staff was very helpful and friendly. The room was comfortable. I would definitely prefer the upstairs rooms to the ground floor ones. There were a few technical hitches which were sorted out. I would return off high season next time.