Location. The Hotel Ile Rousse is a five-floor seaside spa hotel situated in the harbour town of Bandol, 30 kilometres south of Marseille. The town centre, harbour and beaches are all within 500 metres of the hotel and a range of water sports can be enjoyed locally. Marseille Provence Airport is 60 kilometres away, with an approximate driving time of 45 minutes.
Hotel Features. As well as an onsite outdoor pool, guests can enjoy access to two private stretches of white sandy beach with sun loungers, parasols, restaurants and bars. During the summer season, children will be kept entertained at the Club Pampimus supervised kids' club. Those seeking relaxation can head to the Heliovital Thalgo Seawater Spa Centre to enjoy a variety of revitalising and refreshing seawater therapies, including marine-algae wraps, mud treatments, hydrotherapy, massages, scrubs and facials. Guests who visit the spa centre also have access to the cardio fitness room, steam room, spa tub and herbal tea room. The hotel offers a range of spa packages that include half-board accommodation and a selection of treatments.
Dining options include an onsite restaurant serving regional dishes, a seafood restaurant in the harbour and two beach grill restaurants. The hotel also runs a lounge bar and a wine bar in the harbour. The hotel offers onsite cookery lessons in the Provencal restaurant and a selection of tours and excursions, including a catamaran tour of the coastline and a guided tour of the perfumery at Grasse. Guests arriving by car will find valet parking services available (surcharge).
Guestrooms. The 55 individually decorated guestrooms feature light decor, traditional period furnishings, white linens, marble or Provençal tiled floors. All include satellite television, direct-dial phones, complimentary wireless Internet access, minibars and safes. Mosaic-tiled bathrooms include shower/tub combinations, bathrobes, slippers and hair dryers.
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Guest Reviews: Hotel Ile Rousse
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- Ile Rousse Hotel
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25 blvd Louis Lumiere | 83150 Bandol
- TripAdvisor Traveler Rating:
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Based on 20 traveler reviews
- Most Recent Traveler Reviews:
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“Bin those dreadful reviews - this is a gem!”
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Jul 20, 2009
Maija63, Cape Town, South Africa
- After reading the other reviews for this hotel, I was pretty sure that I had made the worst booking mistake ever. However, it was too late to turn back, and...
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- After reading the other reviews for this hotel, I was pretty sure that I had made the worst booking mistake ever. However, it was too late to turn back, and we were booked in for 10 days at the Ile Rouse Hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, my heart sank when I saw the outside of the building. It looked like a 1960's concrete square. It was so bad I asked my husband to go in first, and told him that if it was a dump, we were running. Fear not, all my worst fears were totally quashed.
Positives
1) The staff were throughout the holiday - absolutely wonderful. I speak French, my husband doesn't speak a word. The staff were extremely courteous, using English all the time when my husband was around. On the whole, the staff were very helpful, very welcoming and helped to make this a great holiday. Mr Baud the General Manager came to greet us on the first evening, and when we returned later to our room, he had sent up a complimentary bottle of our favourite wine. A very nice touch.
2) The location of the hotel is second to none. It is right on the beach, and it is the best private beach by far. You walk down from the hotel to the beach via two flights of stairs which aren't too challenging. The view from our room was absolutely superb. It was better than the website photos.
3) The hotel pool is one of the biggest and deepest that we have seen. (It is 3 m deep - fantastic for real swimming). Although it is salt water, it is not heavy on the salt and you don't emerge crusty! The pool is generally quiet and empty, because most people seem to prefer swimming at the beach which is a literal stone throw's away. It is a lovely pool and very throughly cleaned every morning by the hotel staff.
4) The restaurant is excellent. Not for every night, as it is very a 'dress up' sort of place, but the quality and presentation of the food is a real treat. The service is also very attentive, friendly and not at all stuffy.
5) The breakfast is the best value 19 Euro breakfast that we have had in France. Lots of choice, freshly cooked eggs done exactly as we asked for, and served to our table. Patricia, who looks after the breakfast room, was also a great source of hints and tips of places to go and visit.
6) The location of the hotel is perfect. It is a five minute walk into the town of Bandol, so there is no stress about parking.
7) There was a lot of storage space in the hotel room, which we appreciated very much. Lots of drawers, cupboards, and spaces to put things away. Our room actually looked tidy for most of the holiday.
NEGATIVES
The only real gripe that we had was with the Beach Club staff and restaurants. It seems that the staff there are 'sub contracted' and do not work directly for the Ile Rousse. It shows. On the whole, they were a bit 'rough and ready' and not too hot on the customer care side of things. We had a major run in with them on the second day as most of the front row of deck chairs had been sold to clients who weren't even staying at the hotel and we were relegated to the third row! We did manage to resolve things, but we didn't feel that the staff were very empathetic.
The Beach Club restaurants both had slow service, and we hated the snack bar food. It was hideous and provided us with the worst meal that we had during our 14 day stay in France. Waiting 30 minutes in stifling heat was also not appreciated. The Beach Club restaurant menu is not what we would expect from the kitchens of the Ilse Rousse, and it probably isn't. (It's surely sub contracted too?)
Otherwise, we had a very enjoyable stay at the Ile Rousse Hotel. The resort of Bandol is a very typical French family seaside resort and it lacks the pretension of other more established resorts along the coast. There is quite a lot of see and excursions to make, but we throughly enjoyed being coach potatoes on the beach and it was a welcome return to basics of sea and sand for our son, without a Playstation in sight.
We are generally very fussy about hotels, but we were more than pleased with the Ile Rousse. By European standards, it is certainly a 3/4 star hotel, but stars can be a real misnomer. Finding a value for money hotel and resort on the Cote d"Azur is certainly a challenge, but the Ile Rouse more than met it for us.
The Hotel will close this Winter for a complete overhaul, and it will surely be even better next Summer.
There is also a Thallasso Spa at the Hotel which looked very nice. Prices were also reasonable, but we weren't on a spa type of holiday. « less
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“not a 4* hotel, not friendly”
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Sep 11, 2008
annedo62, Annecy, Haute Savoie
- the location is very nice on the beach of Renecros but the hotel is a 3* minus with a price rate of a 4* . service is ok but cold....
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- the location is very nice on the beach of Renecros but the hotel is a 3* minus with a price rate of a 4* . service is ok but cold. the room with terrasse sea view was Ok but so many details are wrong, broken, unfinished. prefer 2* hotels close to this one. « less
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“Typical French Hospitality”
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Sep 9, 2008
tonymus, Balcombe, United Kingdom
- We Booked 5 rooms for a family Celebration as it was my Wifes Birthday.
The booking was well handled and requests for 'Private dining' was arranged and on the actual...
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- We Booked 5 rooms for a family Celebration as it was my Wifes Birthday.
The booking was well handled and requests for 'Private dining' was arranged and on the actual Birthday evening Flowers , Balloons and a Magician were organised by the Hotel.
The Hotel itself was a little tired but in fairness, it is due to close shortly for refurbishment.
The rooms were individually decorated and included much of what one would expect from a five Star property. The only thing that i found slightly amusing was that the Room safe was not fixed to the wall so it was possible to steal the safe in its entirety.
The hotel lift was a bit Hit and Miss but hopefully it will be upgraded during the refurb.
The views from the lower level rooms was somewhat restricted but we were all on the fith (Top) floor and the views over the beach were good.We had room 508 which was a Suite and this room has views over both the Beach and the Harbour. the balconys on both aspects were rather small but large enough to sit out on should you so wish.
The Swimming Pool is a good size but it is a seawater pool and this did not suit all of our party.
The Breakfast menu was extensive and the quality of the food was excellent but beware of the 'cook' that produces Hot Food to order. If you ask for two fried eggs eggs you get one undercooked omlette and if you ask for an Omlette you may at some time get nothing at all or a plate of undercooked scrambled egg.
The Staff all are helpfull but do not try to have a snack in the Bar. We had lunch at another venue and wanted a simple snack in the bar in the evening. We were informed 'This is not possible'. We then asked if room service was available. 'Yes of course you can have Room Service'. I then asked if the room service food could be delivered to the Bar and was told that 'This is not possible'! We then asked if the children could have something to eat and 'This was possible'. After much discussion we finally got some Chips, club sandwiches, and a few other snack items but it was hard work arranging it.
All in all a good experience but slightly spoilt by the typical French attitude to changing the 'Rules' « less
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“Great views but never a 4* Hotel”
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Jan 2, 2008
Frank&Jenny, London, England
- Stayed here for a week in September 2007 with my wife and had a sea view room with a balcony. Whilst the view was amazing ,the room itself was no...
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- Stayed here for a week in September 2007 with my wife and had a sea view room with a balcony. Whilst the view was amazing ,the room itself was no more than 2* quality and considering that it was almost the same price as a Relais and Chteaux hotel we stayed in St Paul De Vence I considered it expensive. The only other plus point was that it was on the beach .
Bandol itself is an OK town with a nice clean beach and you do feel you are abroad as most of the visitors are French . « less
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“A great time”
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Aug 27, 2006
tatia, London, UK
- We (couple mid 30s) stayed at the hotel for 4 nights (mid August)and we really had a great time. The reception staff and staff at the beach were very friendly...
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- We (couple mid 30s) stayed at the hotel for 4 nights (mid August)and we really had a great time. The reception staff and staff at the beach were very friendly and helpful and their English language skills were surprisingly good.
The room, seaview 3rd floor, was spacious and very clean. The view was incredible. Very spacious bathroom.
The beach was well maintained with plenty of lounge chairs. The pool was wind protected by a wall of glass and had shower facilities and lounge chairs. The lounge chairs a free and the ones at the beach need to be booked at the beach restaurant. On our first day we booked our chairs for the entire stay and had no problems. The sand is fine, water is clean and the swimming area of the bay is huge. Although there were loads of children there were mostly adults on the lounge chairs reading so it was very peaceful.
The only thing we thought was that the room service breakfast option could perhaps be changed. In order to get a coffee and a croissant it seemed you had to order the full breakfast - 20 Euros a head - which we did and which was, though too much, very good.
It is true the decor of the hotel is traditional and perhaps outdated a little. I guess it is just very French. Overall the property is well maintained and clean but the balconies could do with a lick of paint.
As we had family in the area we did not eat in the hotel so we cannot comment on the restaurant.
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Map & Directions: Hotel Ile Rousse
GPS Coordinates: 43.13330 5.75130
Address: Boulevard Louis Lumiere 25, Bandol, France 83150
See other hotels near Hotel Ile Rousse.Nearest AirportPoints of InterestCity Centre Sanary-sur-Mer
2.69mi
City Centre Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer
3.84mi
City Centre La Cadiere-dAzur
4.37mi
City Centre Le Beausset
5.17mi
City Centre Six-Fours-les-Plages
5.24mi
General Directions
Taxis are readily available outside the arrivals hall and a taxi to the hotel costs approximately 60 EUR. The hotel also provides a transfer service surcharge. There are shuttle buses every 20 minutes to/from Marseille Saint Charles railway station and Aix-en-Provence bus station. There are frequent train services from Marseille to Bandol train station one kilometre from the hotel. The town of Bandol, beaches and harbour are easily reached on foot. Bandols train station provides connections to other towns along the coast and to the rest of France. A hire car would be recommended to explore the rest of the region.
Driving directions: From Marseille Airport, take the D20 towards Saint-Victoret and then turn right onto the D9 heading towards Marseille. Continue along the A7, and when close to Marseille take the A55. Take the tunnel Prado-Carnage and continue along the A50 until close to Toulon. Exit the A50 at Exit 12 for Bandol, Sanury-Sur-Mer. At the roundabout take the D559B and continue until Boulevard Victor Hugo, which changes into the Boulevard Louis Lumiere, where the hotel is located. There are three tolls along the way costing approximately 6 EUR.
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