La Bonne Etape

We spent a night here whilst on a roadtrip driving the Route Napoléon from Grenoble to Cannes. The hotel is very conveniently located just off the main road (but without any road noise) and oozes charm and character. We had a beautiful room facing the garden. It was spacious and comfortable, and tastefully decorated. The furnishings including the bed were all very comfortable and we slept extremely well. Service was impeccable and attentive, the lady at reception was very friendly and went out of her way to make us feel welcome. Plenty of small details made this a classy experience, like the handwritten card from the owner and the sweets and tea left in the room in the evening. I had a lovely dip in the gorgeous pool and soaked up the autumn sunshine on one of the comfortable loungers. I also got a nice improvised tour of the interesting building by one of the staff. A perfect halt for anyone driving the Route Napoléon in a classic car as it offers safe off-street parking that is locked by code after 22.00. A small suggestion for improvement: the breakfast could be improved to make it better value at 27 euros per person, such as offering fresh orange juice and perhaps poached eggs. This is a detail, overall a delightful stay and thanks again to the wonderful staff and in particular the lady at reception.

A beautiful hotel, with attentive yet discreet staff, wonderful surroundings, beautiful decor, attention to detail throughout the stay, a lovely pool area and delightful herb garden, an excellent breakfast, and even a little gift on departure including an extreme thoughtful bottle of water for my onwards journey. I loved everything about this wonderful little hotel in such a beautiful part of the world.

We have just returned from 2 nights here. Rather a nice spot to be. Good staff, nice rooms, great grounds and pool. 1* dining isn’t really our thing, so the Bistro was great. All in all a v. Nice stay. The patron even came to see ll the guests were looked after at breakfast. Fine place.

We booked the place for romantic experience and the night out of kids. What we got: they were proud of haven’t a star for 60 years but they allowed at least 2 couples (one was with the 3 yo child (didn’t disturb)- but both fathers were in shorts for dinner and flip flops. It spoils the idea of Michelin star restaurant and obviously spoils the appetite. After that we went to the room where they “tried” to do the kind size bed but it didn’t work, so we had to spend in 10sm hole between the mattress. All the picture and proofs were showed at reception at the check out. The worst evening and night of my life. I don’t thank them for that.

Having booked 1 night at Le Bonne Etap on our French road trip and after leaving Cannes heading through the alps, we had high expectations after reading great reviews. So I should start by saying we didn’t eat dinner in the hotel, which in hindsight is probably the reason most people stay there! Anyhow, we were left uninspired by the Hotel itself and particularly by the service we received . Arriving at 2pm ish, we were hungry and the hotel had little on offer for lunch, so we headed into town. Don’t waste your time, there is nothing other than a couple of pizza restaurants and a bistro there , and they all close on varying days mid week. Not the hotels fault, but their own Bistro was also shut. Returning to the hotel around 3pm we made our way to the pool, having gone via reception to order drinks as there’s no service by the pool (I think it was too quiet), a pot of tea (1 small cup full) minus any milk and a beer duly arrived (€19.50!) we asked for some milk , but by the time it arrived over 10 minutes later the cup of black tea had been drunk before it went cold. The pool area is lovely, if compact, the pool looks beautiful, but it was full of dead and not so dead bugs , my wife cleared many out with their net (as did another guest later ) The pool tiles are actually really dirty. The dirt brushed off if you wiped your hand against it, which showed it just isn’t being cleaned properly. Attention is needed . We asked if they could come back at 4.30 as we would like alcoholic drinks then, which to be fair they did. We ordered, vodka and tonics and the waitress wasn’t sure what vodkas they did so went off to get a menu. 10 minutes later she turned back up with 2 absolute vodkas (stating that’s all they do round the pool) and 1 tonic! We asked for a second tonic , but sadly this never arrived . She did bring the drinks menu and an additional note here, they are advertised as €12 for a vodka and fever tree tonic, first round of drinks we got a Schweppes(no big deal) , but worse we were charged €5 for each of the tonics (not inclusive as advertised). We ate in the local family pizza restaurant in town that evening , served by a lovely lady and had a very nice meal. A quick note on the room, it’s the first time I have had the room safe and a wardrobe within a separate toilet! Very bizarre. Pleasant other than that, although the balcony overlooked unkept land, which I guess isn’t the hotels? We went for breakfast around 9am, we were the only ones there. Breakfast was an additional €29 pp, the buffet was very small and very limited, although tea and coffee was good. We were asked if we wanted eggs, which we ordered, I had to prompt to get bacon, please see the photo, what a way to serve it up and I guess they had run out of bacon! Anyway, we had a pleasant stay, not somewhere I would recommend or rush back to , but then again maybe the Michelin star dinner at €175 pp would have made it more worth it?