France_Aix en Provence - Hotels
 

Can anyone recommend a hotel in Aix-en-Provence. Also may be interested in apartment rental in Aix but most of the agencies have a non-refundable cancellation policy. Fordor recommends Cardinal Hotel, but Trip Advisor has so-so reviews for this one. Anybody ever stayed there?

yes, and I really liked it a lot. But it was many years ago (at least 10), so current situation may differ. It is a very good location, though, and the rooms were large enough. People were nice running it.

SOme of those reviews on Tripadvisor are nuts. LIke the first one, that guy gives it a 1 out of 5, even though he said the rooms were fine, because the staff are not fluent in English and because they wouldn't promise him one particular room. This guy is a jerk, no small hotel like that is going to hold one room for one particular person who is just some random guy. The other reviews in the last couple years are 3-4, which is what you'd expect for a typical 2* hotel. The one from 2008 where a guy said they didn't honor his reservation is the one that would concern me, and another one like that from a year or so around that.

YOu can't really expect much better than a 3-4 rating on Tripadvisor for ordinary 2* hotels. YOu can check out the hotel des Quatre Dauphins as an alternate, but its reviews aren't much better. I didn't have any problem at Cardinal, but it sounds like the main issue is sometimes booking problems.

Sha,

Like Christina, I stayed there over 10 years ago (1999) and it was fine. Clean, excellent location. I had no complaints and would gladly stay there again.

I stayed at the Le Manoir, in town with it's own car parc.
Perfect stay, except for breakfast. Though it was nice to sit in the cloisters, breakfast somewhere else is preferable.

I stayed at the Hotel Cezanne in May,2008 and loved it. The room was spacious,quiet and comfortable and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful.

I just checked on TripAdvisor and it is #1 in Aix. When I return to Aix, I'll stay at Hotel Cezanne again.