Hard to find one...or is it me? Someone suggested a Hotel Bristol. It's not listed on trip advisor so I can't get reviews. If anyone has any recommendations would like them. We need to be in the city walls as we won't have the car...and would like ac.

Lois, we didn't stay overnight in Avignon, only ate dinner there, so I can't give you personal recommendations. However, you might want to look at this website--it lists several hotels so you can at least see what's out there.

www.avignon-et-provence.com

We stayed at the Hotel d'Europe off of Place Crillon, in the city walls - it has a beautiful courtyard, nice rooms (even the less expensive ones), the staff was very friendly and helpful, and it was a relatively short walk to anywhere you'd want to go within the city walls. We had a dinner at Le Vernet, which was wonderful, at the recommendation of the concierge.

I would recommend staying in nearby Arles instead. It is only a short train or bus ride over from Avignon and a much more charming option in terms of location and ambiance (IMO). Avignon is nice, but Arles is better! I never have a car when I travel, you can get along very easliy with trains and buses in between towns, etc.

I stayed at the Hotel d'Europe and liked it. The rooms were fairly large and the staff was friendly, spoke very good English.

Another vote for Hotel d'Europe, very comfortable hotel, good location with a remarkable courtyard, very nicely furnished large room (suite) and terrific service.

We also stayed at the Hotel d'Europe and would definitely recommend it. We had a large comfortable room, a wonderful dinner in the courtyard, and it's an easy drive to the hotel. They have valet parking as well.
Enjoy your trip!

As I hit post, I saw that you won't have a car....while the parking was important for us, it's still a great hotel.

loisco, we have stayed at two hotels in Avignon. The Hôtel de l'Horloge was hospitable and clean. The furnishings were a bit tired and worn, but the room was huge by European standards. The disadvantage was that our room overlooked Place de l'Horloge, which was noisy in the late evening. If you decide to stay there, ask for a quiet room.

We have also stayed at Hôtel Garlande on rue Galante. It's on a tiny, quiet street, no more than 100 metres from Place de l'Horloge. The rooms are small, clean, and significantly worn, but quiet and comfortable. Beware, there is no elevator and the stairs are shaped like a corkscrew ... moving luggage up and down to your room requires balance! I should also mention that there is usually a cat in the breakfast room, in case that concerns you.

The Horloge is €135 to 160 and the Garlande €61 to 105, according to Michelin.

My brother and his wife stayed at the Cloître St-Louis a couple of years ago and gave it a very good report card. It is significantly more expensive.

Michelin recommends several other hotels in Avignon, including the Europe and Blauvac. You can get the prices and contact information from the viamichelin.com website, but you have to sign-up to access their hotel and restaurant pages.

Anselm

I recommended the Hotel Bristol. YOu may not get reviews on Tripadvisor, but I've read positive things about it in some guidebooks I trust, and I've seen it although not stayed there. I thought you were only going to be there a day or two-- I don't worry about things so much for a hotel I'm only in a short time, as long as the location is good and I know the rating. I know it's a great location and not a dump and looks a lot better than many hotels in central Avignon. It used to be a Best Western, but I don't think is any more.

It's on www.venere.com and is around 82 euro for a double, 102 for a twin (must be larger rooms) and has AC. They used to have their own web site but I can't find it anymore. I think this is the venere one
http://www.venere.com/hotel/?htid=103299&lg=en

Lois, I have stayed in Both the Hotel Europe and the Bristol.
The Bristol is very simple but clean. It was for one night and booked by our host in Isle-sur-Sorgue the night before.

I think the price has gone up while I was looking..anyway where do you all book your rooms on the internet if there is no website? So many booking places come up it's confusing. Is ther one great place for best prices?

Because this is a 7 week trip we really have to watch prices..that's a lot of hotels.

loisco:

I have always gotten the best prices by contacting the hotel directly. And, if you speak to a human, you can more easily state your preferences (not street-side, second floor or above, etc.) and ask questions. I usually fax a request to the hotel and ask them to respond by fax. Then I print out their confirmation and brng it with me - in case there's a problem, I've got the hotel's OWN confirmation on their letterhead - not some printout from a website.

Hmmm. That's what I have done with a few already so I don't know why I didn't think of that. But the ones I did it with were listed in a tourbook...these are not.

I am sure I can find a phone number...just didn't look. I bet I can do better that way.

You know I found a French cafe near us and we eat there a few times a week for breakfast so I can practice my broken French.

I will bring my cell phone there and the waitress can help. She was a language teacher in Quebec. Can't do better than that. I can ask for a room etc. but I bog down when I want to ask if Ican get a special because we are staying for more than a few days...etc.

Thanks for all your help.

We stayed at the Cloitre St. Louis and liked it a lot. It has a very nice pool on the roof and the hotel is half old and half new. Half of it is the old cloisters and the other half is a very contempo addition. We were six people and soome of us stayed in the new part and some in the old, which was fun because we could compare rooms. At the time, around 5 years ago it was fairly reasonable, but seems to have gone up a bit in recent years.