CITY RESIDENCES - Appart'Valley Aix en Provence

Good value, tough challenge to check in

The place is clean and quiet, close to freeway and within walking distance to both old town Aix and to a new shopping mega-center. The challenge is to find it! GPS shows it incorrectly (it is actually between A53 and an unnamed lane, behind Kyriad). The only little sign pointing to it is on Route de Galice eastbound. Also reception isn’t manned after 8 pm. The late-arrival phone # has a French-only voice mail menu (press 4 or 5). There were lost and confused late-night arrivals almost nightly. Lastly, value is pretty good but extra charges (underground parking, internet access, laundry) may be steep. And please be careful with the little parking spot out in front, most small cars won’t negotiate its curb without body damage, unless you can rig a makeshift ramp of rocks or wood.

Apartment/hotel in Aix-en-Provence

This apartment hotel was very basic. The kitchen has a small amount of dishes & utensils but no dish soap. You get one bath towel when you check in & that’s it, no maid service of any type. The office is closed on weekends from noon until 3pm. Using my pedometer, I determined that the main square is l.5 miles from the hotel & we found no restaurants or grocery stores close by. The bus is about 2 blocks away & runs about every 20 minutes on week days. Many of the rooms have pull out sofa beds; however, they found a room with an actual bed for us when we requested it. My main reason for not recommending this hotel is the location; it’s far from everything.

Traveler's tip on getting the most out of your stay

There is bus service between the town and the main train station which costs about $4 per person each way. We took a taxi & it was 35 euros (approximately $60).There is a small train station in the town that goes to Marseilles. Also, buses run to many of the surrounding places such as Avagion & Arles.

decent

hotel was decent and a 15 minute walk to the downtown area, which wasn’t bad at all.