B/W le Vauban

This is a truly fantastic hotel. Excellent rooms, excellent food and amazing staff. The location is beautiful and the rooms around the pool are wonderful with the views of the Canigo mountain. We have symtayed here several times and are always amazed at this wonderful place.

Purpose of visit: to photograph butterflies up in the eastern Pyrenees, so location was ideal for me. No idea about the town. But everything was as I'd expect of a small four-star hotel. My ground floor room faced, beyond the pool, le Canigou (the local mountain). Mural photo on the wall opposite the bed is a clever way of making the room feel wider. Facilities faultless. And so to breakfast. I'd stay here for no other reason than their four-star breakfast. Incomparable. Stayed a whole week so not cheap but would I recommend it? Without a second's thought. Loved it. Loved

We were initially disappointed that this hotel was out of the town centre, on the ring road. We like to be in the middle of things so we can easily walk to different places to eat during our stay, and we thought this was what we were getting. The receptionist was surprised, insisting it was only ten minutes walk to the centre, but she doesn't know how slowly I walk! In fact it took us 15 minutes, which was fine most evenings as the weather was good. The hotel restaurant was closed in the evenings while we were there, other than the last night, due to some problem with their fridges, but we found some nice places in town to eat. We had a lovely room overlooking the pool, which husband tried but came straight out saying it was freezing - not heated! Behind the pool was a beautiful snow-capped mountain and the whole scene looked like something out of a travel brochure - totally beautiful. Our room was very comfortable with room to unpack our things and a good bathroom. Good wi-fi. Everything worked well and was perfectly clean. The breakfasts were excellent, with the terrific French bread I adore and everything else you could possibly want to eat. The staff were friendly and helpful, serving us drinks in the evening when we got back after dinner, although there isn't really a proper bar area in the hotel. We had the buffet they were at last serving on our last night as it was raining and we didn't want to walk into town. As French meals go it was a bit disappointing and we were glad we were only having it one night. Prades is a good place to stay to tour around the area - so much to see and do and the huge Tuesday Market is excellent.

SUPER