Residence des Calanques

What People are saying

Corsica

Keith Pon 09/08/2017 00:19

This was part of a holiday package from Newmarket Holidays the hotel was clean, It is about 8 km outside the main town but the hotel has good facilities (pool, bar restaurant)
The Hotel is less than 50 yards from some lovely beaches.
The food was good plenty of it.

the good, the bad and the ugly

milaloloon 04/08/2017 10:01

the good:

- friendly staff
- great view
- lots of parking possibilities
- kitchen is small but well equipped
- breakfast is ok. not amazing but ok.
- pool seems clean, never went
- close to a little beach
- good location
- close to the city but not too close
- big balcony

the bad:

- no room service. I get that you rent an apartment but we have stayed in apartments before where they changed the sheets every day...
- no fresh towels
- bathroom is very small and not well equipped
- there is a HUGE boiler in the bathroom that takes up all of the space
- everything is a bit shabby and old
- bed is very hard and small (140cm)
- you need to buy toilet paper yourself. like, what?

the ugly:

- the smell. JESUS CHRIST. the smell!!!!!
- the smell of a cheap, sweet, disgusting desinfectant is reeally hard to get out. they spray it on the bed, on the sofa, on the floor, all my clothes took it on immediately, we had to cook coffee and fart up the place until i could breathe without having tears in my eyes.
- there was a disgusting smell that was almost impossible to get out!
- did i mention the smell????

Well placed

Joan Von 11/07/2017 15:00

This accommodation was self catering apartments which seemed to vary in standard so if you are not happy with yours ask politely but firmly for a more suitable one! We did and got a lovely one on the 4th floor with large corner balcony. Staff are helpful. Rooms are well equipped but no hairdryer in ours anyway. The buffet breakfast was fair and the evening meal was reasonable but no choice Though the days menu was available so
check out The good thing was we had complimentary wine each night But not sure if this applied only to our group tour. There is a bus stop outside to Ajaccio which is about 10 -15 mins a lovely city with lots to see and plenty of cafes etc. There are many little coves and beaches nearby with cafes but not a lot else.

Nice place and good location

150478on 10/07/2017 11:32

Résidence Les Calanques is a nice appartment hotel near Ajaccio. I went there for a week with my wife in the later part of June this year, and found the place to be quite comfortable.

The appartment my wife had rented us was not large, but it was quite enough for our needs. The beds were comfortable, the place was clean, and the view from the room was nice.

Pretty much across the road there is a small public beach you can go to, if you don't want to use the heated pool (and for once the water's hot enough that you don't get a cold shock when you get in). There are better beaches nearby though, i.e. about one km further west towards the Sanguinaires islands. That place is better, as is the beach about two km further east, closer to Ajaccio.

The room had en effective air condition unit, and cooling down the appartment was no problem. As with all AC, however, think before you turn your appartment into a fridge, to cool down from the outside heat. 1) Keep the temperature within 5 degrees C of the outside temp. Huge shifts in temperature is an invitation to getting a cold. 2) Don't sit directly in the air stream from the AC units, and turn the thing off, at least in the bedroom, when you go to sleep. Not sweating like a pig when you're trying to sleep is good, but messing up your vacation because you've become sick is worse. And yes, I'm saying this because both my wife and I caught a cold, because we forgot to think about the AC...

The price of the place is OK, but don't expect the place to be more than it is. You can get breakfast at the hotel, and you can get some drinks in the bar, at least until it closes down in the evening. I think you can also get some sort of lunch and dinner at the place, but I'm not sure about that. My wife and I didn't use it at any point, so no comments on the quality either. You can, however, also get the hotel to order you a baggette or two, which you can pick up at the front desk in the morning, and then take to your room to eat. It's a bit cheaper to buy it yourself, but it's a far better deal to get the bread fresh in the morning without having to go shopping.

The location is nice, and you have a bus stop right outside the hotel. That being said, however, be smart; rent a car at the airport, if you land at Ajaccio. If you're in Corsica you need to visit different places on the island, and you need a car for that. There's room to park a couple of cars outside the hotel and just across the road, but the hotel also has a car park you can rent access to at a very resonable price. The only downside to this car park, is that you don't have an awful lot of room to maneuver your car around, so if you've rented something large with a crappy turning radius, you might want to hope for a place across the road instead.

(Side note: Corsica has mountains, and you'll probably be driving in them. When you do, be nice to the locals when they are stuck behind you on the winding roads; pull over when you have the chance, and let them past you. It's appreciated by them, and it's less stressful for you not to have the front of their car almost on the backseat of your car. If you are not used to driving in the mountains on small roads, there is NO way that you can even relatively safely drive at the allowed speed limit. Especially when you don't know what the road looks like further ahead. Also, when you're going downhill, don't use your break all the time, put the car in a lower gear than you would normally drive it, and let the engine do some of the breaking for you. That way you don't risk overheating your breaks and suddenly lose the ability to break.)

As a final comment on the hotel, there is supposedly a free sauna/steamroom (book a time though) and a couple of exercise machines in the place. My wife and I didn't try it out, so we can't comment on the quality of these, but it's cool that they are free. There's also the possibility of getting a massage at the hotel. My wife tried that and claimed that it was OK quality, but the price of a massage isn't cheap (though it's not overly expensive either).

Anyway, I normally ask myself the following question at the end of my reviews: Would I stay there again? In this case the answer is "Yes I would". Résidence Les Calanques is comfortable and well enough located to justify its cost, and Corsica really is a nice place to visit. But be aware that this hotel is not the place to stay if you prefer to walk and take public transport. There are restaurants relatively nearby, but if you want more than one place to choose from, you'll need to walk about 2 km. That's not for everyone.

Very helpful smiling staff-Apartments overlooking Ajaccio bay

Chris Don 08/07/2017 21:42

Whilst situated just outside City limits this is a bonus because traffic and noise in Ajaccio itself would be a problem.The views are stunning as all rooms face towards the sea.Local bus stop right outside cost one euro each way.Rooms clean and tidy.