Hotel Le Palais Gallien — Hotel in Bordeaux

We had an absolutely fabulous stay at Hotel Le Palais Gallien. We stayed at the beginning and end of our river boat cruise. We were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary and they gave us an upgrade for our first night to a beautiful suite. Both of the rooms were beautiful and comfortable.

The staff is amazing. They are extremely professional and well trained. They did everything possible to ensure we were happy with our stay. I especially want to thank Lorilai and Jordi. They were both extremely helpful and made us feel welcomed from the minute we entered the hotel to the minute we left.

We ate dinner the first night we stayed at the hotel restaurant, Le Cercle de Montaigne. This was one of the best meals we had during our 3 weeks in Europe. The restaurant is lovely and intimate. The staff is attentive without hovering. I had the fillet and my Husband had the wagyu beef. Both were delicious, but the wagyu was exceptional. We also spent some time at the rooftop bar during our second visit. This is a lovely space too and the staff is also very helpful. We had breakfast in their lovely dining area that opens onto a beautiful outdoor space. Fruit, breads, and cheeses were served buffet style, and you order a hot meal from a menu. All of it was fresh and delicious.

I highly recommend that you stay at Hotel Le Palais Gallien when in Bordeaux and take advantage of all that the hotel has to offer. We will certainly stay there again if we have the good fortune to return...

Our suite, in the newer part of the hotel, was large, but poorly laid out with space in all the wrong places. For example, there was a nice living room, but the bedroom was small and it was difficult to walk around the bed when a suitcase is set up on the luggage bench. There was a large, awkward armoire in the bedroom. It was difficult to open the doors and they didn't stay open. In the bathroom, two sinks crowded the counter, leaving no counter space. There was a small, cheap makeup mirror, but there was so little room on the bathroom counter it couldn't be used.||There was the smell of dampness in the room and there seemed to be some mold in the bathroom. The curtains were flimsy and poor quality. The towels and bathrobes were also poor quality.||Our room was at street level and we heard motorcycle noise, conversations from people on the street, and the noise of garbage being dumped into bins.||The hotel is on a rather dull street with no cafes or restaurants.||Overall there was the feeling that the hotel was cutting corners. We were a couple and were welcomed with three pieces of fruit (not a fruit basket) and one plate and one set of silverware. This is a wine area, but we thought it poor not to offer a complimentary bottle of wine.||The courtyard with the pool is lovely, but it didn't make up for a rather uncomfortable suite which was not worthy of five stars. The best feature was the very nice doorman who welcomed us on our...

Pros: |The location of the hotel is excellent. The fact that it has a pool in central Bordeaux is amazing and it is a beautiful hotel. All the staff were incredibly friendly and always on hand for anything you needed. There was a particularly kind and attentive staff member at breakfast (the Australian) and all staff communicated very well (I apologise for my lack of French!) ||Cons: |For a 5* hotel, they didn’t go above and beyond as much as other hotels we’ve stayed in. Especially when it came to food intolerances. The basics were covered (soya milk and gf bread on request) but nothing further. And asking to alter a starter at the restaurant to goats cheese instead of burrata was met with “the chef doesn’t like to do that”. So I was then left to order a starter I didn’t actually want. |The rooms were also not decorated in keeping with the aesthetic and character of the hotel. We had to constantly ask for replenishment of basic things like toilet paper (and we weren’t being ridiculous). Unfortunately we were also woken twice during the night of our stay due to loud guests next door. Not the calm peaceful atmosphere we hoped for at a spa hotel. ||Overall lovely, but not the 5* experience we are used...