Bordeaux - booked!

Bordeaux is booked. The night we arrive in France, we opted to stay in Bordeaux “city centre” (downtown) because there will be options for eating and drinking when we arrive. As I said, we planned on throwing in a couple of cheaper nights in our trip overall because we can certainly suffer through one night of a two star, no matter how bad it is. However, upon searching on Trip Advisor, Acanthe Hotel is a “top value” hotel and was ranked #21 of 120 hotels in Bordeaux and is 66 Euros per night for a double standard room, includes free-wifi in the room. The reviews were generally favorable and it appears it was recently remodeled (per a review in March of this year) so we’re doing it.

That night we’ll probably grab a late dinner and some wine at a wine bar, then in the morning we might hit the tourism board for some more wine or something before catching at train to our St. Emilion, where we will stay at Chateau Monlot. We hemmed and hawed about where to stay – we really wanted a working Chateau in St. Emilion and were hoping to stay under 115 E (Euro)/$155-ish per night. Our first choice, Chateau Franc-Pourrett, was already booked. Then it was between two, Chateau Monlot, 95 E /$125 per night and Chateau de Mole, 112 E / $150 per night, both include private baths and breakfast. It appears Chateau de Mole recently converted to a B&B – the rooms do look VERY nice, however, they don’t accept credit cards. I don’t have a problem paying for the room in cash, however, the owner wanted me to wire her the deposit or get a Euro cashier’s check. Fees for those run $25-45. Since its so new, I couldn’t find any reviews, but I was able to find some reviews on Chateau Monlot, which were very favorable, had pictures that were better than their website, and they take credit cards, both for deposits and paying. (Oh- and it’s a Grand Cru vineyard :)

So, all in all, because it would end being a difference of about $80 USD in fees and additional room costs, we chose Chateau Monlot. Because really, that’s $80 more in wine we can have!

(I apologize I don’t have a ton of info on place on the left bank side of Bordeaux (the Cab based side), we prefer the merlot based side. However, here is one we considered that was in our price range)

Oh and should you want to splurge, here’s another one in St. Emilion we considered for a brief moment, the Relais Franc Mayne – absolutely beautiful. But, its 170-240 Euros per night. We don’t have the funds for that and would rather have that extra money for more wine. However, should you be in a different situation, I’m jealous!