I never really understood the expression "Whinging Poms" until I read the review of this hotel and then stayed there. The resort is fantastic!! Myself my wife and my 14 month old daughter stayed there for a week and returned on Saturday.

The rooms are Typically 4 star - and believe me I know about 4 star hotels. I spend a lot of time in them for work. If there is something to complain about then it's that its not a 5 star hotel!!

There is a promenade outside the hotel which has so many restaurants that they will cater for all tastes. Indian Chinese Thai French European - what ever you want to eat....

If you want to avoid whinging poms then stay away from this resort. It is full of English people who seem to be of the assumtion that if English is not your first language then you must be stupid!!

It is beautiful, with Nice a short drive away, Cannes another short drive in the other direction and the Corniches and Monte Carlo are a must!! Where else would you see a pair of Bulgari sunglasses for sale at €68,000.00!!

I would recommend this resort to anyone but given that it's France, you may want to make sure you are hungry between 12.00 and 15.00 and 19.30 and midnight otherwise you won't eat anywhere!!

And by the way, the photos on the website exactly match the resort!!

After reading the previous two reviews (one of which we read prior to travelling on 23.07.06), I feel compelled to write my own review of this hotel. My husband and I stayed for twelve nights with our two teenage children during July/August 2006. We found the staff friendly and helpful (we contacted reception on arrival at the airport and the shuttle bus collected us within 10 mins). The rooms are nice and well equipped with a fridge, complimentary tea/coffee tray and bathroom toiletries etc.... The location is a good base for exploring the cote d'azure, and the shuttle bus will take/collect you from the airport, in order for you to use the local buses. Breakfast is excellent however, try having it served in your room, it is on time and lovely. The beach/pool complex is very nice, and ideal for families with young children, as it is safe and secure. The service is also good, we did not have to queue or wait any time for anything we requested. There is an excellent choice of restaurants from cheap and cheerful to very good (but not too expensive). Calypso has the best location but Dylano's, also on the front overlooking the med, was our choice for a lunchtime snack or a light evening meal such as pizza, salad pasta etc... On the whole we found the hotel to be excellent value for money, with very friendly and helpful staff and in a good location (bearing in mind the hotels/restaurants in Nice are far more expensive). The ONLY downside is that the culture in the evening is very much 'dinner' and our teenagers found this a little boring. Therefore, if you are taking teenagers, take a pack of cards or board games to keep them amused in the evening!

My partner and I stayed at this hotel last year and found it okay. This year we returned for 3 nights and quite frankly couldn't wait to leave. Half of the rooms were unlet, yet we were refused a sea view in spite of having booked a superior room three months previously. The Hotel Receptionist was extremely hostile. The whole area has become somewhat delapidated and the rooms were not cleaned until about 4 to 5 each day. The cleaning staff were very pleasant but under immense pressure. We paid our admission to the pools and had to wait three hours for towels! This hotel is definitely on the way out.

My wife and my four children spent two weeks in the South of France during June/July. For the final four days of our trip we stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort in St Laurent du Var outside Nice. Overall it was an excellent holiday but our stay at this hotel was very disappointing. In our view this hotel is closer to a three star than a four star. The entire property has a very dated feel about it and the photographs on the Holiday Inn website do not accurately depict what the hotel actually looks like. For starters the swimming pool and the lunch and dinner restaurants are not on the property itself but across a promenade. Local residents have access to the hotel pool and beach and when we arrived one Sunday morning we had to queue for appoximately 20 minutes to pay €7 each to get into the complex. The pool area was packed and the water was very dirty and overall it did not feel like we were in a four star hotel. The location of the hotel was also very disappointing. St Laurent du Var has a tacky feel about it with a lot of grafitti in the town itself. The hotel is located in what I can only describe as a retail park which is great for shopping but not exactly a picturesque location for a holiday hotel. In the hotel itself we had to ask up to three or four times a day to get room keys replaced as it was impossible to gain access to our room. Staff were surpised that our keys would not work but however on speaking to other guests we found that many people were having the same problem. I know other reviewers rated the breakfast but we found the cooked food tasteless.
On a positive note I would say that the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. Overall though this feels like a hotel in decline and not one we would recommend.