Thalazur Royan

We had a wonderful week in Royan. Each evening we watched the sunset from our room or took the short three-minute walk to the beach or the cliff. We also watched the beautiful Bastille Day fireworks from our balcony. A big thank you to the hotel, spa, and restaurant teams for their warm hospitality. We’ve stayed here before and love the location, spa, restaurant, and people. The hotel and spa had been closed for renovations and reopened shortly before our July 2023 visit. The new rooms, reception, lounge, restaurant, and spa looked lovely, with trendy colours and designer pieces such as Norman Copenhagen and Kartell, all designed by an architecture firm in Paris. I didn’t get a chance to photograph our room because we unpacked right away after a long drive. Pets are welcome for a small supplement. We brought our cat both this time and on our previous visit. We booked the spa and half-board package. Breakfast was as sumptuous as ever, with plenty of choice. I’d never come across fresh passion fruit at a hotel breakfast in France before, and I loved the crepes. On the Friday morning, they even served fresh oysters with white wine. The service was top-notch. Housekeeping knew we had our cat and let us know when they’d finished cleaning, keeping the door shut so he wouldn’t wander off. We recognized some of the spa team from our earlier visit, and the restaurant team remembered us and knew what kind of white wine to suggest. I highly recommend the “ris de veau”, it was delicious. We also chose the lobster for dinner on Bastille Day, which was absolutely delicious.

The hotel has four EV charging points, which was really helpful. We stopped here on the way from Spain to the UK. It’s being refurbished and looks modern and chic. My only small gripe was that the Chromecast didn’t work.

The ocean view is the real highlight, it’s breathtaking. The rooms also have plenty of storage, and the staff are helpful and cheerful, even after midnight. Treat yourself to one of the many spa packages. There’s enough to do at the hotel to fill three days, and with everything you might need there, it’s not really worth going out.

The only real plus was the location right on the seafront. The hotel was advertised as four-star, but it definitely didn’t feel like it. It looked tired, and the shower had very weak pressure. The restaurant food and drinks were very expensive. They advertised 33 cl beer bottles for €6, but the ones brought to us were only 25 cl, and they still tried to charge us for the larger size.