Grand Hôtel des Thermes

I really liked this hotel. Maybe being there off-season, when it wasn't crowded, helped, but check-in was smooth and our room was great. It had recently been redone, with a balcony and a spectacular beach view. We ordered room service breakfast three mornings in a row, and whoever answered the phone each morning deserves a raise.

The room was spacious and very clean, with a comfortable bed and impeccable service. We were lucky enough to get an upgrade to a sea-view room, where we could watch the tides and the weather changing all the time. To me, this is the best hotel in Saint-Malo, and the kind of place you'd want to stay for months, maybe forever. I also highly recommend visiting their famous aquatic complex, Les Thermes Marins de Saint-Malo, which takes up an entire building.

We absolutely love this hotel and will definitely keep coming back. The view is spectacular, the food is excellent, and everyone is so nice and accommodating.

The oceanfront setting is lovely, and the service was very nice. Our rooms were a letdown, though. We’d booked a basic room for our teenage kids and a sea-view room for ourselves, and thought we’d been upgraded. Instead, we got ground-floor rooms that looked as if they hadn’t been redone since the 1970s. Passersby could see inside, and fish from the restaurant down the hall lingered in the air. The hotel offered us an upstairs room the next day, but moving our bags and leaving the kids behind didn’t seem worth it. The rooms had dark, wall-to-wall shag carpet, which we found unhygienic. Guests walk on it with shoes, so you never know how clean it is. I don’t understand why French hotels still use it, and the hotel would be better off removing the carpeting.