Village Club L'oustal Del Mar

Not one to normally leave reviews…like ever. We arrived in Lavandou where the hotel is located and within the space of 2hrs we had checked out and got a refund. Then spent the rest of the day looking for another hotel… stressful. Nothing like the pictures paint it to be! Rooms smell of drainage, hotel falling to pieces and looks like Alcatraz. Hotel staff however were impeccable and handle our refund request very well and were absolutely lovely. It’s a shame because it seems to be happening a lot to these employees. For the money you’d at least expect cleanliness and it was far from that and genuinely had health risks. I’d advise to have a proper look at reviews before spending the money!

One of the very few Beachfront hotels that I found available in South France. The swimming swimming pool is nice. The kids part being just a bit too small. Friendly staff, most of which speak French only. One person at reception speaks Italian, another 2 speaks English. Enough to get by, however if one speaks no French can be difficult at times. The rooms are nice, just a bit worn compared to website pictures. I felt a bit overpriced because of that. Easy access to the beach. It's a sand beach (rare in southern France as I heard). despite having sand, as you get closer to the water there are pebbles. There is a bar/restaurant (doesn't belong to the hotel) just accross the road on the beach where one can pay 1/2day or full day for sun beds and parasols. Both breakfast and all you can eat dinner buffet were disappointing. I expect more of French cuisine delivered in the hotel. Still good value for money for the food though. One this that really put me off of the bad cleaning of glasses and cutlery at the restaurant. It was really bad! I felt that Le Lavandou itself was a bit off the beaten path. Most of the city was closed over the weekend (I understand it's France, but it's also high season), every seemed a bit "dead". Difficult to find some good restaurants nearby the hotel. Because we weren't with a car, we relied on 1 bus line back to Toulon where we'd get train for our next destination. The bus was late, then came full and we needed to wait the next bus. That logistic was a bit a bottleneck, but shouldn't be a problem if one is driving.

Staying at L'Oustal del Mar was a terrible experience. We were there in the off season and the hotel was not very occupied. Seemed more like a retirement village than a resort. We were given a room that had mold and mildew growing in the corners and the shower was even worse. Nothing seemed clean, the sheets were flimsy and old. Everything here is dated. We got there around 9 PM and they had kept our dinner warm as it was included in the price of the stay. The food was awful and tasteless, they even ruined the potatoes! Would have rather eaten at McDonald's. Breakfast was included too but we couldn't stomach the thought of staying there for one more disgusting meal. We left. The only nice thing about this place was that the staff was very friendly. The place was dirty and not worth the price we paid. There are so many other wonderful choices, we made a mistake by staying here.