Bel Ami

Superb

by A TripAdvisor Member

We stayed at Hotel Bel Ami for two nights last weekend and were very pleased indeed. We received a warm welcome from the staff and the place was very modern and well designed. Our room was the perfect size, again very well designed/decorated. The bathroom and seperate toilet were spacious and clean, and there were plenty of clean towels throughout our stay.

The location is excellent - right in the heart of St Germain de Pres - with lots of cafes and restaurants nearby (incluidng Le Petit Zinc next door, which was very good). There are also a good few desinger shops nearby - Dior, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss - to dent your wallet (in a nice way).

All in all, I was very impressed by the hotel and its staff and I would definitely stay here again.

Terrific find in a great neighborhood

by TripAdvisor Member dleitner00

My girlfriend and I came to visit Paris. We wanted a good central location, a comfortable room and good service. We found all three at Hotel Bel-Ami.

The room was a bit small (we expected this in Paris), but we never felt cramped. The bathroom, however, was the perfect size for two people, and we liked the towel-warming rack (especially when the marble floor was a touch cool). The only negative comment we have was the bed -- it was extraordinarily soft, which left my girlfriend a little sore. But this shouldn't deter your staying here.

The food was fine -- nothing outstanding. We were looking forward to sampling food throughout Paris, so it wasn't a big concern. However, having it downstairs was convenient (though there's a great crepe stand just 3 blocks away near the St. Germain church).

The concierge service was SUPERB, which should be your primary reason to stay here. Soukchay (spelling?) gave us fantastic recommendations for dining, whether trendy or authentic French cuisine. The reason we wanted a smaller hotel was for the intimacy, which the Bel-Ami delivered. Case in point: we tried extracting every minute of our trip before heading to the airport, so we had the concierge hold our bags and arrange for a cab to pick us up at 3 p.m. We ran later than expected and didn't get back to the hotel until 3:10 p.m. While we were ready to rush and apologize for being late, the concierge wore a big smile and escorted us into the waiting cab, our bags already loaded, leaving us flabberghasted but relieved. Do you think this could have happened at, say, the Intercontinental or the Hilton?

The St. Germain location was perfect. Being New Yorkers, we'd say it reminded us of SoHo or Chelsea, if that helps. Nice shops, pleasant cafes and bistros, and even an American-style piano bar. Walking distance to the Musee Dorsay and easy Metro access at St. Germain.

If you want great service, good value and a great location, stay at the Bel-Ami.

At this price?! Totally incredible, awesome...amazing.

by TripAdvisor Member jpmay

What an incredible find.

If you are looking for a hotel in Paris, there are the handful of "palace" hotels, which are all fabulous, at high prices. And then there is just a huge selection of hundreds and hundreds of hotels from $100 to $500 a night, in every section of Paris.

After all, Paris is the most visited tourist attraction on Earth, some 70 million people a year they say, so there is a huge, huge number of hotels. The quality of Parisian hotels varies tremendously from utter rubbish to complete rubbish to just plain rubbish ... so one of the great challenges in life is finding just a reasonable hotel in Paris, ideally at a moderate price.

The Bel Ami is really a remarkable find. Firstly the location is arguably simply the very best location of any hotel, at all, in Paris.

(Depending obviously on what section of this large and varied city you want to be in.)

The hotel is in St Germain. It is steps from the Famous Cafes such as "deux magot," the St Germain church and the rest. Indeed the hotel is literally adjacent, touching, the Petit Zinc which is about the most famous "famous cafe in Paris." If you know St Germain, the hotel is yards from the back/trendy door of the louis vuitton in st germain, (buy new luggage with the money you saved not staying at the Ritz!) or yards from "Relais d'Entrecote."

If you are from overseas and not visited before, Paris is roughly divided in to the right bank (large famous formal monuments like the Louvre, sundry big imperial buildings, and very expensive formal shopping) and the left bank (the Eiffel tower, endless cafes, restaurants, street-life, etc, and very expensive informal shopping).

The St Germain area is the very heart of the left bank and left-bankiness. the hotel bel ami is simply, literally, exactly the centre of it all. Fantastic!

On the 1st night, having checked in about 5pm, my 3 year old daughter and I wandered downstairs about 7 pm while my wife was getting dressed...the hotel empties out to the most magical, simply perfect and cliché French street scene of cafes filling up for the night bulging out on to the streets, young people showing off their clothes, chatting, dancing on the street, someone gave my daughter a rose, blah blah. It just couldn't be more perfect.

Regarding the location if you are not familiar w/ Paris, that part of St Germain is just a couple blocks from the Seine (walk along under the bridges, etc), the Musee Dorsee, and the trendy/amazing shopping (eg, incredible avant-garde furniture stores and the like) on Blvd St Germain. Cross Blvd St Germain from the hotel to rue du DRAGON, it is only a few blocks walk along this great little street to get to the AU BON MARCHÉ department store, which is a super area ... au bon marché is by far the hippest department store in Paris. If you have children - note the fantastic little carousel in the leafy park just opposite au bon marché.

(When you walk up the fabulous rue du DRAGON, be sure to stop at the incredible LiLi's muffin shop - particularly if you are from NYC, check it out.)

Anyway, setting aside the location, the hotel Bel Ami physically offers really large rooms COMPARED TO the norm in Paris. If you have not come to Paris before, be aware that hotel rooms are ridiculously small, as well as 90% of hotels being rubbish generally.

The Bel Ami is in the range of around Euros 300 a night.. could these be the most spacious rooms in central Paris at the price?

Try to pick one of the superior, etc, rooms .. the main advantage is that for about 50 Euros more per night, the bathroom is considerably more spacious and you don't get that annoying "the door doesn't really open" effect ... I suggest it is definitely worth springing for the best possible rooms in the hotel (there are no suites, just slightly different grades of rooms).

Now, because of our two small girls we had TWO connecting rooms ... so it was about 600 a night or 3000 for the five nights. At the price, compared to any other situation in Paris, we had just a HUGE, HUGE. HUGE amount of space. Much more space, I think, than paying for one cheapish room at a palace hotel, or say for a suite at a middling hotel. (If you are an afficionado of connecting rooms...they connect via an alcove, so you get even more room!)

Generally, be sure to discuss with the hotel that you are particularly looking for a spacious bathroom, a spacious room, and see what they recommend. We had to move during our stay (we only booked at the last minute), plus our friends were staying in another room, so we got to sample sundry rooms and floors.

The hotel is very lightly trendy-Schlager-style (remember the 90s?) but NOT offensively so.

Some rooms are done in a rather murky kind of orange color, but it's fairly inoffensive. Some are done in a kind of bamboo/oriental look. All rooms are recently decorated, so are fresh and new. All rooms have charming views of the St Germain rooftops. Ours glanced out to the Church. The breakfast room in the Bel Ami (on the ground floor) is super, you'll love it...clean and modern design.

Importantly -- the rooms have flawless powerful modern air conditioning, and potent double windows. This is of SUPREME IMPORTANCE if you are visiting Paris in the Hot Season, as we had to.

To give an idea of the incredible value of the Bel Ami:

Our friends from the States (3 adults) were staying at one of the zillions of typical $300-a-night hotels in Paris (near the Eiffel Tower, i.e a few blocks from the Bel Ami). They carefully chose this hotel after much research. Their hotel was absolute rubbish .. the room literally only fitted the three beds and enough room to swing open the door from the hallway, and the air-conditioning was a joke. When they saw our room(s) at the Bel Ami -- just the same price -- they were stunned. They immediately extricated themselves from their hotel, and took a triple room (plenty of room for 3 adults, a couple + grandmother) at the Bel Ami .. for the same price. They of course returned to the Bel Ami a week or two later after travels in France.

Service! As my wife correctly pointed out, the Bel Ami is a 3 or 4 star hotel physically, but with 4.90 star service ... it is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC and charming.

The primary manager and the off-hours managers were just tops. They were tremendously helpful and did anything for you. Our room had two specific problems (the key was broken, as was the shower). This is a great test for a hotel: but they COMPLETELY fixed and resolved the problems promptly.

The two doormen (who will park your car and so on) -- totally fantastic guys! They make you feel like you have personal bodyguards looking out for you.

The concierge ... TOTALLY FANTASTIC!!!! He simply made our stay ... restaurants are even more variable than hotels in Paris (60% of Parisian restaurants are total rubbish), but night after night the concierge recommended "just" the place to go for our group of 5 adults + 2 little girls, it was FANTASTIC. We all constantly spoke about how he "made" our stay.

The cleaning staff were adequate (read "miraculous" for Paris)

Room Service .. the room service menu is very short and there are only a few snacks and other choices (room service in Paris is always rubbish, other than in the few superfamous hotels). The food is adequate only - treat it as an emergency fallback only. (One of our meals was completely useless, it must have been made the previous day! - be sure to firmly but politely complain if this happens and they'll compensate you.)

Interestingly, the Bel Ami is a sister hotel to the Lancaster. The Lancaster (very much a right bank hotel) is one of the handful of "palace" expensive hotels in Paris, and indeed it is one of the most elegant, storied and refined hotels anywhere in the world (check out their pretty web site!) I foned the Lancaster looking for a room last-minute, and they were (as always) totally full, but the lady said "did you try our sister hotel on the left bank?" which is the Bel Ami.

I had never heard of the Bel Ami, and really I had no idea there was a hotel literally adjacent to the famous cafes of St Germain .. maybe it's because the frontage of the hotel is low key?

(For example, there is "L'Hotel" which is a fairly hopeless faux-trendy hotel, tremendously more expensive (with tiny rooms, crappy A/C, etc), and in a much worse location a few blocks away, and there is another tiny old-fashioned hotel I had not noticed before just opposite the Bel Ami, but other than that the Bel Ami is it for location in St Germain.)

So, I hope you enjoy the Bel Ami .. the simply unique location, the astonishingly good and kind service, and (BY PARISIAN STANDARDS) warehouse-sized rooms....the Bel Ami seems to be the handy, unique, one-third priced, left-bank sister hotel to the Lancaster!

{Handy travel tip: I learned that 'Zinc' in French is pronounced 'zonk' .. if you ask a taxi driver to take you to the cafe 'petty zinc' which is next door to the Bel Ami, he won't understand you, try 'petty zonk'!}

Great Location, Excellent Service

by A TripAdvisor Member

Very Chic Hotel in a great location. We stayed here for 2 nights at the beginning of our honeymoon. For Paris this was a very nice hotel for the price. Rooms are a bit small but the service was excellent, everything was very clean. You are a block away from Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots and shopping along St Germain de Pres. 2 blocks from the Seine and centrally located. I would definitely stay here again!

Good Hotel In a Great Location

by TripAdvisor Member telecomchick

My Husband and I just returned from a 2+ week trip to France. We stayed at the Bel Ami for our first four days in Paris. The Hotel is in a great location that is right in the heart of the St Germain District so it was very convenient. The hotel has been updated so the lobby and rooms have a very modern feel. The service was fine however not as friendly as other hotels we have stayed at in France. The rooms are small and a bit dark but the bathroom was quite large and modern by Paris Standards. One thing that got me was that the towels we got in the bathroom were old and worn. However I found this at another four star hotel that we stayed at in France. Different standards!

Great hotel, I'm staying there again

by A TripAdvisor Member

Great little chic hotel in a convenient, lively, pretty neighbourhood (St. Germain des Pres).

Good service: Even before my husband and I arrived, service was great: quick responses to email by the staff, comprehensive answers to questions. While we were there, the staff were happy to make reservations, recommend restaurants, advise us on opening hours of shops/museums. The only sour note was that they told us that a restaurant had a no reservation policy, only when we showed up at the restaurant their policy had changed to reservations only! This probably wasn't the hotel's fault though, apparently restaurant policies change frequently in Paris.

Clean, neat and stylish, though small rooms: Our room had double windows, dramatic ceiling to floor curtains, and lovely soothing blue colors on the walls. The bathrooms were marble with the nice touch of heated towel racks. Plenty of amenities: Slight downsides that could be big downsides depending on your sensitivities: soft bed, small room, occasional knocking noises in the morning from neighbours/heating.

Location fantastic!: A quick walk outside took us to Laduree, Pierre Herme and other shops, lots of restaurants, the Musee d'Orsay, Bon Marche, the Latin Quarter..... we've always stayed in the 5th arr but this location is much better for leisurely walks.

Why Do I Love Paris and France

by wise23girl

"Why Paris? Why France?"

I love Paris and what I have seen of France. (And I feel that way about Ireland too but that is another story and I did have an Irish grandmother).
Actually I loved the idea of France from a long way back. I do not know why.
One of my daughters was even given a French name, Nicole.

I thought I would learn French in school but was hauled away to work and hopes of staying on for high school were dashed.

So while I was still a young woman ,with the help of a friend ,I tried to learn a bit of French. Je suis, tu es, un, deux ,etc . Eventually I began to study by correspondence(adult matriculation) and guess what, one of my subjects was French.

Then came my first overseas trip...my children were in their teens and France was on the agenda. By ferry from England ...and there I was ...in France at last.

"So What Did I Discover"

Well on the first round I visited the usual attractions you see on tour. Bought some great prints of dogs weeing on a wall and cats laughing at them while on a visit to Montmartre.
But what I did discover was that if you tried to speak a little French the doors opened for you.

Does coming back on the same tour count as 2 visits to Paris?

Since then beginning in 2004 I have been another 3 times. In 2004 we stayed in a delightful French hotel , Hotel Ferrandi , which I had read about in a little snippet in a newspaper in Australia. We wandered the streets and I even bought a stamp using my French vocab. I bought our train tickets by writing in French! Actually I am better at writing than speaking or understanding French "as she is spoken".

We left for Ireland by ferry from Cherbourg. David got lost here as I sat minding luggage. There was a cafe with a view of the markets and the menu was in French and English.

"Queen Mary2 brings us this time."

So, in 2009 We arrive in Cannes on Queen Mary2. The bay is shallow so for the first time on our cruise we had to come ashore by tender(see picture above). Then it was to Nice. It poured raining so we found our selves a really cosy coffee shop. Alas all my French went out the window when (by mistake) I was given 20 euro short in change.

We planned to disembark in Le Havre and had arranged private transport to Bayeux. You can imagine our horror when we heard the captain announce the dock workers were on strike.
Luckily Cherbourg(complete with the famous umbrellas) came to the rescue and our transport was able to meet us there instead.

I must say VT Pedmar gave us lots of good advice and we visited" his "town Honfleur...what a gem...and we were told both Honfleur and Bayeux escaped damage by bombs in the War. David wanted to spend time in Normandie and the landing beaches.

We had 4 days in beautiful Bayeux and then it was off to Paris by train and Hotel Bel Ami.(another great place to stay...all so friendly...and close to Left Bank) Pedmar has given us some hotels for our next trip.
It was here, Bel Ami, we had an informal VT meet with ViajesdelMundo. David and I enjoyed meeting Trish and Trevor

This time we saw rue Mouffetard , Square St Medard, le Latin Quatier.Walked for 4 hours to places we had never been..little back streets. Marlene our guide worked on my "rusty" French.