Holiday Inn Express Marseille - Saint Charles, an IHG Hotel

This property was delightful. It is located right across from the major train station in Marseille with trains that will take you all throughout france. The actual property was very quiet with no real traffic from the Train station. A beautiful set of marble steps welcome you to the glass doors. We met with Sophie who checked us in and was so delightful. She speaks English fluently. Sophie gave us a map of Marseille, recommended restaurants to get to, let us know how to get cash out if we wanted to take the bus and gave some amazing suggestions for sites to see during our stay. She made the hotel itself, five stars. The rooms were clean and spacious with an incredible view of marseille. There is air conditioning in the room though it didn't seem to work very well. The weather in Marseille was pretty great so we didn't need it. The room was very nice especially for a room in france. Spacious bathroom with separate showers which is also rare in france. On the other hand, outside of the property it's pretty sketchy. There's not much to do around the property unless being scanned by pickpockets and fending off your valuables, is something that is fun for you. It's not lost on me that we came on June 30th and stayed on July 1st, 2023, during a very important time of racial Reckoning in france. So the night time during protests were challenging. We respect the lives of the people of France. Especially those people of color being unfairly and unjustly targeted by police misuse of deadly force. Our evenings were spent in the resort because of that. And we were okay with that. The daytime however was great. We tried to get an Uber from the hotel but we quickly realized that Uber drivers were accepting and canceling jobs in favor of using their services as taxi drivers which is the preferred mode for the drivers. It benefits the drivers but incredibly inconvenient for customers. We took a taxi to the port which cost us about 22 Euros which is about 23.90. Dollars us. Breakfast was included and it was basic but yummy. There were lots of lounging and seating areas very enjoyable. I would avoid traveling to the store next door however. Some woman and her baby came to us and asked us to buy her baby Pampers buy accompanying her to the store across the street. We certainly didn't do that but instead bought her some food at the train station. The train station directly across the street had lots of small bites to eat. There was also a restaurant on the corner. Other than that there's not a lot of dining options nearby this resort. But by and large, I would certainly come again. Thank you again to Sophie for making our experience so wonderful.

The outstanding thing about this hotel is the attitude of the staff. Every staff member greets you with a smile and offers practical advice to help. The receptionists are actually 5* even though the hotel is 3*. The buffet breakfast was unfortunately below par but sufficient to provide bare essentials. Also, given the recent pandemic, I'd suggest young children with obvious colds are prevented from roaming and handling uncovered food meant for public consumption.