Any hotel that is so welcoming to dogs is always going to get a good review from me. Spent 3 nights at La Belle Aurore in July with my wife and pet dog and had a great time. They allowed me to bring my little pug (dont think they would accept a st bernard!) and were so kind and accomodating to us.

The hotel is right on the coast and our room had a small balcony with amazing views of the bay of St Tropez. Only minor criticism was that someone sitting in the far corner of the restaurant could see in to our room (room 6!) and on to our balcony (literally were only about 2 metres away!) which was annoying especially if you like to relax in your pants.

The hotel was very clean and although the room was a bit small for the price I paid I had no problems whatsoever. The view of the bay made up for everything.

One criticism of the hotel was that the free wifi only worked in the lobby, not in the rooms. In fact every evening there were always several people with laptops all sitting in the sofas in the lobby which would indicate that wifi does not work in the rooms.

The hotel also have a private "beach". It is very very nice but I wouldnt call it a beach. Its more like a couple of sandy terraces with 10 sun loungers. Its is right on the sea front and totally exclusive to guests of the hotel. Plus there is also a nice heated pool and seating areas. Had a lovely afternoon sitting out on the wooden jetty drinking champage (bought from the nearby carrefour! much cheaper than the hotel but they didnt mind us bringing in our own bottle!). The hotel were also happy for my pet dog to sit out with us and enjoy the view.

Yes its expensive (200 euros a night) but its the cote d'azur so everywhere is expensive!

I dont get why some of these reviews are criticising the location. Google Street View can take you to the front of any hotel in Western Europe (and the US) so no excuses for slagging off any hotel location. Take a walk up and down the local streets via your computer screen and see whats what before you book the room. Take heed other trip advisers.

Overall, a great hotel. They were very nice and I enjoyed myself staying at the Belle Aurore. To get 5 stars from me the price would need to be a fair bit cheaper of the rooms would have to be a fair bit bigger!

Some advice.....

The hotel is in St Maxime NOT St Tropez. The town of St Maxime is lovely and lots of places to eat at night and buy tourist junk. The restaurants were all rather crappy and all seemed to serve production line slop for tourists. Went to a couple of the top rated trip advisor restaurants for St Maxime and was disappointed. Plus the beach in St Maxime is awful.

St Tropez is 8 miles away (as the GPS flies) by car. This next bit of advice is probably the most important I can give you: DO NOT DRIVE TO ST TROPEZ FROM ST MAXIME. The road is gridlocked with tourist traffic all day every day from early until late. DO NOT DRIVE. IT WILL TAKE YOU AT LEAST 2 HOURS DRIVE EACH WAY. You could walk it in the same time. Was a bit annoyed at the hotel for not telling me this (but they were so nice to my dog so I wont deduct a point).

Instead there is a regular boat service which leaves from St Maxime every 15 minutes. The boat trip doesnt cost much (10 euros, or a bit less I think) and only takes 10 minutes. Take this boat to visit St Tropez. Besides, you wont be that impressed with St Tropez. Basically there are a load of overpriced cafes and lots of Chanel and Burberry shops. All great if you have several thousand euros to spend!

If you want to go to the beaches I suggest you go to Pampilonne beach. You have to take the St Tropez road but use your GPS and take an early turn off from the traffic jam and drive through the towns of Gassin and Ramatuelle. Turn off the St Tropez Road on to the D14 and take the scenic route avoiding the St Tropez road. Is much longer but so much quicker. The easiest place to park is by Club 55 (3 euros all day). Note the parked ferraris and porches! We also saw an elephant.

So here's my scoop - I agree with the other reviewers with respect to the rooms - quite small, even by European standards. There was literally no room to place our luggage and the bathroom is tiny and separated by the bedroom with a somewhat dingy curtain. It was clean, which is the most important thing to me but it also was just average and dated, there wasn't one thing in the room that I would say was especially nice.

However....the seafront patio (I had one of the more expensive rooms) was unbelievable and worth every penny and more. So if location and view is more important than luxury and space this is the place for you. The patio is large and the view to Saint Tropez is amazing.

The little 'beach' out front is just fine, there is sand, dock and rocks...whatever you'd like. And having an infinity pool on the ocean is priceless.

We didn't do breakfast as it was super expensive and didn't get a chance to try dinner either. I note that it says in their guest book that 'picnicking is strictly forbidden' which I found a bit off-putting since breakfast is so expensive and they didn't appear to offer any food during the day. Would have been nice to be able to have had my own breakfast on my patio or my own sandwich on the beach.

As I said, the location is right on the water, just a 10 min stroll from the centre of St. Maxime....the perfect distance after a lovely dinner in town. It is on a main road but I didn't hear it at all. What I DID hear, however, and is my greatest complaint, is the ear-deafening slamming of the neighbouring rooms' doors. I'm not exaggerating here...there is no way you could sleep through that. I don't understand why there aren't stoppers on the doors, like in hotel rooms, where it keeps it from slamming shut. I almost changed my rating to 'Average' because of this but would still return anyway because of the location. Hopefully this is something they'll consider recitifying...I can't imagine it would be that difficult.

Check in was friendly and helpful and the two owners? were very pleasant.

Wi-fi only worked in the lobby, a bit annoying. Again, it wouldn't seem that difficult to add another router to the area our room was in.

So, all in all a firm recommendation if you're not that picky about the room.

Despite what all of the other reviews have stated we both had a wonderful time at this hotel. the owner, charles, is lovely and could not be kinder - we had a bad accident with our tire and he helped us (as did the staff) immediately and empathically.

true, the restaurant is quite repetitious - but one is paying for quality food and the view - which cannot be replicated anywhere.

location, location, location.

the rooms have been redone and there is no external noise.

the staff are all lovely, cheerful and extremely obliging and caring.

why would one look at the public beaches if one is paying for a private pool from which one only sees the blue sea and the sky?

all in all, this is a charming and outstanding way to relax and gaze at the view and the moon.

It's right on the water, which was lovely , the other side of the room was right on a busy main road, very noisy.

The restaurant is almost over the water and the has fantastic views, the food was of a very high standard , service was friendly but a little slow.

Breakfast was 45€ for 2 , the chef was off so that made the croissant very expensive !

The room was €195 a night , what a joke! It was painted in easy jet orange/ coral! Very old fashioned and all the sills had dirt. The tv didn't work , hotel was waiting for an engineer. The shower room was TINY . This was a dreadful little room, the plus was we had a big balcony.

We will never go there again