The best boutique hotels in Carcassonne and surrounds
An insider's guide to the top boutique hotels in and around Carcassonne, including the best places to stay for quirky and historic interiors, outdoor pools, hot tubs and Michelin-starred restaurants.
Just a few steps from the medieval city is this friendly boutique hotel with modern rooms and suites. It boasts a stylish garden with sculptures by local artists, a heated pool and year-round hot tub, plus an intimate spa and large sunny (and shady) terrace with sofas. It's set in a traditional villa-style building with wooden shutters. It is styled with high-end materials including plenty of leather, wood and local stone. For such a small hotel, the Carita spa is impressive, featuring a small indoor pool with massage jets, a swimming jet and even an aquabike.
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A restaurant with rooms at the very top of its game. The restaurant La Table de Franck Putelat is Carcassonne’s only restaurant with two Michelin stars. The menu changes around every two months, but highlights during my visit included foie-gras macaron langoustine and lemon lollipop amuse-bouches, a miniature steak tartare draped in a single oyster, and figs covered in a balloon made from spun sugar – all paired with local wines. The Japanese-inspired suites and rooms are all ultra-modern with tiled floors and rugs in muted colours, open bathrooms and large sliding glass doors leading out to furnished balconies or wooden terraces.
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Just five kilometres from the medieval city of Carcassonne is this informal, family-run 18th-century château, which has been lovingly restored to become a light-filled boutique hotel. The traditional and modern are tastefully blended with plenty of original wood and tiles, an ancient stone staircase and brightly-coloured, personally chosen original artwork on the walls. Bikes are available to hire for a small fee (€5/£4); there’s an outdoor (unheated) pool tucked away within the extensive grounds so that it feels very private; and there's also a petanque court. Enjoy an aperitif or breakfast in the shade of one of the many mature trees in the garden, or simply sunbathe in a deckchair.
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This family-run country house hotel – set in a 19th-century building in almost 100 acres of grounds – oozes grandeur without a hint of stuffiness. Staying here feels almost like visiting a benevolent rich relative’s home – except with a golf course and Michelin-starred restaurant on site too. Inside there are ornate fireplaces, huge mirrors, tapestries on the walls, antique rugs, statues and items collected by the family on their travels over the years. There’s a large outdoor (unheated) pool and a tennis court, plus an 18-hole golf course. Each of its 24 rooms is different, continuing the guest-in-a-private-home feel – many rooms have balconies or terraces, some have patterned wallpaper and most have interesting objets or sculptures.
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This slick hotel at the gates of the medieval city has an outdoor pool and garden with incredible views, and is both quiet and restful as well as centrally located. It's housed in an entirely modernised 18th-century building; the tone is strictly contemporary with clean lines, black or coloured walls (different on each floor), a polished resin ground floor and black and white swirled carpets in the upstairs corridors. each of the rooms and suites is different but common factors include large, white, linen-covered beds and splashes of colour (except for the all-black room). Some have open or semi-open bathrooms and all but two have terraces. Outside there’s a terraced garden leading up to a field with views over the medieval city and the vineyards beyond.
