Quality Hotel Harmonie Tours - Tours, France     

A small 3-stars hotel which should be 2 stars, according to me. Bad points : looks old, small rooms, expensive ... Good points : very close to the train station, quite good breakfast There should be better options in Tours ...

We just spent a week at the Hotel Harmonie as part of a group doing a Loire Valley walking trip. The Hotel Harmonie seems to get a LOT of business from tour groups, and that's probably because of its convenient location (very near the train station and just 1/2 an hour walk from Old Tours), its pleasant, helpful English-speaking staff, and its generous breakfast buffet. (Should have seen people hoovering up the Brie cheese at 7:30 a.m.!) It's also inexpensive. That's all the good news. The other news? Rooms, although decently sized, are butt-ugly. That wouldn't especially matter if they were comfy. But alas, rooms on the 1st three floors have no air conditioning and no fans, and get extremely hot/stuffy. The location is VERY noisy; it's amazing how many people use the street as a shortcut at all hours of the day and night. The neighborhood, which looks deceptively quiet (apartment buildings) has a surprising number of night-time party people. And apparently a large percentage of the residents/passers-by smoke and/or have large, pooping dogs. So the Hotel Harmonie is kind of an odor-fest, and earplugs are a must if you want a prayer of getting any sleep when your windows are open. If you stay here, beg for a room with air conditioning, if only for noise abatement.