To start, I’ll say that staying in the Attrap Reves Bubble Hotel in Allauch, France was a huge highlight of our trip. It was high on my bucket list when we started planning our adventure and it didn’t disappoint.
This is true “glamping,” or “glamorous camping.” You get to sleep under the stars, wake up naturally to the sunrise and have your morning coffee on a picnic table. However, you still have the comforts of a closed room, bed, air conditioning and full bathroom just a couple hundred feet away.
Privacy
Hmm, a clear bubble…can’t people see into that? Don’t worry, Attrap Reves is strict when it comes to ensuring the privacy of their guests. We stayed in the Zen Bubble and had very clear Zen signs pointing the way to our room. The signs are in French, so upon arrival a tour guide showed us which sign led us to the bathrooms, pool, kitchen and our room. She also pointed out what the signs to other bubbles looked like so we could steer clear of other people’s zones. While there was no lock to our actual bubble or bubble area, we never felt nervous. There’s less than 15 people on site at all times, and it feels safe.
Weather
We visited at the end of June and the bubble temperature was just about perfect, albeit a little warm at 5:00 p.m. when we arrived. The tour guide said that while the bubble heats up a lot during the day, the evenings are just about perfect because the internal temperature matches the external temperature. She was right, we slept like babies.
The bubble hotel is open year around, and as far as I can tell online, no one is hating on it in the dead of winter. There was a small air conditioner in our bubble, I believe it had a heat setting as well.
Inside the bubble
I got a kick out of this: our tour guide explained that if you open the bubble’s outside zipper AND inside zipper simultaneously the entire thing deflates. Boy, were we cautious: opening the first zipper, stepping in the hallway, closing the first zipper, opening the second zipper, stepping in the bubble, closing the second zipper.
The bubble décor was lovely. I just fell in love with the lime green bedding against the forest background. The furniture was purposefully low to the ground to allow optimal 360 degree viewing.
The acoustics in the bubble were pretty funky. My husband Michael and I felt like our ears were popping because of the way sound bounced off of the walls. The bubble itself is made of recycled plastic and feels soft to the touch, like an inflatable pool raft.
Getting there
The hotel is a 30 minute drive from Marseille, France. During the entire drive, we wondered if we were going the wrong way. For starters, Marseille is a big city and for a good 25 minutes of the drive you are still in the city wondering how you could possibly end up in a forested area. Then, for the last 5 minutes of driving, you’re winding through a very narrow residential area. The gate is not labeled and if it wasn’t for our navigation system insisting that we arrived, we wouldn’t have known it was Attrap Reves.
By the way, we totally crashed our rental car as we arrived at Attrap Reves. Be careful turning around on those steep roads, especially with a manual car! Each bubble comes with one parking space, by the way.
Dinner and breakfast
After crashing the rental car, there was no way we were heading back out for dinner. You need to let the hotel know in advance if you want a picnic dinner, and it comes at an additional cost. Thankfully, they had an extra dinner in the back for us, even though we didn’t reserve a plate. The cost was worth it! We ate in our bubble. Everything was delicious.
The next morning, we requested our breakfast at 9:00 a.m. and ate in the dining room area. It always cracks me up how Europeans include an entire loaf of bread with breakfast. My husband loved it. I stuck with yogurt. The cost of breakfast is included in your booking price.
Overall, our stay at Attrap Reves was incredible. We couldn’t get over the gorgeous view from our bed and loved waking up to the rising sun. Surprisingly, after sunrise we were able to fall back asleep until about 8:30!
Even if you aren’t heading to the south of France anytime soon, I encourage you to think outside of the box for your lodging experiences. At around 100 Euro a bubble, the price isn’t that outrageous for a once in a lifetime experience! Next on my lodging bucket list: a tree house. Any recommendations?
Thanks for reading,
Emma
