We had the great pleasure of staying at the Hotel le Cep for a three day weekend in October. The hotel is consistently rated as one of Europe's best and certainly deserves its rating. The hotel is located in the center of the town, a 5 minute cab ride ( or 20 minute walk if one is so inclined) from the train station.
The hotel has a small, but very comfortable reception area/bar. The rooms all surround a beautiful courtyard. We had booked the Escape Beaune package which normally comes with a standard room however as member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World we were upgraded to a junior suite.Note- There is no charge for joining SLH and we found the people there very helpful in booking member hotel reservations-great rates and benefits slh.com. The room was beautiful, very large ( especially for France!) with a sitting area, great bed, large bathroom ( heated), with all the amenities. The room overlooked the courtyard. The hotel had left a great gift package and a plate of fresh fruit.
We did have breakfast at the hotel. During warmer weather you can have breakfast in the courtyard which we are sure would be delightful. We ate in the Cave- just off the lobby. The breakfast buffet was well stocked with everything one could want. Best part was the Rube Goldberg like Orange juice machine which takes an orange, peels it and produces a pitcher of fresh orange juice!
The entire staff at the Le Cep is wonderful. They took care of reservations for meals, cabs, were knowledgeable about the area and made us ( and other guests we spoke to ) feel that they truly appreciated our staying at the hotel. We want to single out Stephane who provided us with so much information about Beaune in response to questions we asked as we were planning our trip.
Our package included two dinners. The first at a "local burgundy" restaurant was a great
dinner at the Caveau des Arches- come hungry! The second was at the Michelin Star Loiseau Des Vignes- adjacent to the Le Cep- a truly memorable meal. We also had tickets to the Hotel Dieu- a middle age hospital in the center of Beaune- right around the corner from the Le Cep-certainly worth seeing.
One last note- we did arrange a private winery tour through burgundydiscovery.com. The tour , which is a full day outing into the vineyards surrounding Beaune, is run by David and Lynne Hammond. We highly recommend considering this wine tour if you are interested in wine.
We certainly hope to return to Beaune and get to enjoy the Hotel Le Cep again.
PandR

Our fourth (or perhaps fifth) stay here confirmed that nothing much changes in this lovely old hotel. Though some would say it is in need of an upgrade, we find the old world charm comforting. The location in the centre of Beaune counts for a lot and with Beaune being roughly halfway between Calais and southern France, it is the perfect stop-over for us. We dined very well at the Auberge du Cheval Noir again (see my review of 1 May 2010).

This was a beautiful little hotel in a wonderful walled city in the Burgandy region of France. The hotel was very well maintained and centrally located to enjoy this neat city. Very comfortable and definitely worth the stay!! Highly recommended!!

This lovely hotel is right in the center of old Beaune. We had a very large room in a separate wing. Our package included 2 dinners and breakfasts as well as a wine tasting and a visit to the Hospice but it was a bit expensive. It may be possible to do better by booking the room and dinners separately. The breakfast was really delicious, especially the fresh-squeezed orange juice. Le Cep is within easy walking distance of all the places to see in Beaune which is a beautiful, charming and upscale city. The hotel doesn't disappoint.