Hotels in Épernay put you on the Avenue de Champagne, within walking distance of the cellars that made the town famous; hotels in Reims put you beside the cathedral and the chalk pits of Pommery, Taittinger and Ruinart. The two towns are about half an hour apart, and the vineyards between them hold some of the region’s best places to sleep. These eight cover all three bases, from a five-room house above a Champagne shop to a château with a two-star restaurant.
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In this article
How we chose these hotels in Épernay and Reims
Three rules cut the field. Every hotel here is on Expedia, so you can book it through the links below and see the same photos we did. Each one gives you something Champagne-specific to use on the trip: a house’s tasting room downstairs, vineyards outside the window or the big Reims cellars within walking distance. And we left out the chain hotels: comfortable, but interchangeable, and not why anyone comes to Champagne.
The bigger decision is the base. Épernay is better if you want to visit growers and smaller houses and drive the vineyard roads; Reims is better without a car, with the TGV from Paris and the grand houses close together. So we have grouped the hotels in Épernay and Reims, plus three in the vineyards between and to the south, by where they put you, not by rank: the order within each group says nothing about which is best.
Épernay and the Avenue de Champagne
Épernay is a small town with one famous street. The Avenue de Champagne runs east from the center past the headquarters of Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët and Mercier, with kilometers of cellars underneath. The three hotels below are on it or a minute away.
1. La Villa Eugène — Épernay
La Villa Eugène is the classic Épernay address: a villa at the quiet end of the Avenue de Champagne that once belonged to the Mercier family, with the avenue’s cellar doors on its doorstep. It feels like a private house that happens to take guests, and that is exactly its appeal.
It suits a couple who want to do everything on foot: a cellar tour in the morning, another after lunch, and back at the villa before dinner. The limit is the evening, because you will eat out every night, so book tables in town before you arrive, especially on weekends.
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2. Hôtel Jean Moët — Épernay
Hôtel Jean Moët is the small, polished option in the center of town: an eighteenth-century townhouse on the street named for the Moët family, a few steps from where the Avenue de Champagne begins. Rooms are dressed in Louis XV style, which suits a town whose wealth was built in that century.
It is the pick for a trip without a car, since the avenue, the cellars and the town’s restaurants are all on foot. The limit is parking: there is none on site, so if you are driving in from the vineyards, plan where to leave the car before you check in.
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3. Le 25bis by Leclerc Briant — Épernay
This is the most personal stay in Épernay: a small guesthouse in an eighteenth-century family home on the Avenue de Champagne, run by the Leclerc Briant Champagne house, with the house’s own wine shop and bar on the ground floor. Staying here is the closest thing in town to sleeping at a producer’s.
It suits travelers who would rather taste one house properly than tick off the famous names, and who like a quiet place to sit with a glass at the end of the day. The limits are practical: there is no elevator and no restaurant, so this is a place to sleep and taste, not a hotel with a full set of services.
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In the vineyards around Épernay
Ten minutes out of town the view changes completely. These three hotels sit among vines, gardens and villages, and suit a trip with a car and a slower rhythm.
4. Loisium Wine & Spa Hotel Champagne — Mutigny
The Loisium is the modern resort of the list, built on the hillside above Aÿ at the edge of the Montagne de Reims regional park, with vineyards and forest on every side. Floor-to-ceiling windows make the view the main feature of every room, and the restaurant looks over the same vineyards.
It is the best choice for a stay that mixes cellars and downtime. Aÿ, one of Champagne’s Grand Cru villages, is just below, the hotel can arrange cellar visits, and a free afternoon here feels like a holiday rather than a gap in the program. The limit is that you will need a car or taxis for anything beyond the hotel.
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Book it
The best rooms in Épernay are few
Épernay is a small town and its most characterful hotels have five to fifteen rooms, so weekends from late spring to the harvest fill early. If your dates are fixed, it is worth seeing everything available around town on one screen before you choose.
5. Briqueterie Champagne — Vinay
Just south of Épernay, the Briqueterie is a Tudor-style country house in its own gardens, now run by the Beauvallon group as Briqueterie Champagne. It is quieter than anything in town, and its kitchen is the reason many guests come: lunch can be the main event of the day.
It works best as a base for a long weekend of eating well, with mornings in the growers’ villages and dinner back at the hotel. The limit is the location: Épernay is a short drive, not a walk, so if you want to be in the middle of things, one of the three town addresses above is a better fit.
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6. Château d’Étoges — Étoges
Château d’Étoges is the storybook choice: a seventeenth-century château ringed by a moat, listed as a historic monument, where French kings stopped on the road east in the eighteenth century. Swans on the water, a formal garden and dinner in the Orangerie make it feel far from the business of the big houses.
It suits couples and families who want the castle as much as the cellars. Étoges sits near the southern end of the Côte des Blancs, so the Chardonnay villages are within reach. The limit: rooms in the château itself have no air conditioning and are reached by stairs, so ask for the Orangerie if that matters.
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Reims, the cathedral city
Reims is the bigger, busier base: a real city with a Gothic cathedral, good restaurants and the grand houses of the Saint-Nicaise hill. It is the easiest base to reach from Paris.
7. Domaine Les Crayères — Reims
Les Crayères is the grand hotel of Champagne: a château in its own park on the Saint-Nicaise hill, the part of Reims where the great houses dug their cellars into the chalk, now part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars. Several of those houses are a short walk from the garden gate.
This is the splurge, and the dining room is a large part of why: Le Parc is one of the region’s great tables, with a Champagne list to match. It suits a special-occasion trip built around Reims. If you would rather spend your days in the vineyards, a base nearer Épernay saves a lot of driving.
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8. La Caserne Chanzy Hôtel & Spa — Reims
La Caserne Chanzy fills a former fire station next to Reims cathedral: an Art Deco building turned into a contemporary hotel in Marriott’s Autograph Collection. Some rooms and terraces look straight at the cathedral’s towers, which is a view no other hotel on this list can match.
It is the city-break choice: arrive by TGV, walk to the cathedral and the restaurants, and take a taxi to the cellars. The limit is that it is a city hotel, so there are no vineyards outside the window.
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When to book
The vineyards are at their best from June to the harvest, which usually falls in September and in recent warm years has started in late August. That is also when the small hotels fill, so for a weekend between May and October book two to three months ahead, and earlier still for the places with a handful of rooms. Our guide to the wine harvest season explains what changes in the cellars and the villages while the grapes come in.
Champagne houses receive visitors all year, so a trip in winter works well for tastings and cellar tours, with quieter towns and easier reservations. The trade-off is bare vines and shorter days on the vineyard roads. Whatever the season, book the cellar visits you care most about before the hotel, since the famous houses run tours at fixed times. Our guide to the Champagne houses to visit in Reims and Épernay picks eight visits you can book from home.
Getting there
From Paris Gare de l’Est, the TGV reaches Reims in about 45 minutes, and direct trains to Épernay take around an hour and 20 minutes. Regional trains link Reims and Épernay in about half an hour, though they run less often on Sundays. The Épernay tourist office sets out the options for a day trip or a longer stay.
For the three hotels in the vineyards, and for visiting growers rather than only the big houses, you will want a car. Our guide to renting a car for a wine trip in Europe covers insurance, pick-up and the French drink-drive limit of 0.5 grams per liter, which a few tastings can exceed. A spittoon and a designated driver are part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Compare car rental in Reims on DiscoverCars →
Choosing between hotels in Épernay and Reims
Start with the trip you want. For two or three days of cellars on foot, stay on or near the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay: La Villa Eugène for a house with a garden, Hôtel Jean Moët for the center of town, Le 25bis to stay with a producer. For a slower stay with a car, the Loisium, the Briqueterie and Château d’Étoges trade the walk to the cellars for vineyards, gardens and quiet. For a city break by train, or a celebration dinner, Reims is the base, with Les Crayères as the splurge and La Caserne Chanzy by the cathedral.
Many travelers split the stay: a night or two in Reims for the grand houses and the cathedral, then the rest in or around Épernay for the vineyards. Our Champagne region travel guide explains how the wine areas fit together, and if you plan to bring bottles back, read our guide to shipping wine home to the US before you buy. Visitors who like the château idea can compare these hotels in Épernay and Reims with our château stays in Bordeaux. The Champagne houses themselves are presented on the Champagne UNESCO heritage site, which maps the hillsides, houses and cellars.
Prices are “from” rates, indicative and set by our booking partners: they change with dates and availability, so check the current rate on Expedia.
