Review: Courtyard Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG)

For the only hotel stay of my Le Premier in the new La Premiere adventure, I spent a night at the 240-room Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). Why did I choose this hotel? Well, the price was decent, it looked fairly new, it has a direct train connection to the airport, and I figured it would make for an interesting review, since I haven’t stayed at a Courtyard in years.

In the end, I had a very pleasant stay at the property, and found the staff to be friendly, the rooms to be well appointed, and the restaurant and bar to be both a nice setting, and good quality. I’d definitely consider returning, and think I prefer it to the nearby Moxy, which I recently reviewed.

Booking the Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle

I booked my stay at Courtyard Charles de Gaulle Airport with cash, as the rate was €134. I thought that was reasonable, and it was a bit cheaper than the adjacent Residence Inn. For what it’s worth, I could’ve redeemed Bonvoy points, and the rate was 25,000 points for the night. However, based on my valuation of 0.7 cents per Bonvoy point, paying cash was the better deal.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle location

The Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is actually part of a dual-branded property, as there’s also a Residence Inn in the same complex (the colorful part of the building is the Courtyard, while the dark part of the building is the Residence Inn).

The hotel is a short distance from the airport, in an area that has a bunch of airport hotels. All of these hotels can be reached via the CDGVAL train system, which offers free transfers between the airport and the neighboring areas. The train currently runs from 4AM until 1AM daily, and the stop is a roughly five minute walk from the hotel.

Once you exit the train, just follow the signage in the direction of the hotel, as the path is pretty straightforward.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle lobby & check-in

The Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport is a modern property, as it only opened in late 2021, so it still feels pretty fresh. Upon entering the hotel and turning left, I found myself in the lobby, which had quite a bit of comfortable seating, along with a small business center area.

While I didn’t buy anything from here, the lobby also has a little shop where you can get access to drinks and snacks 24/7.

I headed to reception, where I was greeted by a friendly associate, and thanked for my Bonvoy Ambassador status. I was able to use the Your24 perk to confirm early check-in, as I was delighted to find that the hotel confirmed that in advance.

For better or worse, this hotel probably offered the best elite treatment of any Marriott hotel I’ve stayed at this year. In addition to my Your24 request being confirmed, I was also offered free breakfast as an Ambassador, even though that’s not a brand standard for Courtyard. That was in addition to the €8 credit I could select as my welcome amenity. I was also upgraded to a superior high floor room with an airport view.

Funny enough, as I was being checked in, I noticed the associate was in the process of handwriting a welcome note for me, and there was a little gift there as well. She didn’t give it to me while checking in, but ended up calling me five minutes after I got to the room, to ask me to pick it up. It’s a nice touch to receive a welcome amenity at a limited service property!

With keys in hand, I headed down the hall to the elevators, and up to the seventh floor (out of eight total), where my room was located.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle room

I was assigned room 725, located just down the hall and on the right.

I was in a superior room on a high floor with an airport view, marketed as being 24 square meters (258 square feet). Courtyard rooms are known for being basic, but I found this room to be comfortable and quite nice. The room featured an entryway with a closet and minibar area to the right, and the rest of the room straight ahead.

The room boasted a reasonably comfortable king size bed. While the pillows weren’t quite as big as I prefer, I also recognize that I was staying at a Courtyard, and not a St. Regis, so that’s fair enough.

Across from the bed was a desk area with a chair, a luggage storage rack, a wall-mounted TV, and a full length mirror.

The room had a tea kettle, an espresso machine, and a mini-fridge with one bottle of water.

The bathroom was separated from the main part of the room by a frosted door.

The bathroom boasted a sink, a toilet, and a walk-in shower, and was pretty basic.

I found water pressure to be good, and toiletries were in wall-mounted containers, from NIRVAE.

As an aviation geek, my favorite part of the room was the views of the airport. Okay, the views weren’t quite as good as from the Sheraton connected directly to the airport, but they were still pretty great.

As mentioned above, I was asked to come down and pick up my welcome amenity shortly after arrival. It included a very long handwritten note, a bottle of orange juice, and some sweets. That’s a nice effort for a limited service property, if you ask me.

Wi-Fi in the room was fast and free. My only minor complaint about the room is that there was no way to crack open the window, so the room felt a bit stuffy. Fortunately the air conditioning worked really well, especially for Europe.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle gym & laundry

The hotel’s gym is located on the first floor, and it’s a shared facility between the Courtyard and Residence Inn, since the hotels are connected.

The gym was reasonably nice, with a few treadmills, a couple of ellipticals, and a decent selection of strength training equipment.

The gym also had quite the quantity of bottled water, which is rare (not that tap water isn’t drinkable in France).

Near the gym, the hotel has a laundry facility, which is a handy feature for those who are on a longer trip.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle Kitchen & Bar

Kitchen & Bar is the name of the restaurant and bar area at the Courtyard Paris Charles (creative, I know!). The restaurant area is nicely appointed, and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Then there’s the adjacent bar area, where you can either grab a drink, or even have a meal. While the restaurant area serves meals at specific times, the bar serves food all day, including between meal times.

In the afternoon, I stopped at the bar for a cappuccino, to fight my exhaustion and to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime.

I hadn’t eaten all day, so in the evening I decided to have dinner at the restaurant. You can find the menu below.

I was pretty hungry, so I decided to order the three course daily menu, which in retrospect, was a lot of food. The meal began with some warm bread rolls and olives.

The starter consisted of a tomato burrata dish.

The main course was a flank steak with pepper sauce, served with a side of fries.

Then dessert consisted of a chocolate tart.

The meal was pretty great, though way too much food. One thing I should mention is that the restaurant got really busy. That’s because the adjacent Residence Inn doesn’t have a full service restaurant, so this place gets a lot of guests from there as well.

Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle breakfast

In the morning, I visited the breakfast buffet. This ordinarily costs €25 per person, or otherwise, you can book a rate including breakfast. As a Bonvoy Ambassador member, breakfast was also thrown in for me, though I don’t think that applies for all elite tiers.

The breakfast buffet was decent — it was nothing special, but for Europe, was sufficient. Options included croissants and pastries, fresh fruit, cold cuts, cheese, yogurt, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and more.

To drink, there were espresso machines that guests could help themselves to, and there were even to go cups.

Bottom line

The Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle is a solid airport hotel. The property offers easy access to the airport, is modern, and has nice airport views from some rooms.

I hadn’t stayed at a Courtyard in some time, but this property is clearly a reflection of how not all “limited service” hotels are created equal, or perhaps in reality, it reflects how that term really means very little. The hotel has a solid all-day restaurant with a great dinner and decent breakfast.

I also found elite recognition here to be good, in terms of a welcome gift, free breakfast, Your24 being honored, etc. I’d gladly stay at this property again.

What do you make of the Courtyard Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport?