Hipark Serris: Our Favorite Hotel Near Disneyland Paris
Hipark by Adagio Serris Val d’Europe is an off-site hotel within walking distance of Disneyland Paris. In this review, we’ll share room photos, offer thoughts on the location, and discuss transportation options from Hipark Serris in case the walk is too long for you.
Before we discuss our stays at Hipark Serris in further detail, let’s start with some overview about Val d’Europe. In a nutshell, Val d’Europe is the French equivalent of Celebration, Florida. Both towns were masterplanned and developed by and in coordination with Disney. Both have utilize New Urbanist design principles to create an inviting environment, and both attempt to avoid a cookie-cutter style while still being vaguely modern and somewhat generic.
Val d’Europe feels like the France version of suburbia, but with sensibilities borrowed from French classicism. On the plus side, the city is new and thoughtfully-designed, yet feels lived-in and “real.” On the downside, Val d’Europe definitely doesn’t has the depth or character as you’d find in Paris. How it rates for you will probably come down to expectations and perspective. (It’s better than American suburbs, but doesn’t hold a candle to Paris.)
From a practical perspective, Val d’Europe has a couple of really big advantages. The first of these is Auchan Supermarket Val d’Europe, which is a “hypermarket” (basically the European term for a big-box grocery store hybrid). This store has every food you could possibly need, and is really nice. Since Hipark Serris Val d’Europe has kitchenettes this is a great way to save money. It also doesn’t hurt that Disneyland Paris food is largely not good, so you’re not missing much by doing a large breakfast and even dinner in your room.
The other is shopping. Val d’Europe has a surplus of stores, from regular boutiques and storefronts to malls and outlets. The most notably of these is La Vallee Village, which is a destination luxury shopping outlet with over 110 stores. Think Givenchy, Valentino, Dolce & Gabana, Vesace, Jimmu Choo, Tumi, and so on. This isn’t our scene, but it might appeal to you.
Alright, now let’s talk location and transportation. One of the main reasons we favor Hipark Serris is because it’s the closest hotel to Disneyland Paris if you want to walk to the parks. This is a really straightforward walk along sidewalks that takes you past the police station, through a round-about, past Disney’s Newport Bay Club, and through Disney Village.
All told, it’s about a 20 minute walk from hotel door to turnstiles. The walk was not any worse than what you’d encounter going from Hotel Cheyenne or Hotel Santa Fe. While 20 minutes might seem a bit excessive, about half of that is on-property at Disneyland Paris, so it’s not bad. We did this several times late at night, and it was perfectly safe and sufficiently illuminated.
The downside to this great walking location is that it’s a pretty poor location if you want to take the RER line. From the hotel, it’s about a 10-12 minute walk to the station, which is much longer than other hotels in Val d’Europe. We’ve also stayed at Relais Spa Val d’Europe and Hôtel l’Élysée Val d’Europe and both of those are also great hotels with better locations if you want to take the train.
If you don’t want to walk to Disneyland Paris, we’d recommend one of those hotels. While Hipark Serris also advertises its free shuttle, when reviewing the schedule, it didn’t look all that convenient. (Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the times table.) We’ve never used the shuttle, so perhaps those who have can weigh in.
As for the guest rooms at Hipark Serris, there are a variety of options. This is technically an extended stay hotel, so every room has a kitchenette, and is laid out in a way that’s conducive to long-term living.
We think this approach works well. In addition to being good for extended stays, it’s also good for families who like their space.
It definitely places a premium on utility over luxury, but the design is still clean and modern, so the room doesn’t feel barebones. There are also enough little touches like the lighting and art that give it some character. It’s still a fairly basic room, but at least it’s not totally dull.
The smallest room at Hipark Serris is the studio, which has one double bed or one sofa-sleeper. This room is 248 square feet, which is slightly smaller than a Disney Value Resort. (Dedicated to DLP has this video tour of a studio.)
Since that’s a bit cramped and because the cost difference between the studio and the apartment rooms has always been $10-15/night when we’ve stayed here, we’ve always just booked the ‘apartment’ class of room. (All room photos here are of the apartment style room–the sofa in the photos above is a sleeper.)
This room is nice and spacious at 366 square feet in size, and is essentially a 1-bedroom villa by Disney terms. The bed is reasonably comfortable, and the sofa sleeper is serviceable.
As you can see from the photo above, the bathroom is separated. We like this approach in general, but it’s worth noting both of these rooms are small. Also, be prepared for water to get all over the floor when you shower. This is nothing unique to the Hipark Serris, as the shower door situation is ‘awkward’ throughout Europe. (Or perhaps we’re just bad at showering?)
Ultimately, the Hipark Serris is our favorite hotel near Disneyland Paris because it’s the paragon of luxury, service, or high-end amenities. It’s not. Instead, it offers comfortable, clean, and modern accommodations with a great location at (usually) under $100 per night. Really, that’s what it’s all about for us. These rooms are superior to on-site Disneyland Paris hotels that are comparably sized (and just as far from the parks), and Hipark Serris costs less. If you want something more luxurious or closer to the parks, look elsewhere–but also be prepared to pay considerably more money on-site. Hipark Serris offers exactly what we want, but your mileage may vary.
For the basics of planning a visit to Disneyland Paris, check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Want to see more photos or read about Disneyland Paris in agonizing detail? Check out our Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary Trip Report or our Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary Trip Recap!
YOUR THOUGHTS…
If you’ve visited Disneyland Paris, where did you stay? Did you enjoy your hotel, or would you rather try another option next time? If you’ve stayed at the Hipark Serris, is there anything with which you disagree in this hotel review? Any other pros or cons? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
we’ve stayed there 4 times now, twice in the studio, twice in the apartment. It’s my single favourite Disneyland Paris hotel (the only other I have stayed at in Val D’Europe is Adagio, but have stayed in 4 ‘on property’ hotel (Cheyenne, Sequoia Lodge, Newport bay and Davey Crockett’, 3 of the ‘good neighbour’ hotels on the pink bus route (Magic Circus, B&B and Dream Castle), plus the Radisson at the Golf course and the Marriott timeshare. For all the reasons you list Hipark continues to be our first choice – the walk sells it to me, we’ve done it at 11pm in November and it’s been fine. Twice when heading to or from the station to get the TGV to the airport we have used the bus (due to luggage), and it was great. Unless the weather was terrible I’d walk though (when we got the shuttle bus from CDG we got off and on at the Newport Bay which is just around the corner). The price is reasonable and the chance to eat in sometimes is a god send for a vegetarian! We don’t find the walk to the RER station too bad and you can always walk back in the heat (or cold) via the mall
In case you would like to take the RER (train) Residhome Val d Europe is quite convenient, with a similar “aparthotel” scheme. You are just in front of the station and the Auchan Supermarket. Adagio Marne la Vallee in in the opposite site of the mall, so you are close to the dining options but a little bit far from the station (on the other hand they offer shuttle transportation). This Adagio (it is not the same as Hipark) has also an in door swimming pool just in case you are not enough tired when you come back from the parks
We stayed at the Relais Spa on our last visit and we were impressed. The best part was the shuttle – this was just a large taxi which drove you down the road to the park (less than 5 mins). Most of the time we were the only people in it so it was a private journey. When you want to leave the park you just give them a call and they come and meet you near the Newport Beach Club. After the fireworks there were sometimes too many people to fit in so you had to wait for them to go and come back but this was always very quick and we never had to wait for more than one car. A great service that was included in the already reasonable room rate!
We stayed a couple blocks south at the Aparthôtel Adagio in Val d’Europe through VRBO. The price was about the same and the accommodations were nice, including free parking.
If you have a car, the latter might be important and although the walk to DLP is not long, the drive is even shorter! (We visited with an annual pass, so parking was free.)
Anyplace in Val d’Europe is prboably nice to stay. Convenient to the freeways to Paris, convenient to the parks, and much cheaper than staying onsite.
Glad to see I am not the first one to have been there with the “close to RER or close to DLP” decision – and almost invariably, I select “close to RER” (though I have done the Hipark once). That said, combining this hotel with an amazing late dinner at Yacht Club might just be the perfect package.
On which note, I would emphatically disagree with the statement that DLP food is not good. I think that was true five years ago, but in every instance I think there has been a very marked improvement – an upward trajectory which started about two years ago. I visited “The Steakhouse” in 2013, and found it a forgettable meal. I revisited last weekend, and thought it was exceptional (certainly in line with WDW standards for the price point). I also did the Petit Jean experience, which was absolutely incredible (on par with V&A, at a fraction of the price). So I’m curious if that statement comes from recent experiences, or if the bad reputation is (deservedly) taking a long time to shake off?
We visited in the summer of 2006 and the food was not spectacular. I thought Hakuna Matata and Chez Remy were of the same quality as you would get in the US parks – the other meals we had were mediocre to bad. I’m glad to hear it is improving/continuing to improve!
When I was there last October chez remy was pretty terrible! The food, for the price we paid, was passable although nothing to write home about. The worst part was that the restaurant itself was a mess! Dozens of tables sat uncleared for the whole time we were there and there was food all over the floor – really ruined the interesting theming of the restaurant. My advice if anyone was to visit again would be to book one of the first table of the day.
Recent experiences, but largely on the counter service end of things. I would say there has been a slight improvement in terms of counter service, but there’s still a long way to go.
I’ve heard very good things about improvements on the higher-end table service side, but I’m not quite ready to drop that kind of money after being burned in the past.