Disneyland Hotels
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New York hotel in Disneyland Paris © Pascal Bernardon

Disney's six themed hotels are a mixed bag of hideous eyesores and over-ambitious kitsch designed by some of the world's leading architects – Michael Graves, Antoine Predock, Robert Stern and Frank Gehry. For all the dramatically themed exteriors and lobbies, the rooms are much the same inside: comfortable, well-furnished and distressingly huge. The hotels are only worth staying in as part of a multi-day package including park entry, which you can book through Disney or major travel agents. If you book directly it can turn out much more expensive. Free bright yellow shuttle buses run between the hotels, the train station and the two theme parks.

Prices vary hugely according to season, and which package you book. Winter, obviously, is cheaper than summer, but even within these periods there are low and high seasons. Weekends or French holidays in winter, for example, tend to be more expensive than off-peak periods in early or late summer. Prices are highest throughout July and August. Most rooms are family rooms with two double beds; in winter, children aged 3–11 stay for free, while in summer there's usually a supplement of around €100 per child per night. In the two-star Hotel Santa Fé, you could pay around €150 per adult in low season, while prices rise to over €600 for a peak-season room in the Disneyland Hotel, inside the Magic Kingdom. The hotels below are listed in order of price, starting with the most expensive. The cheapest alternative, as long as you have a car, is the park's Davey Crockett Ranch, a fifteen-minute drive away, with self-catering log cabins. To really economize, you could camp at the nearby Camping du Parc de la Colline, Route de Lagny, 77200 Torcy (tel 01.30.58.56.20), which is open all year and offers minibus shuttles to the park.

Disneyland Hotel Situated over the entrance to the park with wings to either side, the large, frilly, pastel-pink Disneyland Hotel is decked out in glitzy Hollywood style. It's the most upmarket and best located by far.

Newport Bay Club This "New England seaside resort circa 1900" spreads like a game of dominoes. Blue-and-white striped canopies over the balconies fail to give it that cosy guesthouse feel, but some rooms have the benefit of looking out over the lake.

Hotel New York Outside, the hotel is a plasticky, post-Modern attempt at conjuring up the New York skyline, while the furnishings within are pseudo Art Deco with lots of apples. Comfortable, but showing its age. In winter, the outdoor ice-rink makes it a good option for children.

Sequoia Lodge Built around the theme of the "mountain lodge" typically found in the National Parks of the western United States, but on a giant scale.

Hotel Cheyenne Along with Sante Fe, the Cheyenne is broken up into attractively small units: the film-set buildings of a Western frontier town, complete with wagons, cowboys, a hanging tree and scarecrows. With its Wild West theme and bunk beds in all the rooms, this is a good hotel for children.

Hotel Santa Fe Accommodation takes the form of smooth, mercifully unadorned, imitation sun-baked mud buildings in various shapes and sizes. Between them are tasteful car wrecks, a cactus in a glass case, strange geological formations and other products of the distinctly un-Disney imagination of New Mexican architect Antoine Predock. A scowling cheroot-chewing Clint Eastwood creates the drive-in movie entrance.

Davy Crockett Ranch and camping The Davy Crockett Ranch costs from €55 to €130 per person for a self-catering log cabin (4–6 people). The ranch is a fifteen-minute drive from the park, with no transport laid on.