A Random Selection of Eastern European Hotels

Bydgoszcz is a large city in the north of Poland, pronounced Bid-goshch (approximately!). I first started visiting Bydgoszcz in 1993, going at least four times a year to visit a customer who was based in the city. I went regularly for the next 8 years or so. In the early days there were very few international standard hotels and the customer had a deal with the City Hotel which enabled me to get a good price and be confident of a decent standard of accommodation and safety.

It was always said that the customer had in fact worked closely with the hotel to ensure it was up to the standard of their employees and visitors. Looking at the hotel choices in Bydgoszcz today, it's easy to see that the accommodation options have boomed in recent years but I'd still suggest that the City Hotel is well worth considering.

The location is quite central which was important because with only a couple of trains in and out each day, I often had a lot of time to kill before my train left. I really enjoyed being able to walk round the city centre shops which were only a short walk from the hotel.

The hotel rooms were of good size but fairly simply decorated and everything was new and most importantly and not to be taken for granted, everything worked. Most rooms came with desks and a seating area as well as a comfortable bed and a television with international channels. Room temperatures were always good which is important in the middle of winter when the city gets really cold.

I often ate in the hotel restaurant because I was pretty clueless about eating out in Polish and when I first went there the options were very limited. I recall one bizarre night out with a customer at a Polish Chinese restaurant that served the weirdest food. Whilst the hotel restaurant was expensive by local standards, it was still very good value compared to other European countries. Breakfasts were extensive and I usually made the effort to go down but unlike some of the locals I never gave in to the temptation of cold iced vodka at breakfast time. At that time there was an English/Irish style pub in the basement of the hotel but I think it's now gone and been replaced with something a little more sophisticated.

Hotel facilities were extensive and included lots of meeting rooms, a small shop and even a hairdresser and beauticians. The reception was large and comfortable and unlike many of the Warsaw hotels at that time, it wasn't permanently full of prostitutes. That might sound silly but it does make you feel more comfortable as a woman traveler if you aren't outnumbered by 'working ladies'. The gym was well equipped and facilities included a sauna and Jacuzzi though I have to say I preferred to just go out and walk around the city if I needed some exercise.

I have no reason to go to Bydgoszcz any more and I know very few people who've ever been there but I retain a lot of affection for the place. If I did ever go back, I'd definitely consider the City Hotel again. It's rated as a four-star hotel but by western standards, I think it would be fairer to say it's more 3-star style.

In a previous job I had the mixed fortunes of going at least four times a year to the Polish city of Bydgoszcz on business. Whilst I loved visiting in the summer, the winter was a nightmare and Bydgoszcz, a large but rather remote city, could at that time only be reached by flying to Warsaw and taking a four hour train journey each way or trusting your life to the vagaries of the Polish roads and more worrying exposing yourself to the lawlessness of Polish drivers. Sometimes I would stay at a hotel in Bydgoszcz but more often, if my meetings allowed it, I'd get the train up and back in one day and squeeze the meetings in the few hours between the arrival of one train and the departure of the next.

When staying in Warsaw my hotel of choice tended to be the Holiday Inn. This was primarily because it was so close the railway station that I could fall out of bed and roll over to get the train in just a few minutes but also because at that time it was one of the few hotels in the city where I, as a woman usually travelling alone, felt confident about staying. I'd also stayed one time at the Marriott and loved it, until I heard afterwards that someone in the Penthouse on the top floor had been shot dead just a few days before I was there. This was the mid 1990s to the early 2000s and things were still a bit like the Wild West in parts of Poland.

If I was unlucky I'd get sent to the Intercontinental - a place with so many prostitutes in the lobby that I swore I was probably the only woman PAYING for her room rather than being paid by the hour to be there. During one notable stay at that place my phone rang no less than 8 times in the night with strange men on the other line - I like to think it was a wrong number but needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night.

This is not to say that the Holiday Inn didn't have prostitutes because it certainly did. A colleague and I would happily sit in the HI bar and watch them working their magic on poor unsuspecting potential punters but on the whole there were a lot fewer of them and they were rather more subtle than at the Intercontinental.

As I mentioned the location was the main draw of the Holiday Inn - it's directly across the street from the railway station. It's also right next to a shopping arcade if you feel the need for a little retail therapy and it's just along the street from the Stalin Palace - a building much loathed by the locals for representing the worst of the Soviet oppression but undeniable an architectural novelty that tends to captivate western European tourists. I've seen these 'palaces' all over the old Eastern Bloc and I do rather like the look of them although I can understand why the locals would love to tear them down.

Being a Holiday Inn you know that everything will be of a good international standard but is unlikely to be anything too out of the ordinary. The check-in staff were courteous and efficient, the bar was well priced (for the time) and the restaurant offered food that I actually sometimes wanted to eat and was a welcome relief from the horrible basement restaurant of the Intercontinental. The rooms were large and furnished to a good 'international' standard - more than could be said for many hotel rooms in Poland at that time which sometimes had some very strange beds. Rooms had a double bed, a good sized desk, tea and coffee making facilities, a minibar (with lots of vodka of course) and the bathrooms were clean with good showers and baths. The toiletries tended to be the very standard HI branded items but you could generally count on a shoe cleaning cloth and a sewing kit and the usual bits and bobs.

I don’t recall a lot about the hotel which is always a good sign - I ALWAYS remember the horror-hotels. Most of my memories are of the kind efficient staff, the big breakfasts on the occasions when I was lucky enough to not have to rush off before they started serving, and sitting in the bar if I had colleagues visiting with me. The lobby was large and impressive and always gave an air of being somewhere a bit special. It's probably at least 6 years since I was last at this hotel but if I went back to Warsaw I'd be more than happy to go back to it. I can't say the same for most other hotels in Poland.

The Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg is absolutely gorgeous. I still have to pinch myself to remind myself that I really did stay there because it's got such a fairy tale aura about it that it's easy to imagine it was just a dream. I visited in 2005 on a business trip taking in both St Pete's and Moscow and the Grand Hotel Europe was my second stay in St Pete's but the hotel was 100 times more fantastic than where I stayed on my previous trip.

I'm not in the habit of staying in 5 star hotels even on business trips and the price of the GHE was enough to make your eyes water. But considering that a very ordinary hotel will also cost you a lot, the extra cost for going to the best hotel in town seems a bit less of a shock. Things may be better now but at the time of my visit security concerns over Chechen terrorists meant that our company was willing to be a lot more generous on hotel prices than normal. There's no sense going somewhere cheap and not feeling secure. If you want a classical endorsement, it might help to know that Tchaikovsky chose to stay there on his honeymoon. You won't find too many Holiday Inns that can make a claim like that.

The Grand Hotel Europe is a large and very imposing building that would look at home on a Paris Boulevard. This isn't too surprising since it's on the city's most famous street, Nevskiy Prospekt. It was built in the late 1800s and has a lot of Art Nouveau style elements that give it a certain pizzazz that's out of the ordinary. There are beautiful stained glass curvy windows, spectacular chandeliers, a stunning (and very expensive) wood panelled bar that looks like an old gentlemen's club complete with a piano player.

With such spectacular public spaces lingering in my mind, it's hard to recall a clear picture of my room. It was on an inner corridor so I didn't benefit from any lovely views but my room was very quiet for being away from the road noise. The décor was quietly subtle and expensive and the bed was every bit as comfortable as it should be at such a high price. If I wanted to be really picky, there was maybe a bit too much furniture squeezed into the available space but that's really not a serious issue. We had only the basic rooms but these were still very lovely. The bathrooms were well equipped with lots of marble and under floor heating.

We didn't eat dinner in the restaurant, opting instead to go out with the agent we were visiting and probably saving a fortune in the process, almost enough to pay for drinks in the bar when we got back. I loved it and could have sat there for hours just soaking up the atmosphere. I did make it to breakfast in the morning though because I really wanted to see what the restaurant would look like. There are half a dozen different restaurants in the hotel but breakfast is served as a buffet in the main restaurant which is absolutely stunning with swirly stained glass windows and lots of over-the-top art nouveau touches.

Finding a hotel in Prague is always a challenge - not because there are too few, rather because there's too much choice and it can be baffling if you don't know the city. I've been going to Prague since the early 1990s and have stayed in hotels ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous; some really grand (I particularly enjoyed sharing a fancy hotel near the castle with the Portuguese national football team!) and others barely better than a student hall of residence.

The company I worked for held their Annual Business Meeting in Prague in February 2007 at the Radisson. Around 80 of us were there from Sunday through to Thursday morning.

Location Location Location

The Alcron is on Stepanska, a side street off Wenceslas Square. This is the so-called New Town area; new because it only dates back to the 14th Century. The location is very handy for the National Museum and Wenceslas Square in general. A 10-minute walk will take you to the Old Town Square and another 10 minutes or so from there to the Charles Bridge. Everything we wanted to see was within easy reach. Some people may prefer a hotel on the Old Town Square but for me, this location was just about ideal; close to everything without suffering the crowds and noise.

An Art Deco Gem?

The hotel was opened in 1932 and was allegedly a real favourite with the 'in crowd' of the so-called Jazz Era. The hotel expresses this today with an over abundance of cheesy Art Deco posters in all of the rooms and in the corridors as well as some very nice armchairs on the stairwells. Although the hotel makes much of this grand art deco heritage, I was very disappointed that the original features and style that I'd expected from reading the website were very few and far between. I've stayed in some excellent Art Deco hotels but this isn't one of them. If you didn't know it was supposed to be 1930s in origin, the successive renovations and redecoration really wouldn't have left enough clues to work it out. Indeed from the outside, there's nothing about this hotel that screams any history at all. I read somewhere - sadly I can't remember where now - that during the communist era, this was one of the hotels used by foreign visitors and was therefore covered in bugs and listening devices. It must have been quite an experience.

The Rooms

I stayed in a standard room on the 5th floor on the inside of the hotel overlooking the Crystal Ballroom. The room wasn't particularly large or grand for a 5-star, I would have expected something a bit more special. I had a double bed with lots of squishy cushions, two bedside tables, an armchair by the window with a coffee table, a work desk with a mirror over, a TV unit with mini-bar below and a unit for making tea and coffee. The wardrobe was a good size with a trouser press tucked inside and there was a mini-safe tucked into the TV unit.

The bathroom was more spectacular than the room and done in an elegant Art Deco style; let's amend that to 'elegant but impractical'. I'm not much of a one for make up but the layout of the rounded sink in the corner and the subdued lighting made it almost impossible to get close enough to a well lit bit of the mirror for even a basic bit of lipstick application. The bath had a shower which was powerful and easy to control and the toiletries were plentiful and of good quality. The bathroom wasn't very big but had all that was needed. The hotel claims the bathrooms are marble but I have to reveal that it's just not true. The tiling is very good imitation but marble it ain't - I've spent so long in local tile centre over the past couple of years that I can spot a pattern that gives away the lack of authenticity. Shame on you Radisson!

The Public Areas

The reception area is large but quite dark. The reception desk is on the left-hand side and has plenty of staff; I didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes checking in or checking out. On check-in they will want your passport details and a credit card swipe. Porter service is available but we didn't need it. Moving away from the reception and deeper into the hotel, the bar (called the Be Bop Bar) is on the right side on a raised floor. I didn't drink there a lot but my colleagues certainly gave it quite a hammering. The service was fine and they did a good range of cocktails. Near to the bar is the only public smoking area.

Restaurants
At the back of the hotel on the ground floor is the La Rotonde Restaurant where we had breakfast and lunch each day. The breakfast choice was enormous but getting a coffee seemed to be a challenge that out-witted me on the two times I tried. The lunches on offer each day were hot and cold buffets with a strong leaning towards raw fish which scared quite a lot of my colleagues. There was always a lot to choose from but the hot dishes were almost all heavy meat dishes and there was a lot of fried food. There's a second restaurant that has won quite a few awards but as it seats just 24 people we didn't ever get to see it.

Other facilities

There's a well equipped gym - or so I'm told. I was far too busy being sociable to find out. If that matters to you, check it out on the website where the pictures show lots and lots of instruments of torture. As far as I could tell there wasn't a pool.

Conferences

We had our meeting in the so-called Crystal Ballroom - I was tempted to think of it as the Crystal Ball Room since we were supposed to be looking to the future! We kicked off the meeting with dinner in the Ballroom on the Sunday night. This was a pretty awful buffet where most of the hot dishes were barely warm and the temperature control for the room seemed to consist of opening the window in the middle of the roof and letting the freezing air rush in.

From Monday through to Wednesday, the room was laid out with desks in rows. The audiovisuals were all excellent and we were supplied with a variety of break-out rooms for the group work. They were at times a bit crowded and noisy but nothing went too badly wrong. In each break there was fresh coffee, and depending on the time of day, cakes, juices, fruit and rolls. Don't expect to go to Prague and lose weight. On the Wednesday evening we had a gala dinner with food that was excellent, despite our best efforts to totally confuse the serving staff by giving out awards between courses. Its a wonder they managed to keep the food hot. The dinner degenerated into loud music and drunken dancing and the music kept going until around 5.30 am when the hotel pulled the plug. They had actually stopped the music a lot earlier but someone from finance rigged his iPod up to the PA system for a few hours of extra music.

Bear this in mind. If you want to book this hotel, check they aren't hosting a big event whilst you are there! My colleague who was on the organising committee was absolutely thrilled with the support she got from the hotel and would definitely recommend the Alcron for anyone considering hosting a large event.

Free Internet

At the time of our visit, the Alcron claimed to be the only hotel in Prague with free wireless internet. If you are travelling on business this really is a bit of a bonus as it could easily set you back £10-15 a night in many hotels.

Prices

I don't know what we paid per night for the hotel and if I did, it wouldn't help you much as we were on 24-hour delegate rates. Also Prague hotel prices are very seasonal and very variable so knowing what we paid wouldn't be very useful.

Overall Impressions

It was nice, the rooms were comfortable, the location was great and the food was plentiful. The hotel treated us well but it didn't really deliver on the 5-star rating - in short, the hotel itself just wasn't very memorable.

Why do so many people shun local hotels in favour of the international hotel chains? My guess is that they are looking for security. It's like American tourists hunting down McDonalds in Paris and Rome; they know they'll never get anything surprising but they know exactly what they WILL get. A hotel brand should guarantee a certain level of quality in return for paying well over the odds. So if you decide to pick an independent hotel at random will you end up in a bed-bug ridden filth pit or a place letting rooms by the hour?

A couple of years ago I had to go to Prague for work and since my husband hadn't been and wanted to, I cashed in a bunch of BA Miles to get him a ticket so we could go over two days before my meetings.

Why the Halkova?

I wanted to be near to Wenceslas Square and close enough to walk to the hotel that I'd have to transfer to on the Sunday. I wanted all the central sites to be in easy walking distance because I can't be bothered to fathom out a public transport system when I have only a weekend and I'd heard a lot of bad things about Prague taxi drivers and their liberal interpretation of pricing. Ideally I wanted an old building with a bit of character - not just another modular Portakabin style place of identical boxes that could be in any city in the world. I wanted a minimum of a two-star hotel and ideally to pay less than £50 a night.

The Halkova caught my eye; a small three star hotel in an old building with enormous rooms. The photos showed simple furniture but astonishingly high ceilings. It had just 12 rooms so I guessed it wouldn't be really noisy which is important for me. There was a a grand-looking staircase and a list price in the region of £85 for two nights.

I never trust any hotel search site to be the cheapest so I shopped aroudn until I found a deal at just under £72 for the two nights. I charged the hotel to my credit card and kept my fingers crossed that I'd picked something that I wouldn't regret. I didn't have the option to book direct (which I always prefer) because the Halkova didn't have a website. They are actually an off-shoot of the Hotel Venezia which is round the corner on a much busier road. The Venezia does have a website and contact details and might take a booking for you. Not being able to contact the Halkova was a bit of a headache - I wanted to let the hotel know that we would be arriving late but couldn't track down a phone number for love or money.

Arriving and first impressions

Arriving at the hotel I did have a moment of thinking "Oh hell, what have I done?" At 11.30 pm the street was deadly quiet and from the outside there was very little indication that this building was a hotel, just a small brass plaque with the name of the hotel next to a lot of business names. We pushed the buzzer and nothing happened. "Curses" I thought "That's the last time I trust a booking site I've never heard of". At the second attempt the door was buzzed open and we were in. The lady in the small and not very impressive looking reception apologised that she'd had an overwhelming urge for chocolate and had to pop out to the grocery shop up the road. She gave us our key, showed us to a tiny lift and took us up to our room.

The Room

The room was off a fabulously grand staircase. We opened the first door which led to three more doors off an inner vestibule. This arrangement gave extra sound insulation between us and the staircase. Our room was on the front of the building and we were stunned. The photos on the website had made the room look big but I always assume that's a bit of trick photography - the type that's used to make a tiny puddle in a health club look like an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The room was even bigger than the photo suggested. A large double bed was in the middle of the room with two single beds lengthwise along the walls. This was the sort of room where 4 people could sleep comfortably whilst a dozen more danced around the floor space.

The ceilings were at least 12 feet high and the window was enormous. In addition to the beds, there was a large wardrobe, a small chest of draws, a desk, a TV cabinet and two bedside cabinets. The walls were painted in white and the room was spotlessly clean.

Next thing to check was the bathroom - always a slightly nerve-racking moment. We threw open the door to find a mid-sized bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink, plenty of towels and some basic toiletries. The walls were tiled up to about 7 feet - after all, what's the point in tiling to the ceiling when it's that far away? Like the bedroom, the bathroom was very clean.

Breakfast

Breakfast is included in the room rate and is served in the basement in a room with so many modem points and power sockets that it must surely have been used as an office or internet café at some point in its recent history. The breakfast was served until 10 am and there was plenty of food - nothing particularly exceptional (cereal, breads, cheese and ham, yoghurts, juice, coffee and tea) but more than enough to set you up for a day of sight-seeing. The breakfast room was the only place where we ever ran into any of the other guests.

The Location

The main reason for choosing the hotel was the location (and the ceilings) so maybe this justifies a bit more information. If you turn left out of the hotel and walk to the top of the road then turn left again and walk for two blocks you will find yourself at the National Museum at the top end of Wenceslas Square in just 5-10 minutes. You could get closer to the centre but not without paying a lot more or sacrificing some of the peace and quiet we found at the Halkova.

Any niggles?

On the whole we loved this little simple hotel but if forced to reveal a couple of small problems I'd admit that the curtains were not big enough for the windows and I suspect that in order to really have got them to close fully, you'd have to practically pull the rail off the wall. As we were visiting at the end of February and it didn't get light early in the morning, this wasn't a big problem but would have driven me potty in the summer. The curtains themselves didn't block out much light.

The shower head was incompatible with the wall fixture so it just wouldn't stay in place when in use so I had to wash with one hand and hold the head with the other - not a great hardship but a bit of a nuisance.

If you want a full service hotel with people around all day at your beck and call to serve you drinks and bring you food then this isn't the right sort of place. There's no bar and food is only served at breakfast time, although there may be chocolate, crisps and beer available in reception if the receptionist hasn't had the munchies and eaten all the chocolate.

Talking of sight-seeing

The reception area has lots of leaflets about what you can see and do in Prague and they can book tours for you if you ask. They will also be able to give you a free map of the city and help you with directions.

The Staff

The staff are mostly young, possibly students and they are friendly and non-intrusive - they are there if you need them but they'll let you get on with your stay without bothering you if that's what you prefer.

The Clientele

On the two nights we stayed, the guest list suggested that at least 80% of the rooms were booked by Brits - maybe nobody else wants to go to Prague in February. There were no rowdy stag groups and it was mostly couples or families.

Recommended for;
1. Great location.
2. Large, bright spotlessly clean rooms with fantastic ceilings and simple furnishings.
3. Big breakfast included
All for just £36 per night.

Don't book if you want:
1. 24 hour room service
2. a swimming pool and gym
3. a bar and restaurant,
4. a hotel that looks like a hotel from the outside.