A charming hotel in Lille
Written: Mar 20 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Service, Charm, Location
Cons: Smoke, Noise, One Key
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this hotel for the polite staff, the good location, and the charming décor. If you are sensitive to smoke, stay on a non-smoking floor.
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| limona's Full Review: Best Western Bellevue Hotel Lille |
I stayed six nights at the Hotel Bellevue in Lille last week. Overall, I had a lovely stay. The hotel is owned by Best Western, but it is certainly one of the nicest Best Westerns I have ever stayed in. The hotel’s top points were the charm, service, and location. The cons are the noise level, only having one key available, and the smoke.
The Location
The Hotel is located in the heart of Lille, right on the square. Good shopping and dining are within walking distance. I particularly enjoyed being close to Paul’s, where the raspberry tarts were heavenly. I was able to walk everywhere I wanted to go. Even the train station was walking distance, though it was a little bit of the hike (wish I had taken a cab to the hotel instead of walking!).
The Hotel
The hotel is older and charming, like Lille. The lobby is marble with a small glass elevator (as in, it fit two people with luggage and had a max. capacity of five people) and a spiral staircase that led up to the rooms. I made the mistake of taking the stairs to my room the first time, because I did not realize that the third floor is really the fourth floor in France. I recommend the elevator if you are above the second floor.
I speak no French and did not experience a language barrier during the normal course of the day. The front desk staff on day shift all spoke good or passable English, and that made my stay much easier. The only time I encountered the language barrier was when my husband tried to call me at night and the evening person at the front desk did not speak good enough English to connect my husband to me.
We hit a slight snag when we wanted to use the wireless Internet at the hotel. I believe it was five Euros for twenty minutes, but that twenty minutes had to be used all in one shot. The woman at the desk told us the wireless Internet was only available on the first floor, but we were able to pick up the network in our room.
Breakfast was a pleasant experience in the morning, though some people in my group thought variety was somewhat limited. There was coffee, tea, orange juice, fresh grapefruit juice, breads, croissants, cheeses, deli ham slices, eggs, cereal, and milk. Everything that was supposed to be cold was sufficiently cold, and that pleased me.
The Room
My room had a mirror with an ornate gold frame over the desk and above the bed was an oil painting that also had an ornate frame. The room was on the small side, but room size varies depending on where in the hotel you are placed. I was traveling with a group and some of the people in the group had larger rooms and one person even had a room with a balcony with a fantastic view of the square. I was able to get some great pictures from the balcony. My room was either 310 or 311, and it was tiny for two people to share. I was rooming with a friend rather than my husband, so there were a couple things that annoyed me that wouldn’t have bothered me at all if I had been with my husband.
--There is very little privacy. Every noise in marble bathroom is magnified and carries. That holds true of the marble lobby, as well. I was on the third floor and I could hear people walk into the hotel in the lobby.
--There is only one room key. This is fine if you go everywhere with the person you are with, but my friend wanted to go out more than I did so we ran into room key coordination issues.
The other thing that bugged me was the smoke. The hotel does have some floors that are non-smoking, and I wish we would have been staying on one of those floors. Our room had the faint reek of smoke. This of course meant that all of my things eventually had the faint reek of smoke, too.
Overall
Overall, I would recommend this hotel for the polite staff, the good location, and the charming décor. If you are sensitive to smoke, stay on a non-smoking floor.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
limona
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Location: NC, USA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
New mother. Wife. Tax accountant. Obsessive shopper. Avid traveler.
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