Holiday Inn, Helmstedt, Germany Would you like smoke in your non-smoking room?
Written: Apr 05 '06 (Updated Apr 06 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Personal attention (especially if you're the only ones staying there)
Cons: Smokey non-smoking rooms (I guess technically the rooms weren't going up in smoke)
The Bottom Line: Odd little place to stay...nice people. If you stay here, read the folder in the room.
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| jsaunt's Full Review: Hi Garden Court Helmstedt |
[Please note: Although Epinions has this listed as the "Hi Garden Court Helmstedt" it's really the "Holiday Inn Garden Court" in Helmstedt.]
As I have mentioned in reviews of other German hotels, I had the chance to travel to Germany for 2 weeks in the middle of March (2006). My friend had vouchers for most of the hotels we stayed in (as well as the airfare) – and I was lucky enough to join her! We got to stay in small towns and in (or near) large cities, and experienced some great German food and hospitality, as well as take in some historic sites. We got a little taste of some customs and history in our time there. I am now officially jealous of the wonderful train and subway system that they have (especially compared to where I live in Southern California where the car is king). I will say that I’m not jealous of the fact that half of their year is winter, as I sit here in (sometimes) sunny San Diego County.
Rather than lengthy reviews, I’m listing some pros and cons about our hotels (since none of them have reviews on the site so far). They each had a bathroom in the room and rates were for 2 of us. All of the typical accoutrements were there (including hair dryers, down comforters, phones, mini-bars, and TVs) unless otherwise noted. I should mention that usually there was only one channel in English (CNN), as there was in this one. But we did enjoy watching the German version of “Family Feud” and an old dubbed “Home Improvement”, as well as trying to figure out the humor in a German sit-com. Like all the other hotels we stayed in, this one was clean and felt safe. This (like the others), was certainly better than the level of a hostel, although it would not be considered a luxury hotel. This one had its quirks, but overall, we had few complaints.
In our trip, we learned that the typical German (hotel) breakfast includes an array of cereals, cheeses, breads, rolls, sausage spread, fruit, yogurt, juices, coffee and tea. Some places additionally had fish, eggs and/or potatoes, and I got to taste quark (a German yogurt cheese). This hotel had the same spread. We also found the German people to be nice and helpful, although not consistently outgoing. Generally speaking, in the larger cities more English is spoken (on request), and in the smaller towns, like Helmstedt, little to no English is spoken. Despite the fact that both my friend and I come from German heritage, we don’t speak German, yet we managed fairly well, and now can say “Guten Morgen”, “Bitte”, and “Danke schon” with a pretty decent accent.
The purpose of these mini-reviews is to give you information if you are considering any of these hotels (and not to get high ratings or income share). If I think of anything else, I just might edit later.
Tschuss! *
Have you ever even heard of Helmstedt? I had not.
Helmstedt is a very small town in central Germany. It was not far from Hannover and Bremen and made a good base for us to take trains to these other towns. The town itself had a small shopping street and a very small train station. This hotel is situated a bit oddly in a residential area, but the taxi driver knew where it was, so that’s all that mattered to us. Other than when we had our luggage it made for a nice (if not long) walk into town and to the train station.
Pros:
Personal service at check in (since we’re convinced we were the only guests there 1 night)
Nice staff (not much English, though)
Breakfast included (at least with our vouchers)
Amusing translation of information in room (amusement was probably unintentional, but then again, I wouldn’t be able to translate English to German)
Clean
Sauna included (sadly we never made time for this)
Cons:
Odd configuration of lobby/bar which allows smoke from the bar to float into the non-smoking rooms (enough to awaken us at midnight…along with the clanking of the dishes in the restaurant)
Oddly configured room
Unfinished paint job in room
Odd 70”s and 80’s American music in the restaurant (although we were amused by it)
Quite extensive menu for such a small hotel
Very small clothes-hanging section of the closet with (curiously) large section of unusable space
Long walk to train station (you probably wouldn’t want to walk with luggage up the hill for 20 minutes or so)
Not sure if this is a pro or con
Pants-pressing center in each room (I guess if you were in an ironing mood it would be a pro. Otherwise it was just unusual.)
Rate per night: 68.50 Euros/ Approximately $83.06 US dollars
* Tschuss! (pronounced almost like “Shoes” [but almost in 2 syllables] means “bye” and was used much more often than Auf Wiedersehen, in our interactions)
I’m posting these as stand-alone reviews, so if you’re looking for other hotels, look at any of my other reviews and start reading after the intro when I get specific to the city and hotel.
Other hotels reviews from this trip:
The Hotel Excelsior – Frankfurt, Germany
Holiday Inn - Munich South, Germany
Courtyard Marriott - Gera, Germany
Renaissance - Hamburg, Germany
TOP Airport Domizil Hotel - Frankfurt, Germany (Walldorf Region)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jsaunt
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Member: Leslie
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 208 members
About Me:
It's not the place, it's the people.
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