Not Top but very good!
Written: Aug 07 '04 (Updated Oct 17 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean and tidy large rooms. Lots of restaurants and bars near by.
Cons: The other side of the city to the lively east.
The Bottom Line: Looking for good priced and reasonable Berlin accommodation?
Look no further!
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| cr01's Full Review: Top Olivaer Apart Hotel Berlin |
Our internet search for a reasonably priced yet central hotel in Berlin threw up what appeared to be an incredible bargain on lastminute.com. This was at the three star TOP Olivaer Apartment Hotel for £37.50 ($65) a night for four nights at the end of June. As we are on something of a travel budget this year, I just could not resist. On arriving at the hotel we discovered that the normal list price is € 98 (towards $120 a night). Even at that price, the 64-room hotel is a reasonable deal.
Location
The Olivaer Apartment Hotel is to the west of the city about 20 minutes walking from the central Zoo Station, although there is a closer train station about ten minutes from the hotel.
The hotel is located on Olivaer Platz but almost abuts onto the Kurfurstendamm, the grand tree lined parade modelled to the specifications of Bismarck. This was one of the streets of the pre conjoined West Berlin. You can follow the Kurfustendamm all the way to the Zoo station and the ruined church monument of Kaiser Wilhelm a little further on. Bismarck was apparently well into fancy ornate plaster and coving work for the buildings down the parade (who would have thought!), but of course the devastation of the second world war has meant that little of this has survived.
Today the parade has the odd old building but most are low rise and functional from the 1950’s. This is now the area of town for expensive and glitzy designer shopping, and we enjoyed window-shopping on our way up and down the street during our wanderings. To my conservative British eye German clothing appears to be so extreme in style. Clothing is either classic and well made, or is of the leopard skin thigh boots worn under a bright pink puff ball skirt variety (and that’s just the menswear lol!). I can also picture the huge sweeping leather capes that we spotted in a number of shop windows (but tellingly, never on the street) making something of an extreme fashion statement down our local pub.
We were however, particularly taken with a large shop selling ethnic wall hangings and statues from Africa, but were aghast with the price tags of many thousands of Euros for each of the items on display. It transpired that these were sixteenth century antique ethnic art objects. Maybe one day that antique grotesque stone mask will be mine!
Behind this main road, there is a maze of pretty tree lined back streets with the occasional clothes and antique shop, restaurant and bar to keep the place interesting. The food choice in the area has an international flavour and includes Indonesian, Sushi, Greek, Spanish and Italian restaurants, as well as generic sleek modern euro type bars. In fact, those with a taste for a traditional German bar with its opportunity to clash steins of fine lager with hearty German men wearing leather lederhosen will find only rare pickings in Berlin.
We ate at a very friendly and fine Italian restaurant Pizza Point on GrolmanstraBe, with its own traditional lol wood fired pizza oven. Our starter, main and bottle of wine came to a very reasonable € 46 for two.
Given that these back streets appeared quiet day and night, I am not quite sure how most of these places manage to stay in business.
Directly opposite the TOP Olivaer Apartment Hotel is the Citadines Olivaer Platz Apartment hotel. Don’t get the two confused as we did. Our friends, who we met up with in Berlin, mistakenly booked this hotel and found it expensive, cramped and unfriendly. What particularly distressed them was having an uncomfortable sofa bed to sleep on.
Also very close to the Olivaer Apartment Hotel is the QBA – a very friendly and pleasant Cuban theme bar. The place is ideal for a nightcap so to avoid hitting the hotel mini bar.
Check In and Out
The reception of the hotel is probably the only slightly disappointing thing about the whole place. The beige and brown reception is in a small but natural lighted room, and reminded me of a faded travel agent. There was a rack of leaflets on display giving suggestions about what to do during your stay. The 24 hour bar was a disappointing affair; a small bar area where the receptionist could serve a few drinks if anyone wanted them. Considering that Berlin doesn’t have any opening hour restrictions on its bars, I cannot imagine anyone wanting drinks from this bar. The reception was not a place to linger.
Our check in and out experience could best be described as functional and efficient. We handed in our printed off receipt, and we were instantly handed a pass card for the corridor doors and for our room and given directions. The lock on the door was a little strange in that you could turn the handle several times in either direction. It was only at day four could I remember how to open the door.
On check out there was no confusion with our small mini bar bill and again everything was handled politely and effectively.
The Hotel
Our room was on the second floor of the five-story hotel. The stairway and corridors of the building were old, brown and creaky, but full of Germanic atmosphere. I was particularly impressed with the grand sweeping natural dark wood banister and the old nineteenth century (?) stained glass windows of brown hunting scenes.
The hotel isn’t the only occupant of the building, and on the first and second floors in particular, other businesses had rooms. Our floor seemed to be the chiropodist capital of Berlin. I guess however, it meant that we couldn’t put a foot wrong.
As you move further up the floors, these interlopers disappear, and the hotel provided carpeting for the corridors and stairs where these are no longer communal.
Although the bare wooden floors were a little creaky in the corridors, I have to say that I did not hear anyone making a racket on them while we were in our room.
The hotel has a lift, but I did not trouble to use it during our stay. Disabled visitors may also struggle with the heavy wooden doors at the end of each of the corridors.
The outside of the hotel is quite spectacular, being fairly art deco and symmetrical in design. You can get a good view of the hotel from across the street.
Our Room
We finally found our room and were impressed with the old glass panelled double doors that barred our entry, although we assumed that what awaited us inside was a heavily truncated room. We were in for a pleasant surprise.
Inside, we were faced with a lobby with a large wardrobe, storage table, coat hooks and mirror. The lobby was probably 7’X11’ and the floor like in the corridor was creaky but made of beautiful dark honey coloured original oak parquet laid out in an appealing herringbone fashion. Two rooms led away from the lobby, the private bathroom and the main bedroom.
The bathroom was very small but very clean. The only freebees in the bathroom were a few sachets of hair and body shampoo that could double up as bubble bath (had we a bath available). The fact that the stuff smelt like toothpaste suggested a fourth use. Versatility itself.
The shower was very powerful and hot; the only downside was a missing shower screen from the fairly old shower surround, which meant that the floor of the bathroom got very wet.
We did get a lot of space for our £37.50; our main room was perhaps 16’ X 22’. All of our rooms were simply but recently painted white and were very clean.
The rooms comprised of two single beds pushed together, a cheap foam seating area covered in new blue fabric, table and chairs, and an impressive bay window with floor to ceiling dark blue curtains. The room had some nice touches, like the square shaped plaster coving around the window bay.
Our room also had a small TV with over 20 channels including BBC world and CNN (yawn). The TV also had the businessman’s friend, the ubiquitous porn channel selection available for a fee. As a non-subscriber, I cannot vouch for the quality of that particular show.
The room also had a well-stocked and reasonably priced mini bar fridge – small bottles of wheat beer were available for a couple of euros. Wine and spirits together with soft drinks were also available. Just tally up what you drink on the score sheet provided and away you go!
The only expensive item in the mini-bar was the water, which was offered in laughably small bottles for a couple of euros a pop. Fortunately, next door to the hotel is a very handy branch of the supermarket Kaisers, where the more budget conscious could get a reasonable quantity of water and also save over a euro a bottle on the beer (beer in German supermarkets is exceptionally cheap).
Our room faced out onto the main street, and so we did find the hotel a little full of street noise, considering that we had the window open. The hotel is warm and cosy, and the duvets on the beds quite thick. I know I like to sleep cool, so the noise may be less of an issue for you, if you keep the secondary glazed windows closed.
With our wanderings across the city, and our extra nightcaps from the mini-bar, the street noise did not really trouble us too much.
Those expecting an apartment with a kitchenette would be disappointed with this particular apartment hotel.
Breakfast
We were incredulous when we realised that the price of our bargain hotel accommodation also included breakfast. In fact, so convinced were we that breakfast would consist of last week’s pastries and a piece of curling ham, that we almost didn’t bother to take the hike up to the breakfast room on the top floor.
While the Ritz needn’t panic just yet, the breakfast spread in that light and airy breakfast room was well worth the climb up three flights of stairs. It included a choice of five fruit juices, a selection of breads (including the abso yummy German Black Bread), three types of breakfast cereals and six flavours of jam (or Jelly as US folk would recognise it). In addition, there were two types of dry chocolate cake, yogurt, a selection of cheeses, a considerable choice of pig, fresh tomato, cucumber and fresh filter coffee, or a choice of teas. The tables even had a supply of artificial sweetener.
The restaurant was well staffed, and empty plates were quickly and efficiently cleared away.
Overall
We were very happy with our choice of accommodation in Berlin. The only major downside to the place is that most of the happening stuff is going on in the east of the City, and so we had to be prepared to a long treck each evening. That said there are plenty of lower key restaurants and bars within a couple of stone throws of the hotel for those daunted by that long trail across town.
Links
Want to read a long review about Berlin?
Want to explore the Brandenburg Gate?
Want to read about life in the old East Berlin? You might find out a thing or two with Stasiland
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cr01 asserts his right to be identified as the author of this review -2004-
This review is part of the 2004 Great Hotel Write Off - for details, a list of participants and details of the prizes on offer, toddle on over to http://www.angelfire.com/trek/greathotel2004/
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
Reviews written: 414
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About Me:
In Venice until Monday :o)
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