Astrid Park Plaza, Antwerp

...very plush hotel - the Astrid Park Plaza
There seemed to be an aquarium to visit, amongst other things to do (Aquatopia - absolutely brilliant, hopefully I'll write a review of it too)

We booked a Monday to Thursday trip in March 2008 through Expedia. The trip from our local tube to the Eurostar was painless and easy, and since this isn't a review of the Eurostar, I won't go into great details, but it was a very easy journey, ...
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I will discuss the pros and cons of this hotel as we came across them:

Location

The location was absolutely excellent. You come out of the Antwerp Centraal station, and cross a sort of pedestrianised square (trams and bicycles, but not cars). Directly in front of you is the hotel, perhaps 150 yards out of the station. It was very easy to find.

Staff

Immediately on arriving we were ... more

After a very busy first year of marriage, without any kind of holiday (terrorists decided that the day we were meant to go for our honeymoon was the perfect day to cause worldwide mayhem). We decided that we really needed to go away at least for a few days on a short city break and decided on Antwerp as a good destination.

Reasons being:
We could go on the Eurostar (thereby no popping ears for our baby - aged 7 months at the time)
It is reasonably close to London
There are Jewish facilities (synagogues for regular prayers, kosher restaurants to eat in)
We found a good deal on staying in what seemed like a very plush hotel - the Astrid Park Plaza
There seemed to be an aquarium to visit, amongst other things to do (Aquatopia - absolutely brilliant, hopefully I'll write a review of it too)

We booked a Monday to Thursday trip in March 2008 through Expedia. The trip from our local tube to the Eurostar was painless and easy, and since this isn't a review of the Eurostar, I won't go into great details, but it was a very easy journey, with simple connections and excellent baby changing facilities onboard.

I will discuss the pros and cons of this hotel as we came across them:

Location

The location was absolutely excellent. You come out of the Antwerp Centraal station, and cross a sort of pedestrianised square (trams and bicycles, but not cars). Directly in front of you is the hotel, perhaps 150 yards out of the station. It was very easy to find.

Staff

Immediately on arriving we were incredibly impressed by the staff in this hotel. They appeared on the pavement to help us with buggy and bags, and were always very professional, yet friendly. No sooner had we asked for a special request (a high chair from the restaurant to be brought up to the room, the mini bar to be emptied for our own food, numerous towels - always necessary with a baby, additional stationery) were they swiftly fulfilling our every need.

Lobby

The lobby is very swish and modern lobby, with comfy sofas, and a bar which we didn't use. It was a very nice setting and on entering the hotel we felt like we were in a very nice and luxurious hotel.

Our room

Our room was enormous! Although my brother in law who came to visit said it was a good sized four star hotel room with standard quality fittings. However, we are not used to such things, as he is (he travels a lot for business), and thought it was really stunning. We had a king sized bed, two chairs and a coffee table, desk, flat screen tv on a sideboard with a mini bar, large wardrobe, huge mirrors and lots of space around it, the furniture was all in a very nice dark wood/leather design. A very high quality travel cot was provided for our little boy who slept in it well. The curtains blacked out the light very well.

The bathroom was a pretty standard bathroom, perhaps the tiles were a incy wincy bit dated, but really, that's a very minor point. There were usual fancy toiletries provided.

Other facilities

Due to religious dietary requirements we didn't use the restaurant or room service, so we can't comment on these.

We did buy 24 hours of wireless internet access for 10 euros, which was handy for checking email and putting in a grocery order for when we got back (how did we every manage without the internet I don't know!)

Cleanliness

The room was cleaned well every day, and given that our baby ate his breakfast in the room, and then traipsed it around, you wouldn't have known!

Overall

We really enjoyed our stay in this hotel. It was luxurious and enjoyable, and worth the price (I think we paid about 90 euros per night). It was in short walking distance to the Aquarium, zoo, diamond district, shops, restaurants, station and all the Jewish facilities needed. Only slight downside was the high chair provided was a bit too cool, and perhaps designed for an older child (not the Ikea one which I wrote about in my other review) and baby didn't do too well in it, but otherwise, everything was really fab. Thoroughly recommend a stay there for a holiday or business. 

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