Best Western Palace Hotel, Zandvoort

It's hard to miss the Best Western Palace in Zandvoort, its 20-odd floors rise above the town like a monolithic concrete slab (which it is) and dominates the coastline for miles around. That and the fact it's well signposted.

Zandvoort lies a few miles north of Amsterdam on the windswept North Sea coast of Holland. It's not a large place anyway, but the hotel completely dwarfs almost everything else in the town.
It's 150m from ...
...the town centre and the casino, and 900m from the racetrack. Schilpol airport is 25km distant, Haarlem 5km and The Hague is 45km away.

Zandvoort is a prime holiday resort and has all the infrastructure associated with that function. There are countless restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and some excellent shopping. When we were there, in January, not all the shops/bars etc were open, but the vast majority were, and although the town didn't ... more

It's hard to miss the Best Western Palace in Zandvoort, its 20-odd floors rise above the town like a monolithic concrete slab (which it is) and dominates the coastline for miles around. That and the fact it's well signposted.

Zandvoort lies a few miles north of Amsterdam on the windswept North Sea coast of Holland. It's not a large place anyway, but the hotel completely dwarfs almost everything else in the town.
It's 150m from the train station (Amsterdam is 20 mins away), 400m from the town centre and the casino, and 900m from the racetrack. Schilpol airport is 25km distant, Haarlem 5km and The Hague is 45km away.

Zandvoort is a prime holiday resort and has all the infrastructure associated with that function. There are countless restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and some excellent shopping. When we were there, in January, not all the shops/bars etc were open, but the vast majority were, and although the town didn't have the hustle and bustle I imagine it would have in the summer, it still had a bit of atmosphere.

Parking is difficult in the town, but the hotel has its own, secure parking. This ensures the car is safe, but it's a bit of a hassle getting in and out. To enter/exit, you must buzz the reception from the barrier and tell them your name. They then check the register, and raise the barrier (hopefully). Doesn't sound like much of a problem? Well try doing it in a British car with no passenger - right-hand drive means you have to stretch over the passenger seat and bellow your name to the little grill thingy. What a pain! And if that's not bad enough, they charge you €9 per day for the privilege.

The hotel has 50 rooms and 10 suites and its own stretch of private beach (a huge bonus in the middle of January).

The reception area didn't exactly fill me full of wonder, it was tired and in need of a face lift (aren't we all?). The automatic revolving door at the main entrance didn't work - although it may have been switched off due to gale-force winds battering the shore. For such a large building, the lobby seemed quite small with a few leather sofas and a small meeting area.

Check-in was painless. The staff were pleasant, efficient and friendly without being obtrusive. So, with the form-filling and card-swiping details swiftly dealt with, it was key-handover time and we made our way to one of the four elevators and thence to our room on the 16th floor.

Our room wasn't exactly large, but it wasn't exactly cramped either. Adequate, I suppose. After my impressions of the lobby and the likewise almost tatty condition of the corridor, I was a little apprehensive of what condition the room would be in. Thankfully, I needn't have worried.
We had a huge window, with a door leading onto a good-sized balcony, which afforded us sweeping views over the town and on towards the Amsterdam skyline. Schlipol Airport was somewhere between us and the city and therefore, the view at night, with the sparkly glitter of the 'Dam, and the constant buzzing to-and-fro of the aircraft like some kind of iridescent insects, was quite spectacular. A sea view might have been nice, but as we'd travelled there by ferry, I'd seen all the sea I wanted to see.

The room was brightly decorated and painted white with wood paneling to a height of 5ft around three walls (the window took care of the whole other wall). There was a reasonably large desk with a fridge below (all that was in the fridge was bottled water - reception told us just to ask if we wanted the fridge filled...?!?!) Luckily, I had a few beers to keep the water company. We also had a good-sized wardrobe with plenty of storage space and a trouser-press lurking within. The beds were fairly comfy, though just a little soft for my liking, and had shelves instead of bedside cabinets and a couple of erratic reading lights which would flicker on and off occasionally.

Fortunately, the TV wasn't one of those dinky little efforts that require a magnifying glass, and we had a good choice of 35-40 channels including BBC1&2, plenty of English programmes with Dutch subtitles, and the option of paying for movies.
We had a couple of whicker chairs which were not the most comfortable place to park your behind, and a stupid little glass occasional table that would've been overwhelmed if more than one glass was on it. Nice, thick carpet though.
And NO bloomin' coffee-maker, although you could hire one from the desk, as you could with fans etc.

The bathroom was pretty compact and a bit garish as it was tiled completely in those pure white, public convenience-style tiles. It did keep it bright though. No bath tub, but the shower was excellent with a ferocious gush of piping hot water at your command. Toiletries? just those wall-mounted dispensers, so no souvenirs from this place (I couldn't get the hairdryer off the wall!) - good, fluffy towels though.The bathroom was well-lit and had a useful, tilt-able mirror.

The room and bathroom were both clean - maybe not immaculately spotless, but certainly nothing to complain about.

Breakfast was included in the price and consisted of a hearty, hot and cold buffet. The hot buffet was pretty much scrambled eggs and rashers of crispy bacon, while the cold buffet was made up of various cold meats and cheeses, breads and cakes, and various cereals, yoghurts and the like. Plenty of it too.

In conclusion, the hotel building while not quite run-down, had a dated, 60's-style feel and look to it but the room was fine. Nothing special, but it was clean, freshly decorated with recently upgraded furnishings and, apart from the lack of a coffee-maker, had everything we needed.
It had a fantastic view, and was within easy walking distance of everything Zandvoort had to offer. It's also well located for visiting other places like Amsterdam and the Hague.

I booked this through expedia and scored a rate of £35 including breakfast which isn't too bad.

©proxam2005 

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