Crowne Plaza Brussels Europa, Etterbeek

Location –

Off the ring road along the top edge of the city centre. Most 4 and 5 * hotels seem to be located along this stretch - the Hilton, Sheraton and Plaza are all nearby. The Botanic Gardens are next to the hotel and offer the chance of a nice walk in the park. One of the main pedestrian shopping streets is opposite so the location is great if you’re there to shop. For the rest of the sights, the main square (Grand Place), is ...
...and good restaurants are. The only downside to the location is there are no restaurants near the hotel (apart from the one at the hotel) so it’s a metro ride or a walk in the evening to your dinner.

Rogier Metro station is across the road from the hotel so it’s very easy to get to the hotel. There are limited Metro stops in the centre but most sights weren’t too far away from one. Nord railway station is also a few minutes away.
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Location –

Off the ring road along the top edge of the city centre. Most 4 and 5 * hotels seem to be located along this stretch - the Hilton, Sheraton and Plaza are all nearby. The Botanic Gardens are next to the hotel and offer the chance of a nice walk in the park. One of the main pedestrian shopping streets is opposite so the location is great if you’re there to shop. For the rest of the sights, the main square (Grand Place), is a 15-20 min walk away where many areas of interest and good restaurants are. The only downside to the location is there are no restaurants near the hotel (apart from the one at the hotel) so it’s a metro ride or a walk in the evening to your dinner.

Rogier Metro station is across the road from the hotel so it’s very easy to get to the hotel. There are limited Metro stops in the centre but most sights weren’t too far away from one. Nord railway station is also a few minutes away.

The hotel –

Four star hotel with nice, old style reception and bar with lots of marble. The hotel has been extended extensively at the back though so the rest is pretty new. Reception staff were very friendly and pleasant. They were pretty slow to serve us at check out but were fine the rest of the time.

The hotel also offers business services and a gymn and sauna.

The room -

Room was clean and decoration good. Bathroom was also clean and looked pretty new. The room was a decent size. The bed was enormous (a double but was made of two singles) and comfortable. The usual extras were there – tea/coffee making facilities, bottled water, toiletries, hairdryer, iron but no robes though. Room was very quiet.

A word of warning, the mini bar was of the automatic registering type so if you take something out it automatically adds it to your bill. I didn’t realise this and had a look at a couple of items. They weren’t added to my bill though so I guess the fact I put them back was ok!

The view –

None. We overlooked another part of the hotel and other room windows. Slightly disappointing but we had a heavily discounted rate. If we were paying the full rate I would have expected a better view.

The food –

For a small extra fee we had breakfast delivered to our room. The continental breakfast was excellent with a nice selection of fresh fruit, rolls, croissants and preserves or cheese and options to have cereal and yoghurt.

Overall –

A nice hotel with decent rooms. Being on the ege of the city centre isn’t as convenient for sight-seeing but hotels nearer the city centre are in very busy areas and probably nowhere near as quiet.
If you get a good package deal like us, the hotel is good value for money. At full rate (one site quotes 100 – 200 Euros off peak for a double room) it would be a bit expensive.
 

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