Holiday Inn, Dijon

While traveling through France we found ourselves deep in the heart of Burgundy where we visited in the region's capital, Dijon.
Whilst there, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Garden Court.

The location of the hotel is near the junction of the northern approaches to Dijon, and the city's ring road. It sits quite prominently in the centre of a brand-new business, commercial and leisure area which is called La Toisson D'Or. It's almost impossible to miss it as the hotel is adjacent to a large shopping mall which has 130 shops, 15 restaurants and bars, a water park, a fitness club (with discounts for hotel guests) and a park.

Getting into the city couldn't be easier - the shopping centre and the hotel have the advantage of a public transport terminus within a few yards of the front door. The buses use dedicated lanes and you can be in the centre of the city in literally under 5 minutes.

When I say the hotel is easy to find, obviously I don't mean for us. We had pre-booked the hotel but had then lost our confirmation print-out so all we knew was which hotel in Dijon we had reserved - not where it was. As we were approaching from the south, and we didn't even have an address, it turned into a bit of an expedition. There's nothing like forward planning - and this was noth....och, you already know the punchline.

The Hotel is a squat, not particularly attractive, modern building which has 100 rooms spread over six floors - each room able to accommodate up to four people. There are non-smoking rooms and also a few rooms which have been specially adapted for disabled guests.

Checking-in couldn't have been easier. Although sitting at the main entrance to the shopping mall, the hotel has a private car park and we were able to park just a few metres from the entrance. The reception area was bright and busy, with wood panelling and potted plants giving it a natural feel. There were other people checking in when we arrived but another member of staff appeared almost instantly and dealt with us. No problem with languages, there was a notice listing the linguistic capabilities of the staff, and it was fairly long!
One thing that did tick me off was the fact that the girl dealing with us insisted on emphasizing that we had booked the room on a cheap deal and continually repeating what price we paid. No problem for me particularly, but as we paid around half the rack rate, I'm sure anyone listening who had paid the full price would not have been best pleased.

To the right of the reception desk, a doorway led to the bar and restaurant, whilst to the left lay the elevators.
Details exchanged, we took the elevator to our 4th floor room.

All the rooms face to the front of the building with the corridors running along the back having windows overlooking the aqua centre. This was probably best, I'm not sure I wanted to look out my room window onto hordes of screaming and splashing kids. Being at the front of the building (and 4 floors up) meant our room had a great view over some of the Burgundian countryside as well as a good portion of the city.
The air conditioned rooms are typical Holiday Inn fare. Clean and fairly modern, and decorated in soft, pastel shades. We had two double beds which were firm and comfortable and a couple of soft chairs, as well as dining table and chairs. There was a large wardrobe, which was more than adequate, and a sideboard with plenty of drawer space which also housed the TV - complete with cable and pay-for-view movies. There wasn't a great deal of choice as far as English language channels go, but there were English movies available. The sideboard also accommodated a decent-sized work station with attendant lamp.

We had a coffee maker, trouser-press and a hair drier which was extremely awkward to use - the cable was fed through the sideboard and short of removing your head to dry your hair, I'm not sure it was feasible to use it, the cord was so short. There were a couple of full-length mirrors but none anywhere near the hair-drier, making it even more useless.

The bathroom had a 3-sided mirror wrapped around the vanity area which was under a sort of canopy where the lighting was housed. The toiletries were nothing to get excited about - the usual soap, shampoo and other little odds and ends - all perfectly acceptable. The towels were big and fluffy - all the better to dry you with. The shower was that in name only I'm afraid, I've salivated more forcefully at the thought of a trappist ale. The bathroom in general was clean but there was a little mildew in the grouting around the half-size bath-tub.

We also had a mini-bar but were afraid to use it. When we arrived, I put a bottle of water in it and I must have nudged against the items already in there and activated the sensor. Within minutes there was a chapping at the door and a member of staff was keen to replace 4 bottles of water and some cans of coke. I showed him that the items were unmolested and still in pristine, unopened condition and I assumed that was that.
When we checked out the next day, the hotel tried to charge us for the aforementioned goods but quickly accepted our explanation and amended the bill. An hour later, I remembered I had indeed drank a bottle of water through the night.....whoops!

Th e Facilities of the hotel included a restaurant where it was possible to enjoy more than 21 different mustards including, Blackcurrant, Honey or Basil flavours. As you can imagine, the emphasis of the menu is heavy on mustard-related cococtions. In fact, I don't think there was anything on the menu that didn't include mustard as an ingredient - even desserts - I kid you not!
I like mustard, but this seemed rather extreme, even for Dijon. We didn't use it and, as there are multiple dining opportunities in the adjacent mall, and the city-centre is only 3km distant, there is no obligation to do so.

One thing I noticed from their website is that children under 12 eat for free when dining with their parents in the restaurant - this seems like a great deal. How often have you splashed out on expensive food for kids, just for them to whine about how they really wanted a McHappy McMeal from some burger chain or other? The little darlings.

The bar and lounge is open until midnight and was pleasant enough, but a bit characterless.

The Oxygène water park is adjacent to the hotel and features several swimming pools with waves and slides, and an outdoor pool with sunbathing areas.
In the same building is the fitness centre. It's fully equipped and also includes a small swimming pool, jacuzzi and solarium.
We didn't venture into either facility.
The Aqua centre and Fitness centre are not free but special rates can be arranged for hotel guests.

In conclusion, a typical Holiday Inn. It's location is handy for those, like me, who are just passing through but still want to spend a little time in Dijon. Handy for the shops too, if that's your bag. We paid £90 for a room with 2 double beds which seemed OK for value.

©proxam2012