Hotel St Martenslane, Maastricht

Advantages: Interesting, cheap and close to Maastricht
Disadvantages: Cold and dark with uneven, sandy ground floors

...The St. Pietersberg Caves are just on the edge of Maastricht and near the boarder of Netherlands and Belgium in the southern Province of Netherlands called Limburg. Maastricht is the capitol city of Limburg. The caves date from Roman Times, before Christ, but were used and lived in as recently as WWII as an escape from Hitler's occupying forces. There are 2-hour tours inside the caves, which are cold enough for the guides to offer 'loan' jackets for sightseers to borrow while inside the caves and also tours conducted in English are available. What you see is incredible drawings and artwork (drawings and paintings) and intricate sculpture from the soft pale yellow sandstone, of which the caves are made. The guides, carrying gas lanterns and flashlights, will give you detailed information about the history of the caves and the artwork... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Beautiful city, everything at walking distance
Disadvantages: maybe the weather??

...of the local beers since there are plenty. Ridder, Brand, Leeuw, Gulpener, Alfa or otherwise one of the very tasty Belgium beers. If you ask for a sjoes (pronounce like shoes), you will get normal beer with a little bit of the heavier dark beer tipped in it. It gives the beer a slightly sweeter taste, yum. Where do I stay???? Just outside the city there are big luxury hotels like Novotel or Van der Valk with rooms between 70 and 200 GBP. If you want a bit less luxury hotel in the downtown area you can book a room in the two star hotel La Colombe (43-100 GBP) or the three star Quartier Bassin (75-275 GBP). If you come by car you can also stay in the small tourist village of Valkenburg a d Geul. It is a 10 minutes drive from Maastricht and has plenty of hotels. The village has a cute town centre and many underground caves and passages that you can... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Small, friendly, very pretty
Disadvantages: Not easiest desination to get to from the UK

...Most people in the UK have only heard of Maastricht in connection with the EC treaty, they couldn't tell you what it's about, nor could they tell you even which country it's in! The city is tucked in the bottom left hand corner of the Netherlands, and surrounded on three sides by Belgium and Germany. It's also very close to France and Luxembourg is only a short car journey away. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's in Holland - that's in the north of the Netherlands, it's the capital of Limburg provence. I attended a business conference in the beginning of March 2003, and quite by accident managed to land in town at exactly the same time as 'carnival' - which they take very seriously - more about this later. The old town is about one kilometre square, and is a maze of narrow pedestrianised streets there's a bunch of old churches... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful