My bruises have bruises. I'm blaming the cheerleading. Review writing is a whole lot less dangerous....
My bruises have bruises. I'm blaming the cheerleading. Review writing is a whole lot less dangerous.
Member since:08.07.2001
Reviews:593
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I went to visit Slovakia for a short break when I was living in Vienna, spending 3 nights in Bratislava, staying at the Hotel Turist (read on to see why the op’s called Hotel Filmstar). I was in quite a good mood when I arrived as my taxi had only ended up costing me 50p more than the hotel had said it should – quite an achievement I thought considering I don’t speak a word of Slovakian. The first thing I realized when I arrived, though, is that websites can lie. You probably knew this already, but I was a naive little teenager at the time and I thought that if a website said something, then it must be true. The following quotes come from their website ( www.turist.sk/ ).
“Hotel Turist offers comfortable accommodation
for favourable price in 99 double and triple rooms, which are equipped with bathroom, toilet, TV with satellite programs, telephone and fridge. Each room has balcony. “
The price bit – check! Nice and cheap (around 18 GBP per night)
The rooms – well mine had a bathroom, yes, and a toilet, a TV with lovely international channels (got to watch CNN but all it was showing was Oklahoma bomber Timothy Mc Veigh being put to death, nice and cheerful thing to see at 7am in the morning just as I was getting up).
I didn’t have a telephone or fridge, but I think they were in the superior rooms. There was a balcony (lovely view of the council style flats opposite) but to get out there you had to climb through the window as there was no door. The window didn’t shut very well – luckily it was warm so the temperature didn’t bother me, but the noise from the street below was a bit of a pain.
Comfortable? Hmmm. The beds were nice but the bathroom was definitely one in which you would want to wear your flip-flops..... They provided two towels (or what I think were supposed to be towels, but were more napkin sized) and their effort at free toiletries was, well, a small bar of soap (which I nicked – after all I wanted my money’s worth).
“The reception is open 24 hours”
I don’t come and go at all hours, but at 11pm when I got back from the ballet there was someone there, and at 6.30am one morning when I went out for a walk (don’t ask) there was someone there, so I assume they stayed over night too.
“In leisure time you can visit hairdresser's and cosmetic salon or sauna directly in our hotel.”
I saw the signs and was going to get my hair done since it was nice and cheap and I had nothing better to do, but the fact that I couldn’t find the way in was a bit of a problem.
“Hotel TURIST occupies a prominent location due to easy access to public transport (5-8 min. drive to the town centre) and main transit routes to Vienna (60 km), Budapest, Prague and Krakow.“
5 to 8 mins is a lie – it took me a minimum of 30 mins each day to get to the centre but never mind.
“Several amenities are situated in close distance from hotel TURIST (5 min. walk): the culture and congress centre Istropolis, recently opened Polus City Centre, soccer stadiums Slovan and Inter, 2 marketplaces, night club, sport hall Pasienky, swimming pools, fitness centre, ice rink, bowling hall, park with lake and other sport facilities”
Found the stadiums (just follow the crowds) and saw the park and lake, but the rest are a mystery to me, and I feel I know the area pretty well since I wandered for over an hour on my 1st day when I got lost. Luckily I found a nice elderly German speaking couple who showed me that my hotel was just around the corner, and I had, essentially, been going round in circles for ages.
Extra points : The staff were nice and polite and multilingual – I started off in German and they replied in it too, but when I handed over my passport they immediately switched into English.
Breakfast is not included, but only cost about 50p. The menu was not clear, and only in Slovakian and very bad German, but the food was nice – beware the “pastry” on the menu though – it’s just a baguette.
Overall, not that bad a place to stay (if you remember your flip-flops) but hardly a luxury hotel. The other guests were interesting though – not many tourists, mainly business men and some young (though not famous) American actors who were filming in the city centre (being on my own, I took a book down to breakfast, and then eavesdropped).
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