Novotel Century Harbourview, Hong Kong

...the closest station to the Novotel Harbour View. Debating amongst ourselves for a short while we decided to take advantage of the Airport train bag advance check in and then head to the hotel. By debating amongst ourselves I mean I argued we should go straight to the hotel and my brother argued we should check in first and he won. We took the train one stop to Hong Kong, walked to the Airport station check in counter and checked in our bags for our ...
...on the outside with much Novotel branding.

Reception is a big open space with a check in desk as you walk in. Behind you are some brochures, mostly about other Novotels or pricey day trips within Hong Kong and to the side, almost in another area are a stack of couches and the lifts. Reception, when we walked in about midday, was well staffed. When I went back through at 5am there was just one poor person manning reception.
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I don't quite know who decides upon these things but 2006 is Discover Hong Kong year.

Hong Kong is quite dense so wherever you stay you aren't going to be too far away from things. The public transport system is pretty decent with a train, buses, a tram line and even ferries. English is widely spoken and for a tourist place, its pretty safe. The most dangerous thing that will probably happen to you is a dangerous urge to beat up the hawkers constantly asking you "copy bag, copy watch".. There is also quite a few things to do besides the well published Hong Kong tourist occupation of shopping and in a week we went shopping once (I got some jeans). Victoria Peak is not to be missed, especially on a clear day and clear night. If you ask at the tourist information place or have a look in the brochures you will see the Tourism board organizes a few free "cultural" events and classes for tourists as well as many other attractions - which this review isnt about.

As long as you stay for less than 180 days and have a passport valid for six months after you leave most countries don't need a visa.

I had an early flight back to the UK out of Hong Kong so we decided to move locations from where we had been staying for the week closer to Hong Kong train station so I could get the first airport train of the morning.

We left the place we had been staying in and arrived at Sheung Wan station, which is the closest station to the Novotel Harbour View. Debating amongst ourselves for a short while we decided to take advantage of the Airport train bag advance check in and then head to the hotel. By debating amongst ourselves I mean I argued we should go straight to the hotel and my brother argued we should check in first and he won. We took the train one stop to Hong Kong, walked to the Airport station check in counter and checked in our bags for our flights the next day. Thank goodness we did.

We caught the train one stop back to Sheung Wan and thought Queens Road West where the hotel is located isn't too far, we have no bags, lets walk. Hah. We walked and walked and walked, and then walked some more. And then caught a bus. Its Far from Sheung Wan station, far. I would have died if I had been carrying my overweight suitcase. Having said that though it is on a busy bus route, and not far away from the tram line, just don't walk it. And when you get a bus? Take proper note of the street address, its 3564 not 3864 as I misinterpreted my handwriting to read. Lucky I had been looking out the window of the bus as we raced past the hotel.

We walked back from the next bus stop along (there's actually a bus stop almost right out front) back to the hotel. Street level of the hotel is just for cars and just next to the driveway is some glass doors leading to escalators which lead into reception. Its well signed on the outside with much Novotel branding.

Reception is a big open space with a check in desk as you walk in. Behind you are some brochures, mostly about other Novotels or pricey day trips within Hong Kong and to the side, almost in another area are a stack of couches and the lifts. Reception, when we walked in about midday, was well staffed. When I went back through at 5am there was just one poor person manning reception.

The reception staff jumped to attention when we walked in and helped us right away. We had reserved in advance on the internet so it was a simple matter of handing over my credit card and we were checked in. Novotel also supports Asia Miles frequent flyer (or sleeper in this case) program so I gave them my Asia Miles card on check in as well. Novotel has their own privilege program "Accor favourite guest" for the frequent Novoteller.

The hotel has 28 stories but we were not even half way up on the 12th floor. We had a nice view of some, err, other buildings. Since I was staying with my brother we opted for a twin room.

The room had, obviously, two beds! A desk with a chair, TV, table, bedside table, tea and coffee and a cupboard with a safe inside. On top of the safe were some slippers. They were just ordinary hotel one use slippers, and therefore not valuable enough to put IN the safe, but i suspect they wanted them near the safe as they had a Novotel logo on them.

A super cool feature (well I thought, I think perhaps I'm easily impressed) was a button you could push that would set a notice outside your door saying, "do not disturb" or "please make up my room". It appeared on an electronic notice board outside your room, though I did have visions of little house elves running around with signs saying, "do not disturb" ending up outside my door. Perhaps too much Harry Potter reading. The buttons could also set the alarm and turn off/on your room lights. I have a weird little quirk where I cant trust alarms I haven't tested out so I used my phone as an alarm and ignored the buttons.

The bathroom was a pretty standard hotel bathroom. Bath, shower (in the bath), toilet, sink and free toiletries. Oh yea and towels (white to match the slippers)! The toiletries included a comb, toothbrush, shampoo, soap and talcum powder. They are still in my bag, I don't know why I take those things - I never use them but I paid for them so they are MINE!

An excellent feature of the hotel is that it has a swimming pool. Another thing I didn't get to use even though Hong Kong was pretty hot while we were there. But that 24 hour advance check in does have some disadvantages and my swimmers were on their way to the airport.. But you get the lift to the top floor, walk along a long corridor (stopping to ask some people who look like they work for the hotel where the pool is) up some concrete stairs and onto the roof and there is your pool. Cool huh! I love a roof pool. It was fully fenced in by glass fences so your view wasn't ruined and OK it wasn't the world's biggest pool, but you could've done laps, and in ground. Surrounding the pool were deck chairs.

Next to the pool was a small gym, which I also didn't use. Mostly because I am lazy though.

The hotel has two restaurants and one bar, which has some kind of happy hour promotion which we missed. Breakfast is also served for 6 pounds but wasn't open when I left. It also has two conference rooms, I didn't use these either. I had to rate the food below and so picked average on the food and drink as I didnt try it so I cant comment. I did use a tea bag in the room if that counts? It was average.

Something else I didn't use was the hotels indoor parking garage. Or the wireless broadband network that's available in all rooms.

My brother checked out and there was no differing from the usual hotel check out routine. He just handed back in the pass, they asked if we had eaten anything from the mini bar and he was on his way.

The hotel advertises that it gives "Number of free children in parent's room: 1" I breathe a sigh of relief that we didn't stay in a parents room, free children with my free soap? Not today thank you. Ask me again in ten years. I rated the hotel as family friendly as they give you a free child. Actually I marked it as that as I noticed a few families while we were there, and they looked happy and friendly.

The hotel has 274 rooms, only 56 of which are non-smoking and 12 suites.

Standard Twin Room: Depending on when you book and how confident you are of not changing your mind you can get a room from 30 pounds up to 60 pounds. The same prices apply to a Queen room. They do seem to offer specials and for the area we wanted to stay in the Novotel were definitely the cheapest found on the internet.

Where is it?
The Novotel Harbour view is in the Western District of Hong Kong Island and 40 minutes drive from Hong Kong International Airport. As mentioned above the closest train station is Sheung Wan where you can easily catch a bus to the hotel. The hotel is right next to Kennedy Town Shopping Centre so keep an eye out for buses that head there. The hotel also has a free shuttle bus every hour or so, you get a schedule when you check in.

At 5am when I was leaving not much in the way of buses were running so I caught a cab. I had asked the hotel staff earlier the best way to get to the train station and they suggested a cab and told me numerous cabs drive up the street out the front, I caught one within one second of stepping outside and paid some ridiculously low amount to get to Hong Kong station. I think it was $30 HKD (which is 2 pounds) and made my train with ease.

The downtown area of Hong Kong is easily accessible and about ten minutes away by bus/tram.

Address :
508 Queen's Road West
Western District, HONG KONG

Tel : (+852)29741234
Fax : (+852)29740333
E-mail : info@nchv.com.hk

More info and bookings: http://www.novotel.com/novotel/fichehotel/gb/nov/3564/fiche_hotel.shtml

For any of you that were wondering, as I was, if I would really ever see my baggage again it turned up in once piece and on the same plane as me.

Hong Kong info: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/login.html

Hong Kong Visa info: http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/hkvisas_4.htm

 

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