In Cologne, as in many other places, you get much more for your money the further away you get from the main attraction - in this case the Cathedral. I'm starting with the cost because that's the most important thing to me when reading a review. I don't want to learn all about a fantastic hotel I just have to stay at, and then get sung by the price in the end. We chose to stay a bit further away from the Cathedral in Cologne in the 4* Novotel on the banks of the Rhine. We booked in September for travel in December, and paid only €250 (which was £177 on the date we checked in) for the three nights. This price included a breakfast each morning, which would otherwise have cost €15 each. Two breakfasts per day for 3 days is €90, so for the room only price we're down to €160. I booked through Quidco, using the Novotel own website (they have a best price guarantee) and got cashback of £16 or €23, meaning the net sum paid for the room was an average €46 / £33 per night. This is less than half the standard rate available on most booking websites, and almost a third of the rack rate advertised in the hotel.

The room was simply massive and, lest we forget its monster dimensions, our first task was to make a film of it on one of our cameras to show the folks back home. The bathroom was normal sized and normally equipped, though the freebies were rather scarce - just one bottle each of shampoo and body wash. However these were clearly meant to be taken home if wished, since the bath and sink were also fitted with those green, refillable soap and shower gel dispensers for actual use in the hotel.

The room also had a TV with lots of channels but only one English language one that was free (there was also a pay per view English film channel). There was a minibar, a long desk with two chairs so we could both sit there and write letters on the complimentary Novotel writing paper if we wished, and a weird wardrobe thing that didn't have doors or a top, but was just some rails concealed behind some pieces of wood. The overall décor was very clean, slightly Ikea-style, plain and minimalist, and I liked it a lot. The only thing I would change would be the picture over the desk which I kept going to thinking it was a mirror (the mirror was further up near the non-wardrobe). We had a view of the internal hotel courtyard, and of what we thought was the cathedral but which, when we got our bearings, we decided must be one of the many other churches in the city instead. The room was beautifully quiet, even with the windows tilted open, and it was the right temperature for us too, though there was a thermostat on the wall we could have adjusted.

We had booked this hotel in part because of the rave reviews of the breakfast on a travel site, and we were not disappointed as it was one of the biggest spreads ever seen, and presented in a really cute way. You'd go in, pick up a newspaper if you wanted (either national German, local Cologne or the Wall Street Journal) and head to the bread area where they had adorable little bread baskets to fill up and take to your table. The choice was amazing, with literally a dozen types of bread and rolls (seeded with different seeds, brown, white, plain). There were also croissants and pain au chocolate here, and crispbread and crackers. Then came the hot stuff, again with a good selection for carnivores (eggs including herb scrambled ones, bacon, sausages) and herbivores (beans, potatoes things and even waffles with maple syrup). On the other side was the cold dairy - cheeses, meats and sausages (half a dozen types of the latter), yoghurt and fruit. They even had a cheese board to go with the slices, in case you fancied Brie for breakfast. On the final side was a cake selection, cereals (including 4 types of museli) and the drinks which included squeeze-your-own-juice, regular (bit-less) juice and teas to make yourself in the mini tea pots, which also meant I could have my new favourite of hot water and lemon thanks to the slices they had laid out. As the reviewers had said, you really could eat here in the morning and be stuffed for the rest of the day.

The location was excellent for our needs, just 20 mins stroll into town (you could do it in 15 mins if you didn't stop at any shops), 10 mins from the Chocolate museum and nearest Christmas market, and about 5 minutes from the end of the main shopping street, an area full of restaurants, cafés and those all important supermarkets. The hotel is on a busy road but is well soundproofed, and you have a view of the river from one side and the Cologne skyline from the other. We felt perfectly walking back from the centre in the dark at night after going back out to the markets, and evidently others felt safe here too since one evening at about 10pm we came across an old man doing tai chi on the very un-picturesque street corner beside the hotel.