Full of the traveling English on coach trips to the Xmas markets .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
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 Ł177 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 Ł16 or €23, meaning the net sum paid for the room was an average €46 / Ł33 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.
Sometimes you get what you pay for in hotels, but I tend to apply this more to the standard rate than what I've actually paid - so I'll feel comfortable booking a cheap room if the hotel normally costs a lot more, like in this case. We arrived at 11pm because of a late flight, and I had rung the night before to confirm we were coming but would be late, just in case they were planning to give our room away. I spoke to someone who was happy to make a note of this, and then texted Fiona to tell her I'd just spoken to a posh German, quite befitting of a 4* establishment, because that is indeed what he sounded like. When we got there we didn't find all that many posh Germans in the flesh, but we did discover some good, discreet service. Checking in took 2 minutes, with no credit card or passport needing to be handed over. We got the key and went up to our rooms where it worked first time - something that never happens to me in cheaper places where they always seem to set them to the wrong number.
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 bedroom, in common with all in this hotel, and most other Novotels, was set up to accommodate 4 people, with one double bed, a large sofa bed (bigger than a standard single) and a pull out bed. However what made this room stand out from many other family ones was that even if all the beds were out, there would still be loads of room left to move around, and you wouldn't be tripping over each other moving from the windows to the bathroom and back again. Another difference was that all these beds were made up ready, even though we had only booked for the 2 of us. This was just as well since although we could have shared a bed, we had already determined we couldn't share a quilt. In what I thought was my wisdom, I had assured Fiona that never once in my whole travelling-in-Germany career had I never had a single quilt on a double bed (Germans tend to favour two, and two mattresses too, on a double base) but this was of course the exception hotel to prove the room as here we did get a double quilt on the big bed.
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.
What made this room truly 4* for me were the little finishing touches, because of course you expect beds and hangers and even a TV in the most basic of hotels. We got there to find chocolates on the pillow (Lindt, natch) though these were a welcome gift only and not repeated. The hotel information informed us that we were entitled to one welcome drink from the minibar, which I took them up on (the minibar was quite small, and only had one coke, one diet coke, one fizzy water, one still water and some beers, plus chocolate and nuts). In addition to the flat, square (German) pillows, a cupboard housed extra regular (UK-style) pillows, and a spare quilt too - being greedy I stole these so I could sleep on a quilt and under a quilt, and truly never wanted to get out of bed again. The TV was wired to the bathroom too, and was much louder in there, so you could listen to the news, or to MTV as you showered. The room was made up early each morning - we would go to breakfast and it would be done when we came back between 9am and 10am, which was nice as you didn't feel you needed to rush teeth brushing or bag packing in case the housekeepers came in.
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.
This restaurant served meals during the rest of the day (though breakfast ran for 5 hours in the morning), and there was also a bar on the other side of reception. Room service is also available. Other facilities included a free internet terminal (facebook here I come), a conference centre, the usual city information and, right on the top floor, a small gym and sauna. We went up to nosy at this on the last day and it was not bad at all - several cardio machines overlooking the river, and proper modern equipment, too. There is also a water machine up here which, had we known earlier, we would have used to fill up our water bottles from, rather than keep buying new ones each day (you could have drunk the stuff from the bathroom taps, but it came out a bit bubbly).
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.
We were very pleased with this hotel and would definitely stay in a Novotel again (especially Fiona who, when she's not abandoning them to go travelling with me, has a husband and child back home, and therefore is always on the look out for decent-sized family rooms). There was nothing more we could have asked for in a hotel for this stay, and we felt we got great value for the small sum we ended up paying. For us it was definitely worth staying a short distance from the centre to get this level of quality for the price (the same money would barely have got us a small twin in a pension in the centre) and I would highly recommend this hotel for a stay in the city.
Novotel Köln City, Cologne
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