Yesterday I felt a day over forty. Today, I feel two days over forty. Wonder what I'll feel tomorrow...
Yesterday I felt a day over forty. Today, I feel two days over forty. Wonder what I'll feel tomorrow?
Member since:17.04.2004
Reviews:35
Members who trust:17
The Scandic chain of hotels is owned by the Hilton Group and as such the Scandic Neringa is a modern standard hotel in Lithuania's capital Vilnius.
The hotel is much like any other in the Hilton chain, with a few minor 'twists'. There is no gym, no swimming pool, but there is a sauna. The sauna is on the top floor and is free for guests. Apparently it is fairly common practice to have a 'massage' in the sauna. Yes one of those massages. Not one where your back gets rubbed, well much anyway.
The hotel has 60 rooms and is located in the centre of the business district. I can't say what all the
hotel rooms were like, I only stayed in one. This was a global standard room, nice bathroom, mini bar, TV with English channels and twin beds. It was clean and equipped so that it could have been almost any 3* hotel anywhere in the world.
I was there in the recent cold spell, and the room was very very cold, so much so that I had to use an electic fan heater on all night to keep it warm. the fact that there was one in the room already was a little worrying.
The restaurant in the hotel was dire. The food at breakfast provided a huge choice, but even the hot food was only warm and the vast majority was a variety of bizarre cold dishes. Herrings, boiled meats (veal, chicken, pork), vegetables and more. The sausages served up looked like mini fat boiled hotdogs, the bacon was like bacon fries! Lithuanian pancakes were the nicest thing on offer, these were stuffed with some sort of cream cheese and were quite nice.
Food wise I gave up after two poor breakfasts and ate out elsewhere for the rest of my trip. There is a good Pizza based restaurant next door that was busy, cheap, and good.
The hotel has an English pub themed bar in the basement, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. The most bizarre thing was on one night I visited there was a Russian looking gent giving 1930s style dance lessons to local ladies. Was like slipping through some sort of time trap door into the Baltic 20s.
Another bizarre hotel feature was the copies of Financial Times lying around everywhere. Nothing funny in that you might assume, but one headline about an aircrash caught my eye. A Cypriot plane had ploughed into a Greek hillside, not again I thought. I was right, not again. The paper was more than six months old. The FTs were old copies left lying around for decor. Hmm.
The hotel's situation was not ideal for seeing the old town, a cab ride was necessary which was an adventure in itself. The cabbies seemed to also assume that the only thing on a Western visitors mind would be 'massage' too, I later found out that this is because the cabbies are all on commission from the strip clubs and massage parlours to fetch punters in. It was very seedy indeed, great if you are a sex tourist or on a stag weekend, not so great if you're there to work as I was.
The hotel has a number of interesting items for sale, they'll sell postcards and stamps, copies of local papers including the English language 'Baltic Times' (Now that was a read and a half - page 8 story on a organised crime gang boss on trial for 16 murders, why page 8!), and some fine amber jewellery. Amber it appears is the national souvenir of Lithuania, it's for sale all over and is much cheaper than Western prices.
The hotel provided free internet access and has conference rooms and a business centre, useful for travellers. Cell phone reception is fine and seemingly fairly reliable.
The staff couldn't have been more helpful, the hotel accepted all standard credit cards, and you could pay for most things in Euros as well as Lithuanian Litas - these cannot be exchanged outside the country. I was very impressed that the second language appeared to be English, menus and most other items were printed in English and Lithuanian.
The stay counts towards the Hilton Honours programme, one of the better awards programmes for frequent travellers as you can get air miles aswell as HH points.
In summary the hotel was fine, would probably have been better had the temperature risen above -20C during my stay.
================== Contact details
Gedimino Ave. 23 Vilnius 01103 Lithuania Telephone: +370 5 268 19 10 Fax: +370 5 261 41 60 E-mail: neringa@scandic-hotels.com
Bookmark: http://www.scandic-hotels.com/neringa
Pictures of Scandic Hotel Neringa, Vilnius
The front in warmer climes than when I visited
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
A virtually exceptional review - only thing I'd like to know was price, and how you went about booking it. Also what time of year you went because you said it was cold so just wondering when exactly... On a side note, what was the actual capital like? Interested in trying out some of Eastern Europe (having been to the Czech Republic). Is it at all the same I wonder? x
mum52 02.03.2006 09:23
*chuckle* I had to laugh when I read the bit about the dance classes! Good review, now I want you to write one about raspberries!
Centrally located close to Vilnius’s historic Old Town, the Scandic Neringa Hotel is just ... more
5 blocks from the centre of the Lithuanian capital.Unwind in the sauna or plunge into the mini-pool. Enjoy Lithuanian dishes in the Neringa Restaurant. The hotel ...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (93%):
helpful by (3%):
