Last time I came to Europe, I did little reviews of all of the hotels in which I stayed. I noticed that it kind of cluttered up the blog so, to the extent that I did it again on this European trip, I thought I’d do them in little blocs. This is the first of those blocs for this trip – Paris, Marseille and Milan. (Update: As a bonus, I’ve added Pisa.)
In Paris, I stayed at the Hotel Des Nations Saint Germain. It is located in the Latin Quarter, almost literally a stone-throw’s away from the Pantheon and very close to Notre Dame. It was in a very good location, though I’m convinced that there is not a bad location to be found in Paris. The closest familiar chain that I saw was a Starbucks that was located about a kilometer away. There also was a Carrefour grocery very close, which is a grocery chain that I fell in love with in Buenos Aires. The room was about average size for a European budget hotel room. Just a little bit larger than the full-size bed in the room, but large enough. There was a small television with CNN International and BBC and the bathroom was roomy enough. Nothing spectacular, but it was under $100/night, so I will take it. Oh, and internet. It was available, but you had to pay for it. Not too pricey, though, as I spent about $5/day.
In Marseille, I stayed in the New Hotel Select. It is located about four blocks south of the main train station. As I’ve written about before, the neighborhood is a little sketchy between the train station and the hotel, but wonderful in the other direction. When I arrived, I was given a rather large room with a huge bathroom. I was ecstatic for the price – around $80/night. On the second of three nights, though, the toilet stopped working. I was a little less ecstatic. I was moved to the room next door, which was much smaller than my previous room. My ecstasy had pretty much ended by this point. The hotel had free wifi, but only in the lobby, which sent me down to the lobby on a few occasions to play with the beautiful internet. The staff was friendly, but one thing that was really curious was that when I checked out, at 5:00 in the morning, I had to wake the night person up as he was sleeping on the floor behind the desk. I still got out on time, though, so whatever.
In Milan, I stayed at the Hotel Aladin. I’m not sure what to say about this place. It was cheap. So it’s got that going for it. Location-wise, it wasn’t ideal. It was a 25-minute walk to the nearest metro stop, so that was a pain. It was clean enough, I guess. The proprietors were an Asian couple that spoke a little English and were very friendly. That’s about where the good things ended, though. The shower stall was entirely too small for me, and I’m not a huge guy. Somehow, Expedia believes that the fact that there is a computer downstairs for public use during the five minutes a day the owner or his family wasn’t using it constitutes “high-speed internet service.” It didn’t help me none. The television had only local stations, nothing in any language other than Italian. The walls were thin, the room occasionally loud, and there was no breakfast. And when I say it was cheap, I mean only in terms of Milan. Thus far, it’s still the most expensive hotel I’ve stayed in on this leg of the road trip. Had I known, I probably would’ve stayed somewhere else, but I just wanted some place cheap that would allow me to see a match at the San Siro, so I guess the place wasn’t bad enough to ruin my trip, but I don’t think I could recommend it.
As a bonus for you, my special friend, here’s a fourth hotel review in this entry. Since I’m currently on a train from Pisa to Rome, I can comment on the Alessandro Della Spina Hotel, in which I stayed in Pisa. Again, I went cheap, but this was at least listed as a 3-star hotel (which aren’t as nice as 3-star hotels in the U.S., but aren’t bad). Here, my experience was much better than in Milan. Even though I didn’t have an address for the hotel, just a general idea that it was to the southeast of the train station, I found it easy enough and it was only about a 10-minute walk away. The staff was extremely friendly. Although the room was small, typical for European hotel rooms, it was very nicely decorated and very clean. Internet service wasn’t free, but it was there and after Milan, I was extremely thankful for that. It was about a 20-25 minute walk to the main tourist areas in Pisa, so the location was adequate for that as well. The hotel also served free breakfast. There was nothing hot, but they had two of my favorite luncheon meats – mortadella and salami, so there is no way I can complain. All-in-all, I have to say that I was rather pleased with my experience at this hotel.
There you go – the first of a series of hotel reviews for this trip. Tune in next time for Rome, Athens, Thessaloniki . . .
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