Review : Artemis Amsterdam Hotel

Overview of Hotel Artemis Amsterdam

An arty hotel in an out of town location. Offers good value for money for those that put amenities ahead of location.

Room

Nice bed and well furnished. Everything fairly new. There are 256 rooms on 8 floors.
Door to bathroom was opaque glass which might be a pit off putting depending how well you know your travel companion. Good facilities for the businessman, TV was a bit too technical for me with complicated menus. One minus was that the wi-fi internet that was in theory free didn't work.

General hotel amenities

Good gym. Nice lifts, The spacious public areas filled with contemporary art gives the hotel a unique look.

Food & Beverages

Breakfast featured a good range of products including doughnuts and waffles for the Americans,

Location and surroundings

Fine in the sense it is roughly half way between airport and city and good in the sense it is a very quite area but not great if you want to be in the thick of it. Overall though I think it's a good choice if you like a higher standard hotel and can get this hotel cheaper than one of the higher quality city centre hotels.

Review : Radisson SAS, Malmo

Overview of Radisson SAS Malmoe

Nothing to complain about, I am used to staying in 4 star hotels and have stayed in 3 other Radisson SAS (now known as Radisson blu) hotels and this one exceeded my expectations mostly because of the large rooms.
Malmo is a nice large town in Southern Sweden. More info on Malmoe

Room

The rooms are massive which I have been told is due to the fact that the building used to be residential studios. This means you get loads of space including a kind of separate work or lounge area with table / desk and chairs. The bed was very comfortable. Be aware that it is usual in Scandinavia to have two separate duvets (ie one for each sleeper) and often two separate beds so if you really want a double make sure you request it. Bathroom was lovely, I love hotel bathrooms - all that marble. All the amenities you would expect were there including a kettle with tea and biscuits. I didn't use it but there was free wireless internet.

General hotel amenities

Small fitness area, no pool.
Ice machines,
Garden area on one of the upper floors,
Free newspapers.
Free wi-fi
Staff were efficient and check-in / out was swift.

Food & Beverages

I am only talking about (buffet) breakfast because we didn't have dinner at the hotel.
The breakfast was superb, great choice and lots of healthy options including a lot of organic stuff. There was also Swedish delicacies too - e.g. herring, meatballs, other fish!
I can't imagine anyone complaining about the brekkie here as there was so much choice and the quality was good. Didn't use the bar (or the mini-bar) so can't comment on that.

Location and surroundings

Short walk from Malmo Central station (where trains from Copenhaghen or bus from Malmo airport will take you), close to the main shopping streets and squares.
No noise from the streets at night. Lovely cafe opposite where we had a simple lunch.
Sterling Cimber airlines has now started daily flights from Gatwick to Copenhagen airport from where you can take a short train ride to Malmö

Booking
Direct at Radisson blu website

4 nights in Turkey, 2 people, under a fiver !

What can you get for under a fiver these days ?


















* About 60% of the London congestion charge - 1 car, 1 day.











* 2 pints of Stella in an average boozer.












* 1 studio at the Kaan apartments in Dalaman, (fly to Dalaman, DLM).
It's got a pool, darts board, snack bar and is about 500 metres from the beach.
Total price for 24 May - 28 May, booked at sunshine.co.uk, £4.87. (!)




Now if only we could find some cheap flights to Dalaman to go with it . . .

Review : Radisson SAS, Biarritz

Overview of Radisson SAS, Biarritz.
Lovely food (well it is France) in a very nice resort. Would recommend this hotel for a short break.

Room
We had a ground floor room with no view but that was OK as we had a baby and stroller so ground floor was sensible. We pre-ordered a cot (free) which was in the room and was lovely. Lovely bed as in all the Radisson SAS hotels I have tried. They get the important things right (Breakfast, Bed & Service?)



General hotel amenities
There was a good spa that tempted me but in the end I didn't have any treatments. The pool was small but was very inviting and there was a good towel service and guests went up in the dressing gowns from the rooms. Architecture of the hotel is nothing special but the views from the roof are excellent and sunsets make it very memorable.

Tip: Compare prices at multiple sites using Kelkoo hotel

Food & Beverages
1 restaurant at the hotel and 1 cafe on the rooftop, rather unusually for me I tried them both and can heartily recommend the restaurant for excellent food, presentation and service. The cafe is OK food but the location / view makes it a winner too. Breakfast was very nice, good selection from the buffet, all the usual plus very wide range of teas.

Location and surroundings
On a hill just outside the centre, driving is a bit tricky due to a lot of one way streets. Walking to town is no problem but lots of hills and small pavements so a bit tougher with suitcase / pram. Good thing about the hill though is fantastic ocean views and lovely sunsets.
No noise problems from our room. One of the great things about Biarritz as a short break destination is the fact that the airport is so close to the town. A short bus ride for a couple of Euro in fact. You can see the runway in the satelite photo of Biarritz below.



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Review : RIU Palace Riviera Maya

A wonderful Cancun Holiday



The Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya is one of the latest addition to the Riu family in Playa del Carmen. The hotel is located in the Yucatan peninsula that is 2.8 km / 1.8 miles from Playa del Carmen.



Official website : RIU Palace Riviera Maya, Mexico

Also available to book RIU hotels at Thomsons online :

















General hotel amenities

The hotel is very grand but also modern, there are some very impressive features - massive ceilings, lots of marble, nice chandeliers for example. The pools are superb. There is one that is like a raised infinity pool and then there is a large pool linked to that by a waterfall. There are swim up bars of course. The gym was nice, all brand new equipment and good air-con. Lots of American and Canadian guests when we visited.

Room

We were on the highest floor, with a sea view.
Cleaning was excellent with different "sculptures" made out of the towels each day.
I think this is a RIU trademark - there was optics in the room!

Food & Beverages

While a lot of people are now familiar with the all inclusive service concept, RIU All inclsuive is a class above, even more so in Mexico and The Caribbean. The all inclusive facilities are available 24 hours a day.

We tried all 4 la carte restaurants and weren't disappointed at all. In a way I preferred the buffets just because of the massive choice but the service was very good in the a la carte restaurants.

You could eat and drink 24hours a day because the sports bar was always open and apart from the bar had a bit of self service food - fruit, sandwiches and nachos.
Did the buffet for breakfast which was superb and catered for all lifestyles /nationalities, you could go healthy with lovely fresh fruit, yoghurt etc or pig out on fresh doughnuts or pancakes.

Location and surroundings

Nice beach, a little bit slim ( I think a hurricane a few months before had "taken" a lot of it away!), lovely blue sea, but we spent most of the time by the pool as there was more shade there. There were some nice hammocks on the beach. The resort of Playa Del Carmen is just about walking distance if you are fit and is very nice, a lot more laid back than Cancun.

Largest Pool in the World

Surprising it's not in Dubai. Check out the pictures and video of the world's largest swimming pool. The lagoon in San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, Chile measures 1,013 metres in length, covers an area of eight hectares (20 acres), contains 250,000 cubic meters of water and is navigable in small boats - You will have to swim around 2km to complete a single lap.

The pool is salt water which started us thinking, as it's next to the ocean, what's the point?! Well, it must be cleaner, warmer, and a bit safer than the ocean. Anyone know where the largest freshwater pool is ?





Here is a satellite image of the worlds largest swimming pool :


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And some more photos:

Location of Rio Park Benidorm

Rio Park Hotel, Benidorm, Costa Blanca



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Satelite image or Rio Park, Benidorm