Prague, Czech Republic Hotels and Apartments

We stayed at the Waldstein Residence, which is the associated annexe to the main hotel. Whilst the room itself was clean, and the location (near to the Castle, and a nice walk to Charles Bridge) excellent, I wouldn\'t rush back to the Waldstein any time soon. We paid about £100 per night which seemed on the high side for our tiny room which opened out into the main square (ie, the car park).

When we arrived, the problems mentioned in some of the other reviews on this site became apparent, with the two ladies in front of me at the check in both having \"issues\" with their assigned rooms (no bathroom available, only one key being allocated for a group of 4). We were shown around the corner from the hotel into the square and ushered straight into what looked like an entrance hall; this was half of our \"apartment\". It contained two doors to a basic-but-clean loo and shower room, and also had a large cupboard. Opening the cupboard revealed a fridge (filled with mini bar items), a hotplate, a kettle and some kitchen utensils. There was then a doorway to our wood pannelled bedroom, which was 90% filled with a double bed squeezed into a corner. No bedside tables or sidelights were available (due to lack of room) and the only light source was a naked 60w bulb dangling forlornly from the high ceiling. There was a built in wardrobe, accessible only by squeezing behind the bed, a wall-mounted TV on a high bracket, a small table and a ricketty wooden chair.

On the plus side, the bed was very comfortable and was nicely made up with crisp linens and individual quilts.

We returned to the main hotel building each morning for breakfast, which was standard mittel-European buffet fare, served in the vaulted cellar. Good coffee.

A nice touch was free high speed net access in the lobby, which we used one day upon returning to our room at 5pm, only to discover that it had not yet been made up. There was also a pretty courtyard in the centre of the hotel, with tables and plants - a nice little suntrap.

The staff were very pleasant and spoke good English, but there was a general air of disarray and confusion about the place, and I was pretty surprised that Trailfinders featured it, to be honest.

We visited the Waldstein in January this year for our wedding anniversary. After we had checked in with reception, we were taken back out of the courtyard and down a road back towards Mala Strana Square. We ended up in an apartment just around the corner from the main hotel and we were absolutely delighted with it! The two bedroomed apartment was huge with a modern bathroom, a kitchenette which looked new including dishwasher and oven. There were two sets of french doors which opened up onto a large balcony which stretched around two sides of the apartment -ideal as the weather was unusually warm for January - approx 12 degs. We love jazz, and there was a lovely jazz venue next door to us! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would definitely return on the proviso that we could have this room again!

Booked the Waldstein in December when the reviews on here were all positive. Started to worry when, close to our departure date (Feb 15), some less positive reviews began to appear.

However, we needn\'t have worried. As far as we are concerned this lovely, cosy little hotel is absolutely faultless.

Staff bend over backwards to help, rooms attractive and extremely clean and breakfast is good. Those who have criticised the breakfast should remember that it\'s a foreign country - the whole world doesn\'t eat sausage, bacon and eggs like the English! Same people probably spent their whole holiday eating dinner at MacDonalds!

Best of all, however, was the location. Literally five minutes walk from Charles Bridge, 15 from the Old Town Square and Castle and 25 minutes from Wenceslas Square. Quiet, clean area of town with plenty of nice restaurants to choose from.

We\'re definitely going to return to Prague and we\'ll make sure we stay at the wonderful Waldstein again.