Belle Epoque Apart Residence Kraków Aparthotel — Hotel in Krakow

A family of four arrived on the 24th and departed 27.12.24.

We were in room 11 overlooking a courtyard to neighbouring properties, we did not see or hear any disturbances. Our room was clean, very spacious with a lift & stairs option. Although the room could accommodate a wheelchair user, the only entrance into the building was up a number of stairs. During our stay we did not encounter noise from guests and noted all furnishings had end covers to prevent any noise from moving chairs, which we have not experienced overseas before & was impressed, as hard floors & chair movements would normally create a lot of unwanted noise.

Literally next door, is a small chain supermarket that are dotted around Krakow during Christmas altered hours were specified changing daily.

We found the staff extremely patient, friendly & helpful with pre visit emails answering our questions, predominantly due to Christmas & not having local knowledge of things changing over Xmas. We left at the reception (during evening out of hours) a written request for an additional plate, that was provided straight away.

The rooms were constantly warm (obviously not requiring the air conditioning on to comment on). The bathroom had some hand/bath wash dispenser points & washing up cleaning materials were provided, there was a dishwasher, but not a microwave. We did not switch on the TV (from a previous review) stating there wasn't an English channel (alike the electric oven instructions all being in Polish).

The hotel ask guests to place waste in 4 recycle containers & care for the environment. A natural Christmas wreath decoration, a small supply of tea/coffee packets greeted us. We requested a toaster/twin beds all ready, sofa bed was not comfortable.

It is within easy reach of the oldest medieval square in Europe. We had 1 tour booked to Zakopane which was excellent & another cancelled 2 days before departure this being a last minute museum closure, other tours were closed until 27.12. That is the negative visiting Christmas, but the positive being the Christmas market & Tatra mountains ski resort being a "winter wonderland" in Zakopane just right for this magical time of year.

We visited Castle 2 (the remainder was closed for Christmas). Once you have entered the Castle you can no longer use your ticket for free entry to the toilets, even when exploring the Castle grounds and have to pay thereafter each toilet entry. In Zakopane and the castle you could pay by card , when being short of local currency coins. The dragon beneath the castle breathes fire, roughly every 5 minutes.

Krakow has 1 public toilet in the square, thereafter walking in either direction along the river to the Jewish Quarter or "Mound", in the opposite direction is something to consider on a winter cold holiday. We were fortunate to have good weather frost and sun in Krakow & snowfall in Zakopane. Our Zakopane tour guide from "Krakow Direct" commented on global warming reducing extreme cold temperatures over the years recently.

As things were closed in Krakow, we visited independently the old streets with heritage information signs and around Schindlers factory, and the atrocious acts that took place in the Jewish Ghetto.

The accommodation was ideal for our short visit at this time of year. A very enjoyable holiday seeing inside a number of festively decorated churches and how the local people enjoy their own Christmas market. We encountered no issues or disorderly behaviour from alcohol at the market, but there was a police patrolling van to lock up any group of individuals causing disturbances, predominantly a family Christmas market with a very welcoming atmosphere with mulled wine & beer/food/souvenirs all available. The square has horse and carriage rides in the illuminated market and a tradition of an hourly bugle player.

Just have a paper and pen for a quick service response when the reception is closed, they will gladly help with booking tours or taxi transfers to the airport, a friendly, helpful team, thank you for your help and...

A beautiful apartment building with very stylish rooms, wooden floors and large windows which make the accommodation very comfortable. There were only two of us in the apartment, so we didn’t have to use the sofa bed which was very hard to sit on as a sofa, not least as a bed ( other Jet 2 customers have mentioned this) so I can only imagine that this would be extremely uncomfortable to sleep on. There were no English speaking TV channels ( not that we wanted to use them) so the TV was not used and the TV in the bedroom had been removed from the wall anyway, leaving the bracket visible, so we couldn’t watch it if we’d have wanted to. The kitchen was small, but has an oven, fridge and dishwasher. No microwave and very few utensils to make food. We chose the apartment so that we could make our own food after sightseeing and being out on trips all day, so this was sometimes difficult without the essential utensils like wooden spoons, etc. We have stayed in Air B and B apartments in the past which have been significantly better equipped and considerably less expensive to stay in, so this was definitely not the best. There was also no information at all on where/ how to dispose of any rubbish. We tried to separate our recycling, but didn’t know where to put it as there was no information at all in the apartment so had to leave it in the apartment which was not ideal. No information either about check out times, I did look on the Jet 2 essential information from my booking, but no information there either. You have to call reception to ask questions when it is not manned ( I think they are there during the day as we were out on trips and tours so did not see anyone), but because of this, and the most disappointing thing about this stay here was that we often forgot to call and order our breakfast which was part of our booking. This meant, because we did not call before 12 midday as stated because we were out on tours etc, we could not get a breakfast and had to leave early in the morning without having had anything to eat. Also, on the days when we did order the breakfast, it came too late to eat before we left, despite the person we called saying that it would be arriving by 7.30 am. It was sometimes there, in the reception as we left, just having been delivered in a crate and waiting to be delivered to our apartment. This is not ideal. |All in all, the apartment was beautiful and very clean, comfortable ( bed was very hard), but I think that it would be a lot better if reception was staffed and you could ask questions about your stay etc. There was nothing at all in terms of hotel information in the room. It makes you feel like there is nobody on hand to help. We did not see anyone at all during our stay who was a member of the hotel staff, any cleaners, Jet 2 staff or any representatives. Krakow is an amazing city, but I think we might choose alternative accommodation if we were to come back...

A beautiful apartment building with very stylish rooms, wooden floors and large windows which make the accommodation very comfortable. There were only two of us in the apartment, so we didn’t have to use the sofa bed which was very hard to sit on as a sofa, not least as a bed ( other Jet 2 customers have mentioned this) so I can only imagine that this would be extremely uncomfortable to sleep on. There were no English speaking TV channels ( not that we wanted to use them) so the TV was not used and the TV in the bedroom had been removed from the wall anyway, leaving the bracket visible, so we couldn’t watch it if we’d have wanted to. The kitchen was small, but has an oven, fridge and dishwasher. No microwave and very few utensils to make food. We chose the apartment so that we could make our own food after sightseeing and being out on trips all day, so this was sometimes difficult without the essential utensils like wooden spoons, etc. We have stayed in Air B and B apartments in the past which have been significantly better equipped and considerably less expensive to stay in, so this was definitely not the best. There was also no information at all on where/ how to dispose of any rubbish. We tried to separate our recycling, but didn’t know where to put it as there was no information at all in the apartment so had to leave it in the apartment which was not ideal. No information either about check out times, I did look on the Jet 2 essential information from my booking, but no information there either. You have to call reception to ask questions when it is not manned ( I think they are there during the day as we were out on trips and tours so did not see anyone), but because of this, and the most disappointing thing about this stay here was that we often forgot to call and order our breakfast which was part of our booking. This meant, because we did not call before 12 midday as stated because we were out on tours etc, we could not get a breakfast and had to leave early in the morning without having had anything to eat. Also, on the days when we did order the breakfast, it came too late to eat before we left, despite the person we called saying that it would be arriving by 7.30 am. It was sometimes there, in the reception as we left, just having been delivered in a crate and waiting to be delivered to our apartment. This is not ideal. |All in all, the apartment was beautiful and very clean, comfortable ( bed was very hard), but I think that it would be a lot better if reception was staffed and you could ask questions about your stay etc. There was nothing at all in terms of hotel information in the room. It makes you feel like there is nobody on hand to help. We did not see anyone at all during our stay who was a member of the hotel staff, any cleaners, Jet 2 staff or any representatives. Krakow is an amazing city, but I think we might choose alternative accommodation if we were to come back...