Ezio House Casa Ezio — Hotel in Zona Metropolitană Brașov

We stayed here, the 3rd hotel of 4 on our four day drive around Romania. We booked it based on the reviews, knowing it was out of town. If we'd known how far we never would have booked it. The sat nav didn't recognise the address on the booking confirmation so my daughter text me the driving directions from the web site. I entered Timisu de Jos on the sat nav and it led us straight to it. The only things was Timisu de Jos wasn't sign posted at all so if we didn't have the sat nav we never would have found it! ||||By the time we arrived, 7pm, we had been driving for 7.5hrs, were very tired and hungry, it was dark and we thought we were never going to reach the place. Ezio House is reached by a long, narrow, winding lane just off the main road. The lane was pitch black and snow lay everywhere. We had heard about the amount of snow in Romania over the last few months so wasn't surprised by this. On entering the car park it was frozen over, no path had been cleared to the front entrance. On entering reception a young girl came running out of the restaurant to greet us. We checked in and asked if there was a restaurant as we were too tired to battle with the traffic again leading to Ezio House. She sighed then told us we could join the group if we wanted, 25 Lei per person. I asked what group and if we could choose a meal off the menu as I have to follow a coeliac diet. They were notified of this when I booked the room. I was told they had a group staying there, it was a set menu and if we wanted to join them we had to be in the restaurant for 8pm. I showed her my Romanian coeliac translation and she checked with a woman who was standing off to one side, returned to me and said it was fine for me to eat. Incidentally, the meal was really good and I didn't suffer any problems.||||We were on the 3rd floor, no lift. On entering the room the bathroom was on the right, the smallest I have ever seen in my years of travelling. The shower reminded me of the showers on campsites, standing on a wooden pallet. The bed was in front and the room contained dark, wooden furniture and was dimly lit. The was a balcony off the bedroom, no smoking allowed in the room itself. The bed and pillows were comfy though, and after all that driving it felt like heaven! I went into the bathroom, closed the door and heard a clunk. I tried to open the door but couldn't, the handle had fallen off from the outside. I called my husband and he managed to open it. We went down for our meal and afterwards sat in the reception area to check in with our family as wifi is only available in this place. I used the downstairs toilet, on opening the outside door part of the handle fell off. On entering the toilet once again part of the handle fell off. ||||We went to bed early but I was woken by dogs barking at 4.19am, this went on for a while. I managed to drop back off and was woken by my husband's mobile beeping, low battery. I unplugged mine which had been on charge all night on to find it hadn't charged. I pushed the charger into the socket and blue sparks started flying out, it had faulty wiring. Once again the dogs started barking so at 5.30am we gave up trying to sleep, showered and were in reception waiting for breakfast by 7.15am. There wasn't a soul to be seen, just a sign on the door giving a number to ring if we wished to leave. At 7.30am the receptionist from the night before came running in, unlocked the restaurant and told us breakfast was at 8 but we could eat straight away if we wanted to. She started putting out the buffet breakfast, omelettes, tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, ham and cereals. Orange juice was more like orange squash. We finished breakfast and checked out as we had a long day ahead. We were there around 20mins as the card machine wouldn't work. In the end we ended up paying cash so we could leave. As we were walking to the car we noticed the kennels attached to Ezio House, housing two large dogs. ||||The hotel needs quite a bit of maintenance and we wouldn't stay here again, or...

We use to stay here anytime we are coming to Brasov area or wish to ski in the sky resorts region in Prahova Valley.||||Location of the Ezio House (B+B regime)||GPS Coordinates for EZIO HOUSE (Casa/Pensiunea): ||N: 45.596188||E: 25.645212||||ON the DN1 road :||- coming from Brasov heading to Predeal-Sinaia-Bucharest:||exit Brasov and Head Bucharest (Bucuresti) after 2,9 km to the left follow the sign "Canionul 7 Scari" (7 Stairs Canyon), cross the bridge (River Prahova) and follow the gravel road to the left immediately after the bridge; don't wory you can acces the hotel using any car;||- coming from Bucharest-Sinaia-Predeal and heading Brasov along DN1 follow the DN1 road until Timisu de Sus and then Timisu de Jos and then turn right on Timisu de Jos crossing the Prahove River on the bridge and then turn left immediately after the bridge; ||||||PROS:||- great & welcoming staff, very clean, close to Brasov city center and the other Prahova Valley mountain ski resorts (prices in nearest Brasov/Sinaia/Predeal are close to double for similar conditions);||- roomy rooms especially those situated at 1&2 floors. There are two category of rooms (4* and 5). We stayed in both types and can not make a much difference only in terms of the bathrooms which for 4* is a bit smaller and an electronic safe to put your valuable stuff if you wish so.||- separate bathroom with shower and hairdryer you will have in each of the rooms. ||- the price/room is around 30-40 Euros (equivalent in RON) including parking and breakfast. Each rooms faces the river, forest and the mountains and has its own balcony where you can enjoy your cigars and coffee; payment with credit/debit cards is accepted;||- rooms are equipped with fridges stuffed with liquors, soft drinks and some snacks which are not included in the room price; however the prices for these are convenient not to be scared if you decide to taste a Red Johnny shot;||- you've got in the room price free wireless internet connection in the lobby and high speed cable internet connection in every room (just ask reception for a cable in order to avoid jogging up-down the stairs twice, etc etc);||- due to its location Ezio House is very tranquil and very close to Brasov medieval city center (max 15 min by car); so if you wish to have a lunch/dinner in Brasov city just grab your car or ask hotel reception for a cab (cab tariffs are around: 0,7 Euro/km); ||||CONS:||- no elevator but you know... you are in the mountains so a little training/warming up is welcome especially if you've got a room at 3/4th floor; well this ain't not fun at all if you forget something in your room and have to climb back again to grab it :-));||- gym is quite small and gets crowded later in the morning; by the way the tread mill was broken last time we were there!||- no lunch/dinner on regular basis so you have to be careful and announce hotel stuff if you're interested to become to cozy later and wish not to go out;||||Attractions in the area:||- Brasov old city center||- Poiana Brasov/Predeal/Sinaia/Busteni ski resorts||- Bran Castle (so called Dracula Castle), Prejmer Fortress;||(more on http://www.brasovtravelguide.ro)||- UNESCO Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ro)||- Lots of trails for hiking, climbing and mountain biking (http://www.yourguide.ro)||||Enjoy...

The place isn't finished/nobody cared about getting the amenities to any kind of standard. Half of our group had no heating, our room was full of decrepit and/or damaged furniture (lacquer pealed off, one door to a cupboard was hanging on off a single pivot). Worse still was the failed attempt at penny pinching all over the place. Case in point: the room's electrical circuit which some genius thought it'd be a smart idea to slave it to the single breaker handled by the keycard. That might seem smart but in reality it means you can't leave the room and leave something charging or heavens forbid, anything in the fridge because once your card leaves the breaker, there goes all electricity in the room. Add to that a bathroom that visually is impressive but functionally is beyond broken. We'd wake up the neighbors by opening up the faucet or using the shower (gigantic glass door that would slam against the railings each time you let go of it). In short: I'm...