Apartment hotel? For a weekend trip in Poland? Could it really be something? I searched and searched to try to find the "right" hotel for us in Krakow, but there was always something wrong. The choice for our five days in Krakow finally fell on Stradonia Serviced Apartments, a design hotel in apartment format in a newly renovated 500-year-old house with a perfect location right at the foot of Wawel Castle.
Location
Stradonia Serviced Apartments are located just south of the old town, within walking distance to all attractions. The only time we rode the tram in Krakow was when we were going to Schindler's factory or needed to quickly get from the shopping center Galeria Krakowska to the hotel. The trams run only a few blocks from the hotel and it takes no more than 5-10 minutes to walk to the center of the old town or to the restaurant-filled old Jewish quarter Kazimierz.
The hotel is on a busy street, but we were never bothered by noise even though we had all our windows facing the street. The 25 apartments are all located with access from the courtyard and it is not possible to enter the hotel without passing the reception (which has 24 hour service). From the courtyard you enter the common room with a library with DVD films, a computer with printer and a few sofas. There was also a large bowl of sweets here, which was popular to pass by after dinner :)
Outside on the street there are several small supermarkets within a minute's walk, so it's easy to run over and buy more drinking water and breakfast if you need to. By the way, the receptionist informed that the tap water in the apartment was fully drinkable, as they had special filters installed in the house to purify the water. However, we only used the water for coffee and brushing our teeth.
The room
The room was really just as nice as the pictures on the hotel's website. We had a large room with a double bed at one end, a sofa bed, table and armchair in front of the TV in the middle and a kitchen area with a kitchen table with three chairs. The kitchen area was well equipped with both dishwasher, washing machine (!), stove, microwave, oven, coffee maker, kettle and toaster. There was plenty of crockery and the kitchen included brewed coffee/tea/milk and mineral water. The bathroom had underfloor heating and a shower (which for once was perfectly built), a toilet and a small sink. There was also a permanently installed hair dryer, but it was not very good. There was a camera at the front door to be able to see who rang the doorbell.
Everything in the entire apartment was incredibly nicely renovated and neat, nothing felt worn. Also, the cleaning was really well done. The stairwell outside was so clean and completely renovated and neat, that it didn't feel like leaving the apartment.
The sofa bed was easy to make up and put down and the mattress was perfectly fine according to the daughter.
Service
The reception at the hotel is open 24/7 and was always there when you called for help. We booked the transport to and from the airport via the hotel (Transfer service from Krakow Direct) and it worked perfectly. Cleaning and changing of sheets/towels was included every three days, you don't have to clean yourself before checking out.
Breakfast
The hotel does not have a breakfast room, but the included breakfast is delivered directly to the room. You decide which breakfast you want from a menu of 8 different breakfast packages and specify a delivery time, and you get the breakfast delivered to the room at the desired time. Really cozy to be able to sit in pajamas and eat breakfast just like at home. I always took a "cheese breakfast" (with a large variety of cheeses, vegetables and cottage cheese), the husband always took a "Polish" breakfast (with cheeses, sausages and pasties) and the daughter always took a "sweet" breakfast (with yogurt, granola and fresh raspberries/strawberries). Along with these large boxes of food, a large bag of freshly baked bread (more than we could eat), marmalade, butter and apples was also delivered.
So, what was the overall family rating?
We were incredibly happy with our stay at Stradonia Serviced Apartments! The room and location could not have been better and the price was very good (just under 1000 kronor the night for three people including breakfast).
One thing to note: We ran into a bit of a mess with our reservation regarding the breakfast. We had booked a room with breakfast for the three of us at Hotels.com, but when we checked in, the receptionist informed us that it only included breakfast for two people, not for our daughter. So right now we have a complaint with Hotels.com about this. I would guess that some information was missed in the integration between the booking systems, but we ended up having to pay 100 kronor extra per night for the daughter's breakfast. It will be interesting to see if we will have to cover this cost ourselves, or if we will get the 400 back kronorNah. To be continued :)
Stradonia Services Apartments
Stradomska
31 068-Kraków, Poland
Poland
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