november_moon

My husband and I (mid-30s) will be spending 4 nights in Brussels and I am looking for hotel recommendations. We arive on a Friday evening and will depart the following Tuesday morning to take advantage of the lower hotel rates on the weekend.

We would like a centralized location, near restaurants, walking distance or easy tram access to the Grand Place area and the train station. Convinient location is important since we like to come back to the hotel in the afternoons to relax a bit and change before going out at night.

Our plan while in Brussels is to spend 2 days exploring the city itelf and then a day trip by train to Brugges. We considered splitting our time between Brussels and Brugges, but decided against changing hotels - it just fits our travel style better to stay in one place longer and use it as a base rather than moving.

Our budget is 100 euro per night - a little more perhaps if breakfast is included. We generally like smaller hotels in historic buildings, but aren't opposed to larger modern ones.

Amenities like room service, concierge, special soaps, etc. aren't important to us.

Thanks in advance

Kyliebaby3

I'm staying here when we visit Brussels in January, but I wasn't able to find much information about the hotel on this website. I do know it's smaller, and it's just near the Mannekin Pis, which apparently causes it to be a bit loud sometimes.

It's €80 per night with breakfast included, and that's for two people. So, I thought it was a pretty good deal. And we're only there for two nights, so I'm not concerned about it being a miserable experience, nor am I planning on staying in the room for long periods of time.

Check it out...might be a fit for you.

www.lavieillelanterne.be/hotel/home.html

travfirst

When are you going? Try to shop around. Few years ago we stayed in Marriott for $99/night. They had summer weekends promotion rate.

Challiman

We just spent a few days in Brussels, also took the train to Brugges, and we stayed at the Welcome Hotel. You can go to their website for rates, but it does fit with your preferences. Each room is decorated with artifacts from different countries, Bali, Marakesh, etc. The hotel was on Passports to Europe with Samantha Brown. Others on this site recommended it to us. The rooms are small but interesting, and very clean. Breakfast was not enormous, but had quite a nice offering, and it was included. They were very helpful and efficient and friendly. There's a metro stop within two minutes walk, and the walk to the Grand Place took maybe 8 or 9 minutes. There are lots of restaurants between the hotel and Grand Place. Good luck!

sheila

If you run a search here you will find a lot of reccomendations, but I, personally, wouldn't look past the Hotel Welcome. You probably need to dicker a wee bit to get your price, but they are lovely people and it otherwise hits all your points.

spinesrgn

We stayed at the Novotel Grand Place last December. Great location, nice hotel and reasonable rates.

USNR

We stayed at the Hotel Mozart. A couple blocks off the Grande Place. Big mistake. Street of small restaurants, mainly Greek. Noise continued until 2 a.m. Our room overlooked the street. Hardly any sleep. Avoid.

november_moon

Thanks for the recommendations. I will check them out.

We are going in August - so perhaps summer weekend rates may apply.

I had heard of the Hotel Welcome and checked it out online - the prices are a little higher than what we were looking for, but we may be able to negotiate. Worth a try

lennyba

bookmarking

KayF

We have stayed twice at the Hotel Atlas in Brussels -

http://www.atlas-hotel.be/

and thought it was fine. Last time we paid 75 euro per night for a double including buffet breakfast. The breakfast was pretty good (bread, croissants, fruit, cereal, tea, coffee, juice, yoghurt, cheese, ham etc), you could order hot food if you wanted and pay extra.

Staff were always pleasant and helpful. Bed was comfy and the shower good. Rates are cheaper on the weekend.

It's about 10 min walk to the Grand Place and the hotel is close to lots of restaurants. There is a wonderful bakery/patisserie in the next street - there are probably still drool marks on the window from our last visit.

The hotel is about 5 mins walk to the closest metro station. We caught a taxi from Gare du Midi to the hotel when we arrived and it cost about 10 euro. We found the metro is easy to use and much cheaper than taxis.

Kay

Travelnut

We have also stayed two times at Atlas Hotel, once in 2002 and again last spring (2007). It's in good shape, sparkly clean bathrooms, good weekend rates.

Challiman

A word of caution if you are going in August: be absolutely sure that you verify about air conditioning if that is what you want. We have discovered that some hotels are not exactly clear about having it, some say they have it but it isn't available after certain months, but they neglect to mention that fact until you arrive. I am not sure the Welcome Hotel has A/C. They are very good about replying to emails, though. We didn't think we'd need it on our trip, but when we got to the Holiday Inn at CDG, which claims it has a/c, it couldn't be turned on and the windows were sealed shut. It was very uncomfortable in the room, even though it was quite chilly outside. Their response to our request for some cool air is a matter I'm taking to their headquarters, and I'll post the results here later.
Just be sure you verify A/C if you want it.

november_moon

The windows being sealed shut would drive me nuts. Got to have fresh air. A/C isn't a big deal, as long as we can open a window.

Dutch

I would check the Marriott. The location is good, just a couple of blocks from Grand Place and is in a cool building. Air conditioning in August would be pretty important to me.

Last summer we were in Brussels we stayed in the Renaissance and payed $55 a night with Priceline. We showed them our Rewards card and were upgraded to a suite which included the breakfast buffet. The location was not as handy, but in a quieter part of the city.

november_moon

Is there something I am not getting about Brussels weather that would make AC important? The average high is only 71 degF.

MyriamC

An average is an average! During a hot summer temp can rise as high as 90F. Houses/hotels are usually old and not well insulated. I live in Belgium and my bedrooms have A/C which has proved to be an excellent investment!

Challiman

November-moon,
It was in the 40's during the night we were at the airport Holiday Inn at CDG and we could not open the windows at all. The room was HOT, we were on the fourth floor, extremely stuffy, no way to get air circulating at all.
We stayed in the Welcome Hotel in Brussels, once on the 3rd and once on the 4th floor, Oct. 20-24, this year, and the outside temps were chilly enough for scarves, hats and jackets. Inside, the rooms would have been very warm and stuffy if we couldn't open the windows. I can't imagine how hot and uncomfortable it would be without A/C in August.
As I said, we didn't even ask about A/C at the Welcome, since we could open the windows, but there was some sort of unit in the room that could have been heat or a/c.
Above all, listen to the folks from Belgium, it could get very uncomfortable in a hotel room in August, and open windows could give you lots of street noise.
I guess I'm just very sensitive to this matter right now, it was not a pleasant end to our trip to sleep in a severely warm room, and especially to be paying the price we paid. It was too late to move as our flight was very early AM and by time we realized they would do nothing to fix it it was already 10 PM. That issue, and others at that hotel, are being addressed with Holiday Inn.
If you are interested in Welcome, do write and ask them. They are prompt to reply.
The Marriott in Brussels is very close to Grand Place and appeared very nice from the outside. It is in a busier area than the Welcome, but it looks to be newer and probably better insulated and hopefully has A/C.
The main thing is, ASK if they have it if you would like it. Don't assume it will be there.

november_moon

IMO, any room where you can't open the windows needs some sort of HVAC system - that goes without saying. Air circulation is important.

At home, our August average high is 85 degF, and highs in the 90s are quite common. I guess it is a matter of what you are used to.

We don't have A/C and the only time we actually miss having it is when temps are above 100 degF, meaning that our bedroom doesn't cool down below about 88 during the night.

I can't imagine not having A/C and not being able to open a window though.