ekscrunchy

I am planning to spend a few days in Turin in the spring.
Looking for hotel recommendations; central location is important.

Price range is somewhat flexible..hopefully not much over 200 Euro..

Many thanks!

I know about TripAdvisor but thought I would ask here first..

Pvoyageuse

I stayed at Hotel Genova, very close to Porta Nuova station. Excellent location, center of town 10 minutes by foot, lots of bus stops for all directions in front of the station. Staff was very helpful, room the usual (good) standard and breakfast more than decent. I would certainly go back.

ekscrunchy

Many thanks! I took a look at TA and noticed many possibilities near the station. But I saw, too, many comments about the seediness of the neighborhood...

Ten minutes on foot to center city sounds fine...can you remember the overall feeling of the neighborhood..what about walking to restaurants at night?

Pvoyageuse

I was travelling solo and never felt unsafe at night. Did not find the neighborhood seedy at all, there is a 4-star hotel a few yards from Hotel Genova and several other 3-star close by. Via Nizza on the other side of the station is not very nice but the whole area and the station itself are being renovated so you would not want to go in this direction any way.
Via Roma, the main shopping street, is less than 5 minutes away and Piazza San Carlo and Piazza del Castello a bit further down.
Took the bus to Lingotto and to Superga just in front of the station.

ekscrunchy

Very good! I located the street on my map and it looks very convenient..sounds like a good bet!

Another hotel that looks lovely is the TownHouse70 Suites, but the price is bound to be much higher than the Genova..

Pvoyageuse

Another advantage of the Genova : the airport shuttle bus stops right at the corner of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and via Sacchi.

Lexma90

When we stayed in Torino in October, 2007, we stayed in the Grand Hotel Sitea, a four-star hotel - it was DH's birthday. The price was 185 Euros for a superior double. Our room was huge - the closet was a walkin, with a bench all the way around. It was very luxurious, and the included breakfast was huge (too huge, really). It was a bit too filled with Americans for my liking, but certainly a comfortable place to stay.

It's very conveniently located, and not near the train station. It's on Via Carlo Alberto 35, about a 5-minute (or less) walk to Piazza San Carlo, which we visited often.

dutyfree

The Best Western Hotel Genio near the train station was a perfect place for us when my son was studying abroad in Torino. It was an old Duke's home converted and it was wonderful-nice prices and super location for everything.Canopy beds, good sized bathrooms and friendly staff. The train station is across the street with a major metro station and Torino's version of Rodeo Drive was a 2 minute walk across the street.There was nothing seedy about the area and several nice hotels are all around the station like the Jolly,etc.

ekscrunchy

Thanks so very much for all of the information thus far.

The Grand Hotel Sitea looks gorgeous! For some reason it is not listed with the bulk of the Turin hotels on TA. (It is listed under Settimo Torinese, which is a suburb of Turin...strange!)

http://www.thi.it/hotels/grand-hotel...le-torino.html

A quick look turned up prices in the 180E range, which is more than I wanted to spend, but I am hoping I can get some weekend package since our visit will likely span Friday and Saturday night (Thursday, too)..

The Best Western Genio looks lovely, too. I guess I was thrown by the comment about it being in a dangerous, dirty area with low-lifes hanging out..(this is from only one TA review, so I will discount it!!) Prices are less expensive than the Sitea; the website says it is located 1 km from the Piazza Castello..

http://www.bwsitemanager.co.uk/websi...efault__EN.asp

Many thanks to everyone...after I settle this we can turn the discussion to a more exciting topic: Where to eat!

Castellanese

Hi,

I stayed at www.aisavoia.it for 5 nights last year in late September. They charged me 115 Euros for a double bedroom with breakfast and AC included. It was beautiful, spotless and it was right in the center of the Roman Quarter. There's a very good neapolitan trattoria right in front of it where you can see nothing but local people having lunch or dinner.

I hope this helps,

Castellanese.

ellenem

In my experience, via Nizza, which runs along the side of the station, is a little seedy--the local immigrant population seems to shop along here. The further south, the seedier. However, the location of the Hotel Genio on the main corso is perfectly fine and the area just north across the corso is the major shopping and wandering area. Sorry I can't recommend a hotel--in my half dozen visits to Torino I've always stay with friends.

ekscrunchy

Thanks again! Just as in the Langhe, there seems to be an abundance of good hotel options in Turin!

I will investigate all of those mentioned..and this one, too, which seems to be well located, north of the station, and may offer some kind of weekend package:

http://www.hotelvictoria-torino.com/Overview.htm

zeppole

I stayed at the Hotel Victoria and if you like chintz -- as in that British cloth -- you'll see a lot of it! As well as plaid, terriers on the throw pillows, bulldogs on the wall covered in floral wallpaper. They aren't kidding when they say "Victoria." (You'll find a lot of that in Torino: Anglophilia. It's gives Torino a unique feeling among Italian cities.)

The Victoria is a great location. Really great. Posh and near all the sights, and good restos in the nabe. And it has impeccable service and a lovely breakfast. Very quiet (which much of Torino is not). It sits slightly off the street.

My problem with the train station area is not immigrants (since I am one, and bargain shop) but drunks.

amy_zena

I'm not a big fan of the area around the station in Turin (or almost any town for that matter). I recommend the following hotels:

Hotel Golden Palace - Known for being the best in Turin

Grand Hotel Sitea - A classic and known in Turin for being one of the best

Hotel Principi di Piemonte - friend tells me that this is the hotel where the "important" people stayed during the 2006 Olympics

Turin Palace Hotel - it's where the International Women's Club of Turin have there coffee mornings, so it can't be that bad.

Hotel NH Santo Stefano - only because every time I walk by it, it looks nice from the outside, and I like the area it's in.

There are usually good deals to be had on all of these hotels if you look around. Turin is definitely not like Rome, Venice, Milan, or Florence when it comes to hotel prices.

Grandma

We've also stayed at the Victoria and found it delightful and well located.

ekscrunchy

Super!

Amy: Aside from writing to the hotels and inquiring about specials, where else would you look for good deals? (Confession: I have NEVER booked through a third party site; I always book direct with the hotels; do I ned to think about changing my ways?)

Graziella5b

You can survive but the area near Porta Nuova is indeed on the seedy side.
I guess one has to get used to anything these days upon arrival to our nice 3 stars totally remodeled Best Western Hotel this guy was sleeping on the floor, right by the door of the hotel...Gosh I thought I was in San Francisco,
first reaction was to get out of there, but of course we had a reservation and it was 9 PM.
It turned out to be a lovely stay in this absolutely beautiful city , we have great memories of excellent food, the beautiful arcades along Via Roma, etc etc etc
and also why not this homeless guy that liked to sleep in Via Roma with a mattress and all and also side by side his German shepherd dog....

ellenem

I know that guy with the dog!!! . . .

amy_zena

I rarely book directly with the hotel because their prices are usually higher. Unless it is a website like Radisson, Hilton, Accor, Best Western, etc. If it's a smaller non-chain hotel, I use the following websites:

www.venere.com
www.expedia.it
www.booking.com

A few times I have used lastminute.com, but usually they don't have any good deals.

Having said this, just recently a non-chain hotel in Nice, France had a better deal on their own website. It wasn't a lower nightly rate, but they had a "Christmas Shopping" package that included breakfast, a dinner, champagne...and it made it a better deal than the cheaper nightly rate on Expedia that didn't include anything, only the room. So there's always the exception.

One other thing I have found is that if you wait until a week or two before you are planning the visit, the hotel rates seem to go down. For Turin, this would be a safe thing to do unless there is some convention or event in town during the time you are visiting. I probably wouldn't wait until a week or two before the travel date to book a room in a highly demanded hotel or area. For example, a popular hotel in the Amalfi Coast in July or August. But for Turin, I'd wait until the week or two before. I suppose you could always book a hotel that has a good cancellation policy, then keep looking for better deals on hotels in the meantime.

Only a few times has the price actually increased on a hotel as we got closer to the travel date. Just recently this happened for a hotel in Pistoia.

amy_zena

P.S. I agree with Graziella about the Porta Nuova station area. Before we moved to Turin, we stayed at a hotel on Via Nizza. We weren't crazy about the area at all. But we did like the hotel, and ended up having a nice visit anyway. I think I may have been a little nervous if I would have been alone and without my husband in that area at night. I have no problem going there in the daytime, but am a bit nervous about walking around there late at night. We also saw several prostitutes - regular and transvestite. I'm sure they're harmless, but maybe not a place to take the kids.