A Little Off the Beaten Path
Our 2nd trip to Paris. The first time I had enough Marriott hotel points to stay 4 nights free of charge in a Marriott facility which I have a review on. This time I had enough Hilton hotel points to stay 3 night free of charge. We actually did spend one night in the heart of Paris and actually spent some of our own dollars for a night at a Paris hotel (GASP!).
Anyway, we arrived at the Hilton La Defense Hotel about 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon (9:30 a.m. - Chicago time) after having left Chicago at 7:15 p.m. the previous evening with a plane transfer in London. I probably napped about an hour on the trans-Atlantic flight but as with all vacations (and especially ones to Europe) was well too excited to really feel tired.
We arrived and because of my Gold Status currently as of this writing with Hilton was upgraded to a Relaxation Room (more later) and a free continental breakfast for 2 each morning (also more later). We checked in, went over to the elevators and lo and behold they were not working. They had just had a test fire alarm prior to our arriving and the elevators were still not back in operation. They offered to have someone carry our bags up a couple of flights, but I figured rather then wait I would start my European trip weight training program.
We got up to the room and there was a sewer type smell coming from the bathroom. I told my wife not to unpack and went downstairs explained the smell and asked to be transferred to another room which they did with no problem. We went 1 floor higher (elevators still not working) and checked into our room overlooking the La Defense area huge courtyard.
Other then these little glitches upon check-in the room, hotel, staff and breakfast buffet were all top-notch.
Unique Quality: The relaxation room from what I gather is a bit bigger then a standard room and has a view of the outside courtyard area rather then the inside area overlooking a shopping mall. The room has a nice size bathroom with a separate tub and shower area. In fact 2 people could take showers in the tub and shower at the same time and see each other through a port hole. (INTERESTING) Also in the bathroom was a full compliment of soap, lotion and hairwash along with a blow dryer, scale, slippers and robes. I told you it was a full service hotel.
The room had nice storage for our bags and clothes. There was also a nice glass topped desk area for my wife and I to spread out our paperwork and books to do a little more organization for our trip. A very comfortable bed, huge HDTV which we turned on for a total of about 15 minutes on our last day to watch some news in French. Also a book on relaxation in French.
The staff was great. I had copies made of our credit card, debit card and passport information which I had forgotten to do before we left. They answered several questions we had and also had a vending machine right around the corner from the main desk where we were able to buy our carnet of Metro train tickets along with a 2 Day French Museum Pass.
The breakfast we had in the morning was just super. Pastries, cheeses, meats, hot meals, coffee, tea, yoghurt, juices, the works. I especially liked the fresh squeezed Blood Orange juice. It was by far our best breakfast experience on the entire trip. It filled us up for the day so that we were ready to tackle everything that Paris had to offer.
Oh and the Metro and RER station is literally right underneath the hotel, although you do have to navigate around a little bit. Also the only entrance to the hotel after a certain hour each evening is through the front door. We came back the first night from the Metro and attempted to go through the mall entrance which obviously was closed. Saw some taxi's around the corner and figured out that is where we needed to go.
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