The interior is nicely decorated, the furniture beautiful, the carpets with the royal lily decor – they call it Italian but I did not really notice that ;-) Small seating area with coffee table, desk, minibar. The bathroom was very good quality. You can leave the window open (if it does not rain cats and dogs LOL) as the surrounding streets are low traffic, and there are plenty of established trees. And the hotel is not too big (92 rooms), if I remember right it has only four storeys, a bar, a small fitness centre and sauna (no time to use it), plus three conference halls.
But there is also a strange thing about this place although it did not really annoy me but instead laugh a lot. The reception staff hid behind the counter at most times, so the guests would probably restrain from asking them questions, or even wanted to check in LOL This behaviour is inacceptable for a four-star hotel that points out how luxurious it is. Normally in such hotels you have staff at the reception that are nearly too friendly and try to help you even if you do not request any assistance, nearly jump over the counter to hug you upon arrival… ;-) You get the image.
Not knowing where the staff were from (always one at a time hidden behind the counter) I joked that they were surely left from the GDR regime and were still playing Stasi (GDR’s secret service) spies… ;-)
Anyway. If you wanted to know they gave you adequate answers, a little reserved though, but I do not care about this as long as I get the information I want. I do not have to be friends with reception staff. So I would always happily stay at the Royal Inn Leonardo again.
Rates can be rather steep (up to 245 Euro) but if you check on www.wotif.de you can get very good rates of about 70 Euro per night (double room without breakfast).
Directions:
If you have heavy luggage the best thing to get a regional train (direction Tharandt) and get off at the first stop (Rathaus Plauen), there change to bus #61, and get off at Bamberger Straße – right in front of the hotel.
Or take tramway #10 from Hauptbahnhof to Budapester Straße and from there bus #82. This bus is ideal to get to the city and back.
If you have light luggage you can use the tramway (#3) from Hauptbahnhof – but from the stop it is about 600 or 700 metres to the hotel.
We used the train/bus to the hotel, and left by tramway. We even succeeded to roll a heavy suitcase from the hotel to the tramway stop slightly uphill but on a hot day that can be a bit strenuous ;-) Up there is a very nice bakery/patisserie/café where you can buy drinks. Otherwise there are no shops around the hotel, so think of stocking up in the city or you have to walk to the bakery.
30 minutes by taxi from the airport.
Transportation network:
http://www.dvbag.de/netz/Bilde







