Podewils Hotel

Nice and friendly, good rooms and bathroom with nice bath tub/jacuzzi. Breakfast buffet and restaurant good.

5-10 min walk to old town, or 2 min with ferry. Romantic view of medieval crane and old town.

Overall a very good experience, but not really comparable to other 5-star hotels.

I would recommend this hotels for folks who:
- tend to stay and show off in the most expensive hotels wherever they travel (isn't it a bit snobish?)
- are rich or, even better, those who have good sponsors (good option for business or a wedding party)
- got to Gdansk by yacht or a ship (and rather the upclass one).

Although I can't put myself into any of the above mentioned categories, I was forced to call to the hotel to book a room in the middle of a night after a few hours of desperate but unsuccessful looking for any accommodation in Gdansk. No wonder that all hotels had been already fully bookd as I wanted a room for the night when Jean Michel Jarre gave a concert for over 100,000 spectators in Gdansk shipyard.

I got dissapointed as soon as I had called to the hotel. Not because of my inerlocutor, never. He was very nice, extremely polite but I had heard again the same reply: "Sorry, no vacancy." I didn't expect such reply as the hotel was extremely expensive as for Poland. Later on, being in Gdansk and "visiting" the hotel, I figured out that, although the hotel building looked large it could accommodate only 19 visitors at once. Indeed, it isn't difficult to find out 19 rich and famous (or unfamous) visitors to Gdansk. Finally I was lucky not to book the room in this hotel. If I had paid 166 euros (or more) for my room I might have felt very uncomfortable about the waste of those money and I could have been forced to leave Gdansk next morning not to spend more. Thus I couldn't have stayed next 3 nights and I coudn't have done a lot of sightseeing around.

Unique Quality: ADVANTAGES
1. Location by the river
The sunset view from the Long Waterfront (Dlugie Pobrzeze) in the old town over the Motlawa River to the Olowianka Island where old granaries, yacht harbour (Gdansk marina) and the Podewils hotel are located, really amazed me. I'd take/book a room with a window overlooking yachts and ships on the river and be able to see the famous Crane and the old town across the river.

2. Exterior and interiors (design)
The Baroque but simple facade of the house from 1728 with fancy yachts and ships on the water down looks very charming.

3. It's the most expensive hotel in Gdansk (an advantage for a bit snobish folks, right?)

4. 5-star hotel facilities
Check their website to see what I mean.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Price
A fancy hotel must cost, no doubt, but... They wanted from me 166 euros for the least expensive room for two or exactly 653 euros for the most expensive President's Suite. Well, I am not a president. If they had allowed me to stay in a company of, say, 6 friends in the suite it might have been a deal and great presidential party :-).

2. Their webpage
Well, at first it looks good but, in fact, there are a lot of dead links there. There is no information on prices per rooms as well. The pictures are very small etc. etc. This is definetely NOT a 5-star website. I would add a few more languages to English, German and Polish.

3. Location (about transportation)
There is neither tunnel under nor bridge over the Motlawa River close to the hotel. You have to take a taxi and drive around to get to the old town. The economical option is cross the river onboard of the scheduled ship. Warning: never mind, how famous (or unfamous) you are, do not try to show off swimming across the river, not beacuse of sharks (there are none in the Baltic Sea) but various poisons in the water.

Directions: %L[Map http://www.podewils.pl/gdansk/i/mapa/gb_mapa.gif]here