ONLY THE BEST QUALITY GRAPES HERE (Hotel Traube (Offenburg, Germany))

Member Name: Richada

Product:	Hotel Traube (Offenburg, Germany)
Date:	16/04/09 (150 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Value. Food. Staff. Location.

Disadvantages: Not disabled friendly.

WHY DID WE BOOK THE HOTEL TRAUBE in OFFENBURG?

The Hotel Traube was not actually our destination, although for reasons that will become clear later, possibly we were left wishing that it had have been! Being 1st October, with the days already rapidly shortening, I did not wish to drive all the way from our home in Brighton to Brienz (our final destination) in Switzerland in one day.

Compared to our marathon drives to Poland, both in the summer and at Christmas, you may be asking why we "chickened out" and stopped barely an hour's drive north of the Swiss border. Firstly I was behind the wheel of a four day old car; this precluded the usual "flat out" dash through Germany and, secondarily, we had been searching for reasonably priced over-night accommodation in the famous old city of Heidelberg......

......"Reasonably priced" and "Heidelburg" turned out to be a contradiction in terms.....

......trace the A7 (E43) autobahn to the south into the Black Forest and you find the conveniently located town of Offenburg, where accommodation looked better suited to my pocket.

Searching three different German hotel discount websites we came up with a short list of two hotels - the first of which turned out to be uncomfortably far off of our route. Reviewers' comments like "hard to find" and "off the beaten track" were not encouraging either, after all I would have been driving since around 4.30am, an easy to find location was preferable.

So, the Hotel Traube (in this country that would be Hotel Grapes - not quite the same ring perhaps?) sort of chose itself.

HOTEL DESCRIPTION / OUR PERCEPTION FROM HOTEL PUBLICITY

If "choosing itself" sounds like the most damning of feint praise, actually the hotels own website made it look very attractive - a small garden with an impressively large fountain and welcoming flags of all nations fluttering in the breeze in front of the main entrance.

I have before made the mistake of booking hotels in Germany from German language sites - and indeed we took the plunge here, on this occasion expecting a much larger hotel than the one that presented itself when we arrived there.

Hotel publicity leaflets in our room informed us that the Traube is one of a group of four privately owned, Koslowski Group, three star hotels - all located in and around Offenburg. Each of the four is very different in character, the Traube being the most homely looking.

BOOKING PROCESS 9 / 10

Whilst the Hotel Traube website may be entirely in German, the site that we most often use to book our German hotels - hotels.de - is in English, with both Euro and £ Sterling shown as the nightly room rate, this including breakfast.

Be warned that very often breakfast is not included in German hotel tariffs, it tends to depend on which site you book through as to breakfast being included or not, hotels.de may look more expensive than other sites, add around 12 to 14 Euro each for breakfast and booking the room through this one usually makes very good sense indeed.

You are actually charged in Euros, upon checking out, obviously at the exchange rate on the day.

The current rate is 75 Euro per night including breakfast - that for a double en-suite room. A triple (suite) room is 95 Euro.

LOCATION 10 / 10

We really liked the location of the Traube, it was situated on the opposite side of Offenburg to the motorway and yet was only three and a half miles, around ten minutes from it. The area that it was located in was extraordinarily similar to our own suburban, residential, one here in Brighton, right on the edge of town, bordering in this case the Black Forest with its steeply sloping south and east facing vineyards.

During our stay, the sky was dark and grey, it was raining when we arrived and yet even seen at its worst this still appeared an attractive location. The road running past the hotel was not a particularly busy one, on the opposite side of it was an immaculate little park, the centrepiece of which was the delightful fountain shown in the photographs below.

A five minute drive from the hotel brings you to the centre of Offenburg, a typical German regional town, mostly modern, but with a quaint old town located off to one side. Regrettably we were not here for long enough to stop and admire the town; the poor weather was off-putting too.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 8 / 10

Compared to the large, modern, hotels that we usually use in Germany, this one was small and almost rural in character. Initially putting the car in the restaurant car park over the road, we walked across to the well signed, yet discreet, reception.

There was a quaint and very "German" character to the older (late 18th Century) building here, we assumed that this was where we would be staying; however the rooms are located in a modern annexe block to the left of the reception. Outside the front door is a veranda complete with tables and chairs, a lovely place to sit out with a drink and watch the world go by in the summer.

Having said all of that, having looked at the website, I did wonder if we had arrived at the same place as shown, it looked altogether smaller, less impressive and more like a private house - all of which turned out to be to the good.

CHECKING IN 9 / 10

The gentleman owner, manning the reception desk, spoke no English and quickly summoned a waitress to take our details and show us to our room. Whilst her command of English was patchy at best, as with all of the staff members encountered here at the Traube, she could not do enough for us.

A major advantage of pre-booking hotels such as this via the 'net is that you can check in without fuss, even if English is not spoken by the staff - just as we did here. We were from the car to our room in less than five minutes.

ON THE WAY TO THE ROOM i.e. how easy is it to find your way around? How accessible is if for less able persons? What condition are the public rooms and passageways in? 7 / 10

This is not a suitable hotel for the less able bodied. There are steps up and down into both houses and then indeed onto the pavement outside. The breakfast room in the hotel annexe is situated in the basement. Whilst the annexe is a modern three storey building, there appeared to be no lifts at all.

The reception, bar and restaurant are located on the ground floor of the older building which is around 75 yards from the front door of the annexe, certainly far enough away to get drenched on a wet night, as indeed it was when we were there!

I have to say that an elderly friend of ours, who regularly visits Germany, would find this particular hotel altogether too challenging.

For those of us who are younger and / or fitter the Traube is of an extraordinarily high standard in terms of cleanliness, décor and even orientation. This is not a large hotel, and finding your way around it is far from difficult.

As the waitress showed us across the enclosed car park - covered parking on one side of it - she invited us to move the car in here, much more convenient (and sheltered) than the large car park on the opposite side of the road.

I should perhaps mention here that checking out is handled by the lady serving breakfast, there is a small office on the left hand side as you enter the annexe, she spoke not a word of English and yet our check out was swift and efficiently carried out.

Were it not for the restricted access issue, the Traube would have scored an easy nine out of ten in this section.

THE ROOM 9 / 10

The rooms were all refurbished in early 2007. Assuming that ours was representative of them all, they are bright, warm, and very comfortable.

This was not the largest room in which we have stayed, the over-large bed taking up too much space, but it was well planned and modern in its appointments. You enter the bedroom via a small hallway, which contains a huge wardrobe, certainly more hanging space is provided than you could ever need.

In the bedroom, apart from the bed, was a small built in desk unit with chair, above which, taking up very little room on the wall, was an excellent large flat screen television. Both CNN and BBC World News were provided, for a hotel TV the reception was extraordinarily good too.

Bedside tables with individual lamps are provided on both sides of the bed.

On top of the desk is a mini-bar. Unfortunately ours was faulty - the compressor making so much noise that we had no choice but to un-plug it, so noisy was it that you could not hear the television above it!

A feature that we really appreciated at the Traube was the window shutters. Modern roller shutters operated from inside the room, they made the place completely secure, almost blacked out the room, but allowed the windows and French door to be left open for ventilation.

Our room - number 34 - faced the driveway into the car park. Most rooms, including ours, have a balcony.

THE EN-SUITE 7 / 10

Whilst spotlessly clean, as was the rest of the room, the en-suite had certainly seen better days - primarily in the olive green 1970's period when it was built!

A full sized bath with shower over were provided, unfortunately both the shower head and shower screen were extremely wonky, making taking a shower an unnecessarily messy and precarious business.

Homely touches here included the provision of soft, fluffy white, bath robes and good quality cream soap, plus a basket containing bar soaps, shampoo and a shower cap.

It still frightens me to see here - as elsewhere in Germany - an electric plug and a powerful hairdryer located immediately adjacent to the wash basin. I wonder how many Germans are "fried" in their bathrooms each year? Certainly a lot of English children, electricity and water would not mix too well!

DID WE GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP? 10 / 10

Clearly, it would not be fair to the Hotel Traube to deduct five points here for being woken up extremely early (before 6.00am) by a loud German businessman smoking and holding a mobile conference call outside on the adjacent balcony to ours.

Having un-plugged the mini-bar, and apart from that selfish behaviour of the fellow guest, we did indeed enjoy an excellent nights sleep in Offenburg. The walls are thick, the door seals well, and there were no outside disturbances at all. The bed was as comfortable as any in which we have slept and the temperature in the room could be easily controlled to suit any preference.

FACILITIES ON OFFER - No score here, different grades / prices of hotel understandably have different facilities.

With two single, nineteen double rooms and two suites, this is by no means a large hotel. It will accommodate small conferences - parties of up to twenty being catered for, a choice of two conference rooms being available.

Wireless internet access is available throughout the hotel.

Unlike several German hotels that we have used, of higher status than this, the Traube offers full bar and restaurant service. It turned out to be very much my kind of place - no swimming pools, no "wellness centres", nothing indeed that we were paying for but had no intention of using during an overnight, or short break stay.

BREAKFAST / OTHER MEALS, FOOD & DRINKS 9 / 10

The food here actually moved me to write notes for this review immediately after dinner.

RICHADA, not usually given over to using superlatives, especially in regards to hotel food, often finds in Germany his vocabulary being stretched to the limit in order to describe the sheer taste and quality of the dishes consumed.

Each German hotel in which we stay seems to outdo the last on this score and, whilst very different in culinary style to those that we are more used to in the centre and east of the country, the Traube was no exception feeding and "watering" us in terrific style.

With the same waitress that earlier showed us to our room serving us, we had no trouble deciphering the menu, we requested, and were presented with, an English translation of the menu. A good tip this, taught me by my Polish wife, if you find yourself abroad it is always worth asking in case they have an English menu - it amazes me how often that they do!

The Traube is very popular with local residents, who all know the proprietor well; it appears to double as their "local" which only goes to enhance its authentically local and friendly character.

The bar come restaurant, if in this country, I would describe as a trifle "forced rustic" with its over use of redundant cart wheels and horse bridles, it is some time since I have been in an English pub looking like this - but if the ambiance was similar.....

.....the food was most certainly NOT!

The website had described the food as being Mediterranean in style, this was our first experience in southern Germany and the food choice was certainly different to any we have been offered further north or east, but it was not exactly Italian in style either - but then, there is more to the "Med" than Italy! My notes actually start by describing dinner as "out of this world" - that covered the flavours, the fact that 50 Euros covered the cost of the huge two course gourmet dinner (we really could not manage a sweet!), plus two fresh apple juices and 0.5 litre of superb locally produced wine, was merely the icing on the cake.

We started with an Alsace speciality (correct me if I'm wrong but hardly Mediterranean that!) a form of wafer thin pizza - one vegetarian the other ham - both set in "heavy yoghurt". What really impressed us was that the waitress quite openly steered us away from ordering one each - far too big to manage she said, asking the proprietor if we could have half of the dish each to share - generously he willingly obliged and we were charged accordingly. It was served in two halves on a wooden board for us to share. I am not a pizza, nor yoghurt (heavy or otherwise!) lover - these two dishes were, however, mouth wateringly good, especially washed down with what was probably the best dry white wine that I have yet tasted.

The main course was of comparable quality and equally interesting. Five different skewered meats, under-cooked as requested, served with a huge portion of beautiful fresh locally picked field mushrooms, cranberry sauce and a shredded pasta type mix. All were superbly cooked and very well presented.

Rarely have we so enjoyed a meal as much, the dinner menu alone would take us back to the Hotel Traube in Offenburg.

Breakfast in the morning is served in the much more business like surroundings of the annexe basement. I have to comment that the bread offered in this region is less outstanding than further north in Germany, however there was a good choice of breads, spreads and cereals. The choice of hot foods, cheeses and meats was however quite limited. Fresh fruits and yoghurts were available however.

OVERALL VALUE FOR MONEY 10 / 10

A really strong showing here and I could not find reason to deduct from a maximum score.

As far as I am concerned The Hotel Traube offers very comfortable accommodation and outstanding food (and drink) at an incredibly reasonable price. Once again this is a hotel that puts any English hotel to shame in so many areas.

HOW LIKELY AM I / ARE WE, TO USE THIS HOTEL AGAIN?

My wife commented that the en-suite was very much like someone's private bathroom. In many respects that comment was equally valid for the rest of the hotel, which genuinely felt like a cosy private residence. Indeed this was a rare hotel in which, brief though our stay, we very much felt like honoured guests rather than mere "punters".

For me, the Hotel Traube would be a prime reason for spending more time in this region; we would very much enjoy a rather longer return visit to this particular hotel.


RICHADA'S HOTEL RATING 88 %

In order to put that score into some kind of perspective, here are my current hotel rankings - all reviewed and scored using identical criteria:

Ringhotel Friederikenhof - Lubeck - Germany - 92%

HOTEL TRAUBE - OFFENBURG - 88%

Swallow Bower Hotel - Chadderton - 83%
Grand Hotel, Torquay - 83%
Innkeeper's Lodge, Chester Northeast - 83%
Innkeeper's Lodge, Stockport - 83 %
Innkeeper's Lodge, Hull - 81%
Preston Swallow Hotel - Samlesbury, Lancashire - 74%
Hotel Drei Schwanen - Hohenstein-Ernstthal - Germany - 72%
Hotel Viktoria, Cologne - 70%
Innkeeper's Lodge, St Albans - 65%
Hotel Piast, Boleslawiec (Poland) - 64%
Chadwick Hotel, St Annes - 63 %
Innkeeper's Lodge, Lichfield - 39%


CONTACT DETAILS:

Hotel Traube
Fessenbacherstrasse 115
77654 Offenburg

www.hotel-traube-offenburg.de

Tel: (+49) 0781- 28 42 86 0
Fax: (+49) 0781 - 28 42 86 29
Freecall (inside Germany): 0700 - 93 68 70 0

Summary: A hotel that we will long remember - andfor all the right reasons.