A Tale of Two Similarly Named Hotels (Reval Inn (Vilnius, Lithuania))

Member Name: flodombey

Product:	Reval Inn (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Date:	01/07/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean and tidy, modern feeling, good buffet breakfasts, helpful staff

Disadvantages: Location really not great and expensive for what it is

We stayed for 3 nights at this hotel in September 2008. Whilst we had no complaints about the state of the room which was clean, tidy and although basic had everything we needed for a city break, there were some problems due to the location.

Firstly don't make the mistake of confusing this hotel with the Reval Hotel which is located just north of the city centre (walking distance) and is very swanky in comparison (with prices to match).

In retrospect we would have paid more to be in a better location but the weekend we were there (Sept 08) was both the Vilnius marathon and an REM concert which was the only reasons we could see for why the prices were pretty high for the dates we wanted. We paid around £65 a night for the room which between two of us was fine but more expensive than a better located hotel in Riga we had stayed in previously.

Anyway, other than the fact that I found the hotel room freezing cold the whole time (the heaters weren't on despite it being consistently 9 degrees outside) the room was fine. I did wonder whether the temperature issue might just be because to them this outside temperature did not constitute being cold enough to turn the heating on but to me it just meant sleeping under lots of blankets and leaving the bathroom door open so that the heated towel rail could emit a bit of heat into the room.

It rained a lot of the time we were in Vilnius (one of the most miserable city breaks I have ever experienced!) so we often returned to the hotel in wet clothes, thank heavens for the heated towel rail as without it we would have had to keep putting wet clothes back on due to the lack of working radiators. I would have appreciated a kettle in the room to get some heat into my body but there isn't one, this is fairly normal in my experience in European hotels however.

The location of the hotel really isn't great, it's about 10 kilometres outside the city centre through some of the bleakest estates of soviet blocks of flats, concrete and dual carriageways I've ever seen. DO NOT get in a taxi outside the central station as we did - we got ripped off to the tune of 150 litas (around £35) for a journey we were quoted as being 50 litas. This is because the taxi drivers run their meters at a price based on how long you are in the taxi rather than per kilometre, our taxi driver then took us through the worst possible congestion, the longest possible route etc, we got out when the meter got to 150 and walked the last kilometre or so up the dual carriageway - not the greatest start.

To be fair all the guide books and info do say NOT to get into a taxi on the street for exactly this reason, only get in one if the hotel/restaurant has called it for you. We got the hotel to arrange a taxi back into town with luggage on the day we left and the same journey cost us 55 litas which was also partly due to the taxi driver driving like a nutter to get round the ridiculous traffic by navigating through retail parks, off road and across industrial estates. This guy was desperately trying to keep the fare down whereas the other guy just saw us and saw dollar signs!

We decided to get buses for the rest of our stay which cost 1.40 litas per trip and take about half an hour to get into the city. This is easy enough as the hotel is right next door to a major shopping complex where the buses stop.

The traffic is insane at the best of times and the main road outside the hotel seems to be in a constant state of jams and annoyed drivers. The shopping mall next to the hotel is always busy and seems to be open pretty much 24/7, it has a big cheap supermarket, a couple of pizza places and a bowling alley alongside lots of other shops. This is the only convenient thing about the location of this hotel.

Breakfast was included with our room rate and was standard fare of bread, meats and cheeses, juice, tea, coffee, some cooked items (bacon/sausage/egg), pastries and yoghurts/cereals. The hotel also has a cashpoint and free internet access in the lobby. All the staff are pretty helpful and friendly, most speak very good English.

The room had a TV with bbc world as the only English channel, a large and very comfy double bed, a lot of wardrobe and shelf space and an en suite with a very nice powerful shower unit but no bath.

Interestingly on Tripadvisor lots of people have been equally mistaken between the Reval Inn and the Reval Hotel, just make sure you know which one you are booked into so you are not severely disappointed!

Summary: A good hotel in a poor location