Hotels near Christmas house, Karlovy Vary

My wife and I stayed here for three nights in late September, ‘22. It is just the kind of place we like – lots of character and charm, small yet large enough to provide privacy, a number of upscale features without being exclusively expensive. We enjoyed our stay and wouldn’t hesitate to return. The location is excellent, near the Grand Hotel Pupp, at the beginning of the river promenade, not far from the Opera House. There are many shops and restaurants nearby along the promenade on both sides of the river. The hotel has a number of reserved parking spaces along the promenade, and more in a lot nearby. The lobby/bar area is cozy and there is an excellent restaurant that connects with the lobby (we ate there one night and recommend it highly). The front desk staff was friendly, welcoming, and helpful. Our room (201) was very large, with windows facing the river and promenade. It was tastefully decorated with period-style furniture. There was a comfortable 4-poster canopy king bed, two night stands minibar, desk, two arm chairs and a small table, a sofa, and a large armoire with safe in the entry way. The large marble-tiled bathroom was very attractive, with a separate tub & shower, and a nice amount of counter and shelf space. The room had radiator heat which was effective and responsive. There wasn’t a.c. but this would likely be unnecessary most of the time. Wife was strong and fast. Breakfast was served in a very pleasant central atrium area and was excellent. Overall, we recommend the Embassy very highly if you like a smaller hotel with character, comfort, and good service. We wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again.

My wife and I lodged one night at this hotel, while travelling. The room was excellent and rather large. The place is quite big, so getting from the reception to our room and vice versa was a bit complicated, also because you have to use your access pass every time you take an elevator. The receptionists are not sufficiently fluent in English, or don't speak English at all. They did not suggest that I could speak German instead. The breakfast was very nice, with ample choice. The dinner procedure was a bit special... we gave our room number at the restaurant entrance desk and made our choices from the menu. There was no bill or receipt at the end and no signature asked. When I asked the restaurant personnel for the bill, they didn't understand. The drinks, in our case a bottle of wine, were provided by the bar in the room next to the restaurant. Personnel is not taking the drinks order, you have to go to the bar yourself and order it there and you can only pay by card, they do not accept cash. On checkout, next morning, I could pay for the dinner, but only by card, because the receptionist did not have cash change, she said. I would suggest, that the hotel's management thoroughly review all customer interaction processes (reception area, restaurant, bar), because these are inefficient and sometime even unpleasant! The place itself, Karlovy Vary city centre, makes great photographs, but I would rate it 'disappointing' in terms of outdoor amenities. There are countless overpriced jewlery shops, but only a few nice restaurants and bars. If you have seen Karlovy Vary once, you don't need to see it again...

I took the bus in Prague. After getting off the bus, I entered the town by crossing the road. I went to the navigation, but reminded everyone, just follow the direction of the navigation. The navigation may be a little closer, but let you go up the mountain and go down the mountain. Wait, holding the baggage is too tired to fully listen to the navigation. This place is easy to find.

Stayed here for a few nights for work during the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival. I liked this hotel although it was pretty hard to judge it properly as the entire place was PACKED due to the film festival with all areas and many floors of the hotel being used by companies and displays. It is a bit of an oddity in Karlovy Vary as it's a modern 15 floor tower / conference centre in a town full of Czech old world buildings (I can only imagine the uproar when they planned it). So it's a hotel that also has Spa / Medical Treatment / Swimming pool, thermal pool / pool party / conference centre and restaurants. It seems to be modern by local standards - I was in a superior room with a balcony on the 13th floor with great views. The room had all the mod cons available in most decent hotels, good wi-fi, USB Power outlets, nice firm bed, good regular housekeeping. One thing I noticed was that the beds didn't have a separate sheet, only a fitted sheet and then a throw over dooner - no big deal, just different. Downstairs restaurant doing breakfast / lunch / dinner with a lot of options and really good wait staff. There's a large separate building (accessed by hill climbing elevator) that has an outdoor heated pool, thermal pool, saunas, change facilities - there was also a Pool Party with DJ, bar etc on the weekend days / nights (I assume that's just in summer or just during the film festival). I believe you get complimentary access to the pools /saunas for a couple of hours every day of your stay - I used it every morning for laps, it was great. In the pool complex there's also a decent restaurant with amazing views. As I said, the place was packed and the staff all seemed to handle it well. Everything you could want outside the hotel is a short walk away and there's SO many restaurants / bars etc to choose from. Karlovy Vary wasn't on my list of places to visit, but now that I've been there I'd consider going back.

I'm currently staying at the Olympic Palace and booked it because the reviews were so good - not because it looked amazing or because the price was good - neither was the case. I just wanted the nicest hotel in town besides Pupp. Unfortunately, this hotel was way below even a four star standard. We paid 300 euro/night and called ahead to ask if we could pay a bit extra to upgrade to a larger room with a balcony. They offered a Deluxe Room with a Balcony for 20 euro extra per night. When we arrived at midnight, there was only one poor woman at the reception who was brand new on the job. She tried so hard but it took 10 minutes just to process our documents and then when I confirmed it would be a Deluxe Room with Balcony, she said no - but that we were charged the 20 euros anyways. When I asked about the larger room, she said it would be over 100 euro/night and would take a very long time to get us in a room like this. We just wanted to sleep so took the small room, which was not very nice. The shower head did not work the entire time, neither did the AC. My assistant called ahead to book a spa afternoon for us and ask what the spa would recommend. We tried calling the spa the day-of and they never picked up. We went down and were told to return in our robes. There was no spa reception. We were told to go back up to our room and find the paper with our spa confirmations and go directly to those rooms. It was the most rushed massage I've ever had - even before my back hit the bed, it started on my feet. It was a fine massage, but not what I'd expect from a spa hotel. Afterwards, the spa staff had recommended the ”salt room” - we were excited, thinking this must be some kind of salt scrubbing room or unique experience. No. It was a room with fake salt hanging from the ceiling, very cold AC, and beds with dirty blankets thrown over us, sitting in lawn chairs. It was supposed to be a 45 min experience - just sitting in the chairs doing nothing. We left immediately. The spa team, when we finally found them, said ”it's supposed to be like smelling the salt in the ocean” - it was a hilarious excuse for a spa treatment, which we're still laughing about. They tried to charge 30 euro for this. The pool person (once we found him) also said the pool was thermal waters. They were not. The service here is limited, the property is nothing special, the price is high compared to the rest of the town, the spa is not nice, spa staff are nowhere to be found, the system is confusing, and it was by no means relaxing.

Central located in the heart of Karlovy Vary. Everything looks new, is in very good conditions and is very clean. The hotel gives you the charm and atmosphere of the old glory days. It has a lift and a water dispenser in the lobby. The breakfast room is like a five star restaurant. One negative point - breakfast starts at 8.30 am only and you are later, they might run out of several things. All in all - highly recommended!

Věry lovely hotel. City Center , gorgeous swimming pool with amazing view, great breakfast. Very Good Wellness zone and exclusive Thaj massage, which I really liked. The Best weekend stay I can reccommend

The view is a city view room, the view from the window is very good, very close to the various attractions, breakfast is very rich, the important point is that the quilt is really soft and very light but very warm ~ no kind of hotel quilt feels a little wet, the room is very Big and very warm, I really like this hotel~Recommended recommendation, the price is very high~ If you want to go, you can ask the local traffic information of the hotel front desk, also help us to inquire and print it~ Figure 1 is taken from the window of the room we live in. ~

My stay at the Astoria Hotel was absolutely wonderful. Located right on the colonnade, you're in for a real treat - I was lucky enough to have a breathtaking view of the historic Karlovy Vary! :) The staff was incredibly kind and friendly, providing us with great recommendations on what to do in the city. The room was beautiful and clean. The breakfast selection was rich and satisfying. I wholeheartedly recommend it for a romantic weekend getaway or a rejuvenating family stay. :)

The building is impressive, enthroned up on the east hillside of Karlovy Vary. Habsburgian vibes reminiscent of ancient days. Imperial is in good condition and nicely renovated. The scale of the building is huge and dimensioned for thousands of guests. Walking around takes quite a bit of time but with lesser amount of guests than the mentioned thousand, it feels quite lonely to stroll the corridors... The public areas are mostly beautiful, but the five official stars... no, unfortunately not. What is lacking? Well, the scale of the property demands to keep it running. To keep it running you have to have a lot of guests. Thus, you have to attract people who not usually are in the ”five star category”. And so they (try to) do. Many things turn to ”cantina” standard in respect of both the reception and ”handling” of the guests and the dining options. Very tired staff at check in. One example: in the main lobby there are only two elevators, whereof one at our visit was out of order. Another elevator in another part of the hotel did not serve all the floors. Nah.... Rooms are renovated and just fine. All amenities and a good night's sleep in comfy beds. Nice with a small balcony. For those having some sort of boarding agreement, dinner is served as a buffet dinner in the magnificent ”Prague restaurant” with lavish decoration. A buffet is hardly a concept in a real five star hotel and we consequently had dinner in the more intimate ”Restaurant Paris” - see my separate review. In ”Prague” breakfast is also served, which proved to be a great gathering of all the hotel guests at the same time. More like a school cantina than a five star hotel. Everything in place though, and most thing you would want is there to find. Queues to the coffee machines... Parking was ”doen the hill” and we ended up parking on a tennis court (!). OK - no problem, but not in the ballpark of attending staff helping you with the parking facilities. Staff correct and polite. But very stiff. And tired. Many steps behind service of a true 5-star. It's about price/performance. We had the opportunity to stay at three different hotels at Karlovy Vary during our stay. And one of those was the Grandhotel Pupp, which we considered to be much more lika a true five star. AND they are/were cheaper! So, you may well stay at Imperial, just for the sake of the building's eminent history and athmosphere. But be aware that days gone by since the turn of the century does not apply in the respecto of ”grand” anymore.