Hotel Alpina Luzern

The location is decent; it's a bit tiring to walk 10 minutes from the train station with luggage. The entrance is easy to miss. Inside, it's generally clean and tidy. In the quadruple room, the toilet and sink are inside the room, while the shower is across the hall, which is a bit inconvenient for showering. The room for four people is a bit cramped, making it impossible to open suitcases, but the bedding is new and clean.

Check out these photos of the hotel and the surrounding streets in the early morning, featuring typical European retro architecture with aged red bricks and green tiles. The best part is its proximity to the train station! Just a few steps from the train, you can drop off your luggage and completely free up your hands, avoiding the torture of dragging suitcases over the old town's cobblestone streets. The front desk service was also impeccable, both warm and professional. However, even with such a perfect location and amazing service, there's one fatal flaw – no air conditioning! Who would have thought that Switzerland in late May would defy expectations and be as hot as an oven? Accustomed to powerful air conditioning in Asia, returning to the room at night felt like a complimentary 'Swiss eco-sauna' experience. Location gets full marks, service gets full marks, but for the temperature, we had to rely on our strong willpower for some 'physical cooling'.

Clean and spacious! They have a microwave, cutlery, and a water dispenser! They also provide a visitor card for free public transport within the city. My only minor complaint is that there's only heating in winter.

The hotel smelled very strongly of new renovations. I felt dizzy after only 20 minutes in the room. I asked the front desk to change rooms and they charged an extra 100 Swiss francs per night, but at least the smell wasn't as bad. However, I later found out the new room had no cold water in the shower, so it was too hot to use. They ended up opening a room next door just so I could shower. The room itself was incredibly stuffy, and the two fans blowing didn't help at all. European buildings are just too well insulated. It was actually quite cool outside, so on the second night, I couldn't take it anymore and just slept with the windows wide open! I was really worried about mosquitoes, flies, and bees, but surprisingly, I had a very safe and cool night. The renovation smell also seemed to dissipate quite a bit. So, if you have similar concerns, you might not need to worry as much as I did!

The hotel is super convenient, just over 100 meters from the station. The room was on the small side, but it was clean and tidy, and even came with a capsule coffee machine.