Hamburg – Ibis Budget Altona

Firstly, in fairness to the hotel, I did have a quick lie down before taking this photo, this wasn’t how they presented the room. It’s a typical Ibis Budget room, pretty much the same the world over. The room, including breakfast, was around £50 per night, which seems entirely reasonable to me as Hamburg isn’t necessarily the cheapest of cities to stay in.

The breakfast selection, which was more generous than some other Ibis Budgets that I’ve stayed in. There isn’t always a great deal of consistency about the breakfasts, certainly compared to the very tight brand standard of what is offered in the rooms. The meat selection wasn’t great, so I went for the rolls, salad items, pastries and jams during the week. The bread selection was marvellous though, with some really nice rolls.

A breakfast on one of my five mornings in the hotel. I particularly liked that the breakfast room never got too busy, it can be mildly frustrating trying to get breakfast and all of the tables are full. So, all in all, better than I had expected from the breakfasts.

The staff were all friendly and helpful, all speaking perfect English and the atmosphere in the hotel was always relaxed and informal. It didn’t feel very busy during the early part of the week, but it felt slightly busier towards the end of my stay.

There was no noise disturbance either internally or externally during my stay, with the room always being at a reasonable temperature. There isn’t a great deal of control over the temperature as it seems to be centrally set, but there was cold air circulating throughout.

This is the Altona location from the chain, as Ibis do have other hotels in the city, and it’s around a sixty-minute walk to the city centre. I did that a few times, but other times I just got the subway, which is around a five-minute walk from the hotel. That gets into the city centre in around ten minutes, so the hotel is as central as I needed it to be.

All told, I’d stay here again, there were no problems and the service was always friendly. It’s also one of those hotels which is keyless, with entry to the room being via a six-digit code number.