REVIEW | Hilton The Hague

The Hilton The Hague is located inside the former PTT main office dating of the 1950´s, located on the corner of Zeestraat and Scheveningseveer/Mauritskade right next to the Panorama Mesdag (A museum housing a 360 degree view of the seaside and dunes at Scheveningen in 1881). This location is close to the Peace Palace and the embassies of the different countries in The Hague as well as the city centre with the Paleis Noordeinde (Dutch Royal Palace), the Binnenhof (It houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of General Affairs and the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.) and the Gevangenpoort.
It’s also an ideal destination to travel to via the new Benelux train, which offers 4 direct trains a day between Brussels and The Hague.

You enter the hotel in a high space, where you have to descend some stairs before you get to the reception area, hidden behind a row of pillars. This made it quite messy for check-in and check-out as there was no clear area where you could wait. Even though the staff at check-in and out was very friendly, we stumbled upon the usual language misunderstandings as our (Flemish) version of Dutch is different to their (Dutch) version of Dutch. As we arrived around noon, it was too early for a room to be available for us, but as we booked a room with executive lounge access the lady at check-in issued us with a key for the lounge so we could have access for a quick bite or drink until our room would be available.

The room

The room itself was a fairly typical hotel room for this type of hotel and provided everything you could need. There were 2 comfortable beds, with power plugs alongside to recharge your necessary electronics. Along the big windows you had a comfortable reading chair and table, a minibar, coffee and tea facilities as well as 2 complimentary bottles of water. Opposite of the bed there was a large desk with an office chair and an UTP cable for internet access. In between the beds and the bathroom you had a big closet where you could also find 2 pairs of slippers and bathrobes.

The bathroom was divided from the rest of the room by a frosted glass wall, with a sliding door towards the main room area so you could create an open bathroom if you prefer to do so. Inside everything was clad with marble, with a nice useful sink in one corner, a big bath at the opposite corner, a toilet in the farthest corner and a rain shower (with good drainage) In the remaining corner. Provided where the usual Peter Roth toiletries, as you would find in most in Hilton properties, the usual vanity items, and 3 sizes of soft towels per person.

The Lounge

The Executive lounge is located on level 5, with a rather narrow inside portion where you could also find the food serving area and an equally large outside terrace (which was plagued by seagulls however). There were no toilets in the lounge area, so you had to go back to your room when needed, as our room was also on the 5^th floor this was no big deal however.

During the day you had some cookies, crisps, nuts and fruit on offer alongside soft drinks, tea and coffee. In the evening you also had a selection of wines and liquor accompanied with some snacks. The only warm snacks on offer where mini spring rolls, the rest being some cups with a filling, some different types of tapenade, olives, bread, little sausage blocks and 3 different types of cheese.

In the morning you had your typical basic hotel breakfast spread. For drinks there where of course coffee and tea, as well as 3 types of “fresh” juices (grapefruit, apple and orange). The hot items where scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and mushrooms. In the bread selection there were some more “soft” bread options as this is generally more popular in the Netherlands. Amongst the cold cuts there was also a delicious tuba salad next to the more traditional selection of meat, cheese and salmon. Of course there was also a small selection of yoghurts (but not the amount you would expect in milk-products loving Holland). The refilling of both plates and breakfast items could have been better however, as things ran out things weren’t quickly replenished.