For my boyfriend’s birthday I was looking for a nice getaway to enjoy together. As the country of Belgium was still in lockdown and international travel was still prohibited I had to look for an alternative inside of the country. I stumbled across Le Sanglier des Ardennes which offered a very nice dine and stay offer and decided to try out a stay there.

The hotel is located in Durbuy which markets itself as “the smallest city in Belgium” and possesses a quaint and picturesque centre where you can stroll around the small cobble stone streets and along the river bank. Outside of the city centre there are plenty of possibilities for outdoor activities like forests walks or kayaking on the river or other more extreme stuff. There is also a golf course nearby to which the hotel provides a shuttle service.

Le Sanglier des Ardennes can be found right in the middle of the old city centre. Located in various buildings along both sides of the main street and at one side of the main square, connected through a tunnel under the main street. The hotel entrance is located at the lower level on the main square while the different restaurants can be found on the first floor at both sides of the main street. The hotel is made up of a combination of old buildings and new buildings which are built using local stone and make a nice composition.

Upon arrival you just drive the car until right in front of the hotel entrance from where a valet will park the car for you and a bell boy will help you to bring your baggage to your room. Inside the entrance feels very welcoming with a nice open fire in the lobby. The staff at check-in where also very warm and welcoming and could assist us in perfect Dutch.

We had booked a superior room and received one on the first floor, overlooking an interior courtyard. The room was nice and big and very nicely designed and decorated. The bed was huge, soft and comfortable and very inviting to sleep in. tucked away in the corner was a desk with plenty of space to get some work done. There are normally are also two comfortable chairs and a coffee table but one chair was removed to make room for a proper dining table and chairs where you could eat.

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Outside of the window was a shared wooden terrace with some very nice lounging chairs which will be a nice place to relax during a nice warm sunny day.

The bathroom was also very nicely appointed in lovely design. The walk-in rain shower was a delight with a huge shower head and very good water pressure and temperature. The towels where big and soft and the provided toiletries where also nice to use. If you wished the hotel provided a number of proper bottles of the toiletries to buy and take home with you. In the huge closet in the entrance hall there were also bathrobes and slippers, which you would normally use to go to the hotel wellness centre, but this was still closed because of the COVID restrictions so we weren’t able to make use of it.

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Because of the COVID pandemic all restaurants still had to be closed so the hotel thought of a different concept to provide food and beverages to its guests. All rooms came with their own dining table and chairs, all set up.

During the meal times you could pass by buffets set up in different parts of the hotel like conference rooms and the restaurants depending on the course from where you could pick up a plate to your liking and take it back to your room. Drinks could be ordered either at the bar or a nice bottle of wine could be selected with the help of the sommelier in the huge wine cellar. Water, coffee and tea where provided in the room (using a Nespresso coffee maker) and could be replenished if you desired so.

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The hotel also offered a personalised butler-service for an additional fee in which the hotel staff came to your room to serve your drinks and food, which had to be ordered in advance when making your reservation. As it was a special occasion we opted for the butler service to feel spoiled for a night. The hotel also provided a small birthday cake and card at the occasion of the birthday, which was a nice touch.

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The butler service in the evening offered us all plates available on the menu for us to share, making us able to try out everything while not over eating. The food was designed and made by the famous Belgian chef Wout Bru and was delicious and well executed. The people performing the butler service where all very friendly, well intentioned and service minded. You could however sense it was still a new concept as at times they forgot small things like providing new cutlery when the old one was cleaned away or forgetting to top up glasses, which I’m sure they’ll think of when they have gotten used to this new concept of service.  

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We very much enjoyed our dinner and where very happy with the butler service as it allowed us to relax and unwind while enjoying a dinner served to us, without having to mask up every time we wanted to go for a next course.

As the dinner finished the butler service asked us at what time we would like to have our breakfast served to us in the morning, which duly arrived at the requested time. We were also asked what we would like, and as we wanted a bit of everything we received a plentiful breakfast in the morning. While the eggs and bacon where a bit cold the copious amount of food made sure you really couldn’t complain about breakfast as there was about everything you could wish for, more than we could finish.

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We felt sorry for the guy serving us breakfast as he was being shouted at by another guest in the hallway because he couldn’t get a room service breakfast in his room, probably because he didn’t pay the butler service supplement. While I do get that when you call front desk and they say that a room service breakfast isn’t possible yet seeing it served in a different room might be frustrating, shouting at the stuff in such a rude manner is really uncalled for.

We truly enjoyed our stay at Le Sanglier des Ardennes and sure wish to go back there when the restaurants and wellness are open again to enjoy the ‘full’ experience. We can also highly recommend the hotel as a nice get away in Belgium, especially now in COVID-times where the personalised Butler service can make you feel spoiled again.

Have you done a covidproof hotel stay or do you prefer to stay at home to avoid all risks? Let us know in he comments below!