For my birthday my boyfriend wanted to take me on a weekend getaway. Yet as we were already on our Imperial Europe trip in September, we decided to postpone the trip to November. Due to the increasing corona counter measures we elected to stay in Belgium and try one of the Belgian Hotel chain Martin’s Hotels. We ended up picking the Martin’s All Suite in the planned city of Louvain-la-Neuve as it offered both a good sleep and dine option as well as wellness facilities.

The city of Louvain-la-Neuve itself is an interesting place to visit. It is a planned city from the 1970’s, built in what used to be fields near Ottignies at a central location in Wallonia.

The intention was to built a new university campus of the Catholic University of Leuven for the French speaking part of the University so the Buildings in the Flemish city of Leuven could be used for a monolingual Dutch Speaking university. The result is a pedestrian friendly compact city where most streets are pedestrian only as the main roads are on an underground level under the city. We were lucky that during our stay there was a Christmas market providing for a very christmassy atmosphere.

The Martin’s All Suite is located right at the main square in a new building. In the same building there are actually two Martin’s hotels. You have the basic 3-star Martin’s Louvain-la-Neuve with the basic two bedroom rooms and the more upscale 4-star Martin’s All Suite containing the bigger rooms and suites. The restaurant and Wellness facilities are shared between the two.

Our room was in the All Suites part of the hotel. These rooms are designed to also host people staying in the hotel and thus offer the option to have a kitchenette available for you to use at a cost of an additional €10, as we only stayed one night on a sleep and dine offer we of course didn’t need this and it was closed off behind a moveable panel.

The room was designed and decorated in a contemporary style with a big comfortable bed. The bedding used wasn’t pure white but instead used a beige pattern, making it feel more homely.

Under the TV there where easily accessible connections for audio, Bluetooth, USB and HDMI in case you want to connect your devices to the TV, which is a smart idea.

The toilet was located separate from the rest of the bathroom in the entry, but as it didn’t feature a wash basin you still had to cross the room to wash your hands, which didn’t seem very useful to me.

 The bathroom itself was a rather cramped affair there was a sink tucked away in one corner and a nice rain shower in the other corner. The products used where a combination of multiple use dispensers for shower gel and hand wash, but individual containers for shampoo, body lotion and a small bar of soap. The scent used was nice.

Down on the ground floor there where the Wellness facilities. Due to corona you had to make reservations in advance after which you were allowed to use the facilities for 1 hour.

At the reception desk of the wellness area you received a towel. The facilities had a well-equipped Gym and of course a great pool. The pool had a section with some bubble fountains and a bigger section just for swimming. To the side there were both a real and an infrared sauna, an ice bucket and a steam room. They also had a walk through shower section that provided you with different types of hot and cold showers, which was a nice gimmick.

In the evening we had dinner in the restaurant and where provided with a set 3-course menu as part of our package. The plates are decided upon each day by the chef so it’s a surprise each day. We liked the dishes we were served and had a delicious dinner.

In the morning the breakfast was served in the same restaurant, yet they opened an adjacent room where the breakfast buffet was on offer.

Before you could pick anything from the buffet you were asked to use individual tongs provided at the entrance, a typical useless corona measure in my eyes.

The buffet spread was also a but underwhelming while you had the basic as some warm dishes, breads, cold cuts, yoghurts, fruits, juices and hot drinks which were of a good taste and quality. There was a lack of variety and options, this could be better for a 4-star hotel.

All in all we did have a good stay and we look forward to a next stay in a different Martin’s property.