At the end of 2019, I had the opportunity to test the Eurostars Grand Central Hotel in Munich. At that time there was a very attractive offer for the presidential suite, so of course, I took the opportunity immediately. So here is my in-depth review of Eurostars Grand Central Munich.
Note: I’m testing hotels in Munich myself (I pay for it myself) and I’m not invited by the hotels. The reviews are therefore not a paid advertisement but honest opinions.
Location
As you probably already read in the article Munich Hotels: The Eurostars Grand Central Munich, the hotel is centrally located in Munich. All in all, it would still be counted to the so-called city center. In Munich, the term „city centre“ is basically used to describe what is located within the so-called Mittlerer Ring (also named B2R in maps), a busy ring road around Munich’s city centre.
The hotel is located in the western part of the „Neuhausen“ district, more precisely in the „Arnulfpark“ quarter. The quarter is rather upscale and renowned companies like Google are based here as well. All in all, the location is still quite good for Munich travelers to rapidly reach the most important sights and hotspots of Munich. Also, if you don’t mind a 25 to 30-minute walk, you can reach the old town or the Oktoberfest grounds on foot.
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What I found interesting was the fact that Eurostars named the hotel „Grand Central“. Grand Central implies for many travellers that the hotel is located at the main station of the city. Probably because many of them have the term „Grand Central Station“ in mind. In fact, the hotel is located about 950 meters (~1,038 yards) from the main train station down Arnulfstr..
Public Transport & Getting there
The hotel is very conveniently connected to public transport. There is a tramway station in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. The tramway will bring you directly to the gates of the old town. Only a 5-minute walk takes you to the S-Bahn (urban rail) station „Hackerbrücke“. From here you can also go to the city centre or explore more distant sights or tourist hotspots (e.g. Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial). The station is also a stop for the two airport lines, which take you directly to and from Munich International Airport (approx. 45 minutes journey time)
Directly in front of the hotel, there is also a taxi stand, in case you do not want to use public transport.
In case you arrive with a (rental) car, there is always the question of a parking space.
At the hotel, there are two options. Either you park in front of the hotel on the street or use the hotel’s underground car park (for a fee of 18.00 EUR / ~20 USD / ~16 GBP / ~29 AUD).
I came by car for the review. The parking situation is, unfortunately, a bit limited. There are parking lots directly in front of or opposite the hotel, but they are also available for residents or business people. Especially in the Arnulfpark quarter, directly behind the hotel, it can get a bit crowded and you have to be lucky to find a parking space. This is especially the case as there is no parking fee to pay.
You should also familiarize yourself with the traffic signs (especially if you are not from Europe), because Arnulfpark has some important special signs which do not exist in this form in other countries and which are not immediately obvious if you are from the USA or Australia, for example.
On the sign above, for example, you can see a lot of important information:
1. Height clearance. This sign means that somewhere in this street there is a passageway with a maximum height of 4.1 meters.
2. in Germany, the sign „Fahrradstraße“ (Bicycle Road) refers to roads in which only bicycles are allowed to ride. The sign directly below, however, removes this restriction for motorcycles and cars. The term „frei“ (free) does not mean that motorcycles and cars are allowed to park here free of charge, but that they also have the right to use this bycicle street. Anyway, bicycles always have the right of way here.
3. last but not least we find one of the most important signs in Germany. The „no stopping“ sign. This sign says that from this point on to the right, you are not allowed to park or stop your vehicle.
Lobby & Lounge
You enter the Eurostars Grand Central through a large sliding door and find yourself in a hall-like lobby. This is where you will find the rather spacious reception, the entrance to the bar and restaurant, the lifts to the rooms, and the entrances to the conference rooms.
To the left of the reception in the lounge you can sit down and plan your excursions, have a snack or a sundowner in the evening.
In summer you can also sit in the inner courtyard and enjoy the peace and quiet there. When I was there, it was already too cold, but as you can see in the following picture, one could still have sat outside.
The Check-in process was normal. There was not much going on (we were the only guests who checked in at that moment) and the young gentleman at the reception was not exuberantly friendly but also not impolite.
We received our room keys (cards) and the young man told us that on the left was the restaurant and on the right the elevator to the rooms.
Rooms
As mentioned at the beginning, there was a good offer for the presidential suite at that time. After having booked this, the highest room category, I would have wished for a more obliging reception, but ok. I was looking forward to the big room with living room, bedroom, and two bathrooms.
On the way to the room that was located at the corner of the building on the first floor, I noticed a slightly musty smell. Where it came from I could not determine, but I guess it was from the carpet, as the hall carpet has already seen better times and was quite stained in front of some rooms.
After I entered the room, I immediately took a look at it. I liked the layout, the enormous living room, and the bedroom. As I like design hotels, the bathroom and/or the guest toilet also fascinated me. These rooms are kept in dark red and black.
But when I took a closer look at the bathroom, I noticed that the shower was covered in limescale. Yes, I know in Munich the water is very hard. I live here myself and I always have to scrub my shower to prevent lime stains. I also don’t say anything if there is a lime stain here and there. But here it looked as if the shower was completely forgotten to clean. Also the bathroom door had a lot of white stains.
I am usually quite tolerant here and do not shy away from wiping up myself when the cleaners have forgotten something. But here, they probably completely forgot to clean the bathroom, as the floor and the bathtub were a little dusty, too.
Thus, I went to the reception and explained the situation. The now a little annoyed-looking receptionist said that he would inform the cleaning team.
After five minutes three men knocked at the door and told that they would like to fix the problem of cleanliness. Interestingly, two of them only took pictures of the stains with their smartphones and told the third guy to clean the bathroom.
He got down to work immediately. He was very friendly and hurried. In the meantime, we sat down in the living room and had a coffee.
After he left, I went to the bathroom again… The real problem, the limed shower and the stains on the door were still there. But now the bathtub and the floor were spotless. Well… thanks for mopping the floor, but this was a complete miss. I was not in the mood to go to the reception again, as I wanted to enjoy the late afternoon and test the hotel further.
The bathroom with shower and bathtub was very spacious and directly accessible from the bedroom. I found that very comfortable. There were also miniature toiletries from the Spanish brand „Hierbas de Ibiza“. Shampoo, shower gel and body lotion were provided. Besides that there was hand soap and a care set. Also the guest toilet in the entrance area was in top condition and nicely designed.
In total, the bathrooms were very nice and also the big rain shower was very pleasant. Maybe a little too dark. An additional light would not have been bad here.
Bedroom
The bedroom was also spacious with indirect lighting and a large flat-screen TV in front of the bed. In addition, there was a quite large wardrobe with a safe (laptop size) as well as a place to get dressed or to read something. On the king-bed there were bathrobes and it was covered with artificial rose petals. All in all the bedroom was really great. I could also sleep very well.
Livingroom
The livingroom was quite huge and featured a seating area with large table and a lounge area with couch, lounger and huge flatscreen TV. All was nicely designed with the dominant colours black, brown, chrome and red. Unfortunately the furniture had really seen better times and some of them were actually really worn out.
The huge table in the living room had a big stain on it. I don’t know how it came there, but it seemed a can opener which was covered with a liquid (alcohol?) was placed here. The liquid corroded the wooden surface. The same happened to the actually nicely designed black marble coffee table. I wanted to see if I could remove these stains with some water, but it looked like these stains are here since a long time. The stains on the coffee table looked a bit like spilled and dried milk, but it was also not removable.
Such things can happen and it is ok to not replace the tables immediately. Especially marble tables are quite pricey. But what really annoyed me was the fact there was a totally worn out lounge chair in the room. And I don’t mean there were a few scratches in the leather or some wrinkles of years of use. The lounge chair slowly crumbles into dust. You can’t put that in a living room of a 4-star hotel. Especially not in the Presidential Suite, the biggest and most luxury room category!
I tried to forget the chair and the stains and went back to further explore the room and its equipment.
Room Equipment
In the room there were a sideboard with coffee making facilities. These were provided free of charge.There was also a radio on the sideboard which looked like a design-media centre. A closer look told me it was a Grundig Oviation 7000 – an early 2000s design radio with CD-Player and a futuristic, UFO-like remote control. After my early-2000s flashback, I tried to listen to some radiostations. They were not programmed, so i had to search the FM band. As I’m a Munich local, I actually know the frequencies of my favourite radio stations, so I found a good station quickly. But the quality was rather poor. A lot of interferences on many frequencies. I then realised there was a small room antenna with tiny cable right behind the player. I tried to move the antenna a bit closer to the window, but the quality improved just a bit. I decided to switch it off and listen to music via the huge smart TV in the living room. The radio player looks nice, but is actually quite useless.
There was also a screwdriver and bottle-opener, which is great if you want to open a bottle of sprakling wine or a bottle of soda, lemonade or beer. Also the provided hairdryer was good and quite new. I also liked the view from the room. From the living room and bedroom you can see Arnulfstrasse, a main road leading to Munich Main station and the city centre.
As a special feature I booked the „Romatic Package“. This package is bookable through the official website after you choose your room. It consists of a bottle of sparkling wine, chocolate strawberries, rose petals and late check-out if available. The package costs additionally 21 EUR.
As we checked in, I asked if late checkout is possible and immediately got the answer: No!
And here is what the „Romatic Package“ looks like:
Presented on a worn out black tray you could find 6 tiny strawberries and 6 blueberries along with three uncompassionate placed artificial rose petals.
The strawberries were only half-covered with chocolate and it was nearly impossible to actually eat the chocolate as you would have to scratch it off the slate-dish.
The sparkling wine was good (Scavi & Ray Prosecco)
Wellness & Spa facilities
After another coffee we decided to check out the swimming pool, the fitness facilites and the sauna, all located on the fifth floor. Unfortunately there was no rooftop patio or something.
As there were people everywhere, I could not take pictures. All in all I was a bit disappointed. The fitness room was quite tiny as well as the sauna.
The (indoor) swimming pool area was more spacious, but not really big. We went in but realized there were two families with kids making a water-fun-park out of the whole area. So we decided to leave and sit in the sauna.
When we walked into the sauna area, I was again disappointed of the dwarfishness of the wellness area. There were only three loungers. We decided to just go to have a few sauna sessions and then go back to our room to relax. So we took a shower and walked in the rather small sauna cabin (suitable for approx. 5 people) and looked in the shocked faces of an elderly couple. As I looked at them surprised, he waved away his shocked face and said in a broad British slang. „Sorry mate, we’re not used to naked people.“. We all laughed and I explained a bit about using a sauna in Germany.
All in all, the wellness area was disappointing. All was quite tiny and I don’t want to imagine how packed everything is during the high season or Oktoberfest.
Restaurant & Breakfast
We did not try out the restaurant, because we went downtown to have dinner. But the next morning we could try the breakfast in the quite spacious restaurant.
The breakfast is served in buffet style. As you know by now, I wasn’t that gruntled because of what happened the day before, but I have to tell you I became reconciled with the Eurostars Grand Central.
The breakfast was huge and there were not only options for continental breakfast or English breakfast but also a lot of Spanish things (Serrano ham, olives, tapas). Also the breakfast manager – a guy looking like a bearded Enrique Iglesias – did a really great job. He was everywhere at the same time. Greeted guests, refilled coffee beans, carried empty dishes, told the staff where to clean the tables, refilled the buffet and greeted guests again. This guy has my deep respect.
Unfortuantely it was not possible to take pictures of the buffet or the breakfast room, as there were too many people, but you can find some on the German website holidaycheck.de.
Conclusion
The stay in the Eurostars Grand Central Munich was good. I think we had a rough start and I also think mistakes can happen.
But I hope the hotel management will replace the worn out furniture soon Especially when you have to pay a room rate over 250 EUR/night for a presidential suite this is a no go.
Also the wellness area could be improved, but is ok when the hotel is empty. I also wished for a warmer greeting, and a less annoyed look when a guest has a complaint.
The close proximity to the city centre and the Oktoberfest grounds makes the Eurostars Grand Central a great basecamp for exploring the city.
I recommend this hotel to couples and families who like to come to Munich for Oktoberfest or during the summer months to explore the main sights but also do day-trips with the urban rail system or by train.
Do you have any thoughts you want to share? Contact me (see footer).
Ratings
The Eurostars Grand Central Munich has very good ratings throughout the Internet:
Google: 4.3 (of 5)
Booking: 8.4 (of 10) „very good“
tripadvisor: 4.0 (of 5) „very good“
Holidaycheck: 5,1 (of 6)
Expedia: 4.3 (of 5) „Excellent“
trivago: 8.5 (of 10) „Excellent“
Agoda: 8.4 (of 10) „Excellent“
Wheretostayinmunich.com Rating
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