Ghent River Hotel - A Review (Flanders

More than regular luxury hotels, I’m a sucker for luxury hotels in exotic locations or heritage hotels which are renovated old buildings - remember Winderemere Munnar or Neemrana Bungalow on the Beach??!!! Recently I got to stay at Ghent River Hotel which is managed by Historic Hotels Belgium.

The specialty? This was built in 1518! It was a Renaissance house then! Another portion of the hotel was a rice husking facility built in 1857, a site in which there was a sugar mill prior to that. By 1873, this became a steam cotton mill and by 1879, this served as a car garage and finally a bakery. Since the last 13 years, this has been under the wings of Heritage Hotels Belgium, which has both the old building called Historic Wing and a new extension as well!

Today the hotel has 77 rooms of which 37 are standard, 27 are executive, 8 are luxury, and 5 suites. As usual the rooms were equipped with toiletries (except dental kit), coffee bar, mini bar, snacks etc. Ofcourse, the mini bar & snacks are separately billed! The rooms are also equipped with iron box, hair dryer and safes. Free wifi is available throughtout the hotel.

Except Standard rooms, the rest come with bathrobe and slippers as well. The rooms either have a shower or bathtub (most standard rooms have only a shower). While executive room and upwards have enough space to easily accommodate 3 people, 10 rooms are set up for 3 to 4 people as is! All the rooms have both air conditioner as well as heater. There are also safes, iron tables, large cupboards, TV, life size mirrors as well.

The best thing about this hotel is that it’s bang on the river bank. This is the only hotel in Ghent that has its own jetty! You can get into the hotel directly from the river!!! Several rooms starting from the standard rooms itself, there are river view rooms. Almost all of the luxury rooms and all the Jr Suites over the river! Those are the perfect examples of a room with a view and to wake-up to this view just makes the day better.

The room that totally took me by awe was this Jr. Suite room which has this stunning ceiling! This is from the historic wing. This equipment is from the cotton mill and which is still intact! Ofcourse it’s the good old brick wall and wooden ceiling! The pillars holding the ceiling are also old (there are walls now though so the structure is stronger). This was the perfect room of all the rooms in this hotel. With its quirky set up with the machinery, it also has a river view!!! If only the room had a balcony, this would have been paradise! Being a heritage building, those kinds of alterations aren’t allowed.

Two of the 4 people suites, has 2 rooms with 2 beds in each. One of it also has a defunct fire-place which serves as a decor now, as well as canopy bed (that's the 1st pic of the post)! This too has river view, brick wall wooden ceiling and wooden pillars in the room. This was perhaps my 2nd favorite room.

There are 46 rooms in the historic wing which all have such stunning interiors. There are 31 rooms in the new wing and obviously they do not have these brick walls or wooden ceiling and is all made of concrete. The rooms, even within the same category, are of different dimensions, and different interiors and décor, typical of any heritage hotel and unlike any regular hotel! The difference between the historical wing and new wing is pretty evident, in the exteriors & wall itself!

The hotel technically doesn’t have a restaurant per se, but there’s a limited room service all day a-la-carte menu and a stunning breakfast array! The best part, being a veggie, I didn’t feel left out, there was so much for me to eat too! There were quite a variety of breads, cheese, spreads, jams, donuts, cakes, waffles etc as well as fruits, vegetable salads, fresh juices, infused water etc as well.

Plus the coffee machine has such a lovely range of hot chocolate, coffee chocolate, cappuccino and so many more options. Yeah, the coffee chocolate was divine, do try that out! However quite surprisingly, for a luxury hotel, the breakfast isn’t complimentary. Waking up early morning to the river view and having breakfast as well, with river view from the terrace is just perfect!

The house keeping does a decent work. As a part of social responsibility, the towels left in the hanger are not replaced while the rest are replaced. The toiletries were neither added or replaced on day 2, which was a bit weird for me from a 4 star hotel!

The other facilities in the hotel include Bar, Sauna, Gym and Luggage room. Since it’s a heritage building where there isn’t much that could be altered, there isn’t a pool here. There is an inner courtyard next to the bar. There is also a conference room. There renaissance cellar room at the basement has also been restored and today the entire place can be hired for events. It is large enough for about 100 people, so the venue would be perfect for a private wedding party or a birthday party.

Ghent is perhaps one of the most unique, beautiful, historic city in Europe and most definitely it is, for sure, in Belgium. Staying a night here and enjoying the night life (I'll talk about that in another post) here is a must-do and what better way than to stay at a centuries old building here!!! Btw, Historic Hotel Belgium also manages 4 other hotels - 3 in Ghent and 1 in Aalst.

To Get There:
On Google Maps: Ghent River Hotel, Belgium
Nearest Airport: Brussels
Nearest Railway Station: Ghent Dampoort
From Ghent Dampoort Railway Station: 1.3km
From Brussels to Ghent: 68km (intercity trains are available and takes about 1 hr)

To Book: Ghent River Hotel

Room rates begin at €123 for standard double rooms.

Breakfast - €21

Sauna & Gym - €8 per hour
Hotel Ph no: +32(0)92661010

P.S: I was invited by Historic Hotels Belgium to stay and experience Ghent River Hotel for review purpose, however the opinions are my own and this post does not to advertise the product/service.

Ghent River Hotel - A Review (Flanders - Belgium)

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