Hotel Esplanade Resort & Spa — Adults only

The spa facilities made a great impression on me: there are several saunas, a steam room, an indoor pool, a heated outdoor pool, and a jacuzzi room. You can also book special rooms for treatments and therapies. We had a wonderful stay, which included a break from Berlin and my friend's birthday. The hotel even arranged a birthday surprise for my friend. A special thanks to Giuseppe, Liam, Arif, and Michi at the Wein Lounge, and to Rui, the bartender at the hotel Piano Bar. They made the visit unforgettable. The Wein Lounge has a great wine selection, good cheeses, and excellent coffee. I'd give Esplanade five stars, and we'll be back soon!

The breakfast buffet was a highlight, with plenty to choose from, including cheeses and omelets, and it was all very complete. The hotel is renovated and clean, and the rooms are comfortable. There are five different saunas, two pools, one indoors and one outdoors, and areas to relax. I highly recommend it for a weekend or a few days. Berlin is only two hours away by train, with a 20-minute walk from the station.

We visited in October before, and it was wonderful. This winter was a complete disaster. The air in the room was bad, there was no heater, and the ventilation noise went on constantly. How are you supposed to sleep and relax with that loud sound? The saunas were really good and intense, but the spa was far too full. The relaxation area was always busy, with no chance of finding a free spot. The outdoor pool was freezing. We thought it would be properly warm in winter, but it wasn't. We had thought this would be our place to relax, but that was our last visit.

The breakfast buffet is still a highlight, with a big selection. But recently there was a little sign asking guests to pay extra for smoked salmon. If you don't want to offer it openly anymore, just take it off the buffet. Asking for 2,50euro for a portion at breakfast feels cheap and insulting, especially when a stay here isn't inexpensive. I've been coming to your hotel for over ten years and hope to keep doing so, but lately some things have made me feel like you don't care as much about your guests. My main concern is the on-site restaurant, Pechhütte. Its menu changes every couple of months, and the food is usually poor. It must be hard on staff to learn a new menu so often, so I'll generously assume the problem is with the head chef and management, not the cooks. On a recent trip, everything I tried from the new menu was so over-salted my mouth burned after the meal. I even felt ill after a salad. I like salt, too. The cooks also seem to struggle to cook meat as ordered, serving it either overcooked or raw. That's unacceptable at these prices. It's a shame, because having a restaurant on the property is so convenient and adds to the comfort of a stay. But the inconsistency means I won't try eating there anymore, and it may make me consider another spa hotel. I don't understand why Pechhütte can't settle on a solid menu and cook it well consistently instead of producing “creative” new menus that apparently need redoing every few months. I understand they want to call it “cooking outside the box,” but “chaos” isn't a brand that belongs on a relaxing getaway. The new “chef's pizza,” priced at an impressively high 20,50euro and made “as the chef fancies,” is ridiculous. Just a month earlier, pizza at your other restaurant, which is now closed, was 5-7euro cheaper. Over the last few years, I've had meals at Pechhütte bad enough to nearly ruin an otherwise wonderful hotel experience. Please fix this. The hotel is otherwise mostly wonderful.