Hotel Villa Antonius

We asked whether they had fish or vegetarian food. The staff just said, "No. Go to the pizza place behind the corner."

A bit of a different experience. You have to see and feel it for yourself.

The shower cubicle was nice enough that you could take it home. That was about the only bright spot. I paid €130 for a room and €20 for parking, but got only 5 of the 17 amenities listed. Around 70% of what had been promised was missing, yet I paid full price. Take care to check what you're paying for. Booking.com listed the place as "Luostarin Puutarha", but once there I was sent to the door of Cafe Antonius, where Hotel Villa Antonius is in the same building. This is the place called "Luostarin Portti". The room didn't match what was listed either. The photo shows what was promised, and another shows what I got: a carpet, a courtyard view, and a memory of the previous toilet left in the bin. Looking closer at the carpet while writing this, I can see cat, dog, or some other animal hair, so allergy sufferers should take note. Breakfast was in a cramped cafe crowded with old stuff, making it hard to move around. Maybe some people enjoy the feeling of stepping back in time, while others see it as a place to store old things they can't bear to give up. You can decide which group you're in. The food was cafe breakfast, not HOTEL breakfast: a few ready made breads, yogurt, three kinds of muesli and juice. Google reviews gave the cafe 2.5 stars. I should have gone to Hotel Palo, where I stayed last time, and avoided this poor price to quality experience. But 🤷🏼‍♂️ it was worth it...

I remember the hostess from more than 30 years ago, when the cake and coffee seemed insanely captivating and expensive to me. She was friendly and beautiful then, and still is today. The couple used to be really successful, beautiful and brave, as the book about the hostess shows. You can buy it for a reasonable price. The old couple still run the place because it's their life. Be curious, take your time, and above all be polite to them. Talk to them and you'll understand what I mean. My family and I got to experience the place's original past, the relationship between the couple, and a beautiful love that has lasted to this day. Thank you for that. You need the right mindset and expectations here. Don't come in a hurry expecting a clinically clean, standard chain cafe where everything is predictable and without feeling. Coffee and a piece of Antonius's own cake are a pleasure you have to take in and accept as a whole. That feeling stays with you afterward.