Giewont

The owners were pleasant and accommodating, and the Tatras views were beautiful. We stayed for three days, and for the price the accommodation was clean and good. The breakfast and dinner buffets had plenty to choose from, and there’s a jacuzzi with a pool.

The hotel is in a lovely setting, surrounded by snow, and that’s about the only good thing I can say. We had booked ahead, yet there was nobody staffing reception at 7 p.m. There was no mineral water, tea, coffee, or anything else in the room. It was roughly 3 by 3 meters, with a 1 by 1 meter bathroom and two beds. Once we’d put down our bags and filled the cupboards, there was barely room to turn around. The setup was so bare-bones that even a Himalayan climber might wish for their tent at Camp 1 on a stormy night. The table had a plastic “brand cheap” kettle, but no tea, instant coffee, cups, or spare socket. There was just one socket by the head of one bed. We had two glasses, but no water bottle or minibar. Breakfast was a disaster. A handwritten “Defect” note was on the coffee machine from the first morning through the following days. There were two options, instant coffee or ground coffee made like Turkish coffee, with the grounds left at the bottom of the cup. The buffet was the same every day: two jams, the same grain buns, hard-boiled eggs topped with mayonnaise, the same cheese and ham, scrambled eggs, boiled sausages, cottage cheese with garlic and onions, and margarine instead of butter. If you don’t like mayonnaise, you were out of luck. The website praises the wellness area. It has dry and steam saunas, decent changing rooms with showers, and the pool area looked promising when we first saw it. But the pool water was heavily chlorinated. Believe it or not, after a few days my vacation tan had disappeared, and in the evenings my eyes were red and I could barely see. The jacuzzi was just warm water, since its massage pump was broken and stayed that way. Dinner had only one option each time. One example was chicken schnitzel breaded in flour with red and white cabbage, a sweet compote that tasted like it was from last year, and thin broth with long spaghetti in it. Salt and pepper didn’t help much, and there was no olive oil or anything else to add. No cheese counter, bread, other options for vegetarians, wine, or beer, not even for sale. The lighting in the room made us feel less like we were on holiday and more like we were in a sanatorium for alcoholics or other sinners seeking salvation. Room service is easy to describe: absolutely no service at all. Nobody cleaned the room, and fresh towels were only available on request. When I asked, the hotel manager claimed we’d been in the room, so it hadn’t been cleaned. That wasn’t true, and we told them so right away, but nothing changed. It’s in a nice location, but in my opinion it has nothing else to offer. I wouldn’t visit again even for free. We felt like cattle there, only useful for being gutted. No thanks!

The owner takes advantage of Ukrainians and doesn’t even pay minimum wage. Such a shame!!

Really great.