Hotels near Bergkirche St. Stephanus, Aachen

We were nicely surprised by this new (or recently refurbished?) family-run hotel. It is very cozy, laid out in a ”motel” style where each room is entered from either the courtyard or a courtyard balcony. We did not use the swimming pool but its use was offered. The courtyard garden and surroundings are beautifully kept and fit well with quite picturesque neighbourhood of Eynatten. There are five restaurants within a walking distance if you happen to arrive, like us, on Sunday night when the hotel restaurant is closed. The breakfast was very good and when there was a slight confusion as to the time the brakfast started, the family started running around and managed to start the breakfast within minutes after our (early) arrival to the breakfast room. The location close to the highway makes it a nice place to stop on a long journey.

A no-frills, nicely decorated, well located, clean hotel. Nothing bad to say (except that a more thorough take at cleaning the upper shelf of the wardrobe would be welcome). But everything else was really optimal. I did not need to interact with the staff at reception during my stay, so I can not report on that. The girl who checked me in was efficient and polite, and that was all the contact I had with the reception. I spent interesting evenings at the bar tasting several gins of their rich gin menu, and the two waiters I interacted with were very helpful and professional. I had a ”room with a view”, not the lowest price-range, and it was perfect for one person, although it was a double. The bed was indeed double, but the closet would have been on the small side for two people staying more than a couple of nights. If I have to point something out is the lack of a light curtain in addition of the thick, darkening curtain that the room had. If you did not want to be seen by neighbourghs in the building in front, the only option was to close the curtain, which was very effective in darkening completely the room. This at midday seemed a bit too radical. But the summary of my experience is that I will come back to this hotel if ever again in Aachen.

I spent three nights at the Hotel Regence, Aachen, in March 2024. I took a Queen Room on the fourth floor, which was fine for a short break. The multi-lingual staff were excellent, attentive, engaged and professional. Although the hotel does not offer an evening restaurant service, the staff recommended an Italian restaurant in town for supper. The hotel breakfast buffet was superb. Wifi is available throughout the hotel. I would happily stay in this hotel again.

Opposite the DSH test center, because it takes a long time to enter the venue, it is even too late to go to the exam after sleeping until nine o'clock, and then have breakfast, you can see the situation outside the exam room, and you can go downstairs after you enter the venue. It is very suitable to come to aachen to take the dsh exam. Children's shoes. The hotel configuration is quite satisfactory.

Hotel service awareness is not strong, my facial cleanser flies in the shower room, and I called the front desk several times, which seems to matter. But the hotel's hall is good, the food is delicious, and the price is OK. Going to Yaqi should be a good choice.

The room is a bit small, and the facilities are normal. There is nothing special. The breakfast is delicious, which is good. It is close to the Aachen Equestrian Competition venue. It is very convenient to watch the competition, but the service is very average. It is completely self-service. Yes, no one cares.

The parking lot charges EUR32 per night, which is a bit outrageous. For breakfast, you can consider eating at a burger restaurant 300 meters near the hotel. The double beds are relatively large, and the environment is quiet and comfortable.

This was our first stay ever at a vd Valk hotel and I start with the positive things. 1) Staff at the lobby and the breakfast very friendly and helpfull. 2) When we arrived we got an other room after a complaint without any problem. What disappointed us strongly were the following. 1) We got a room where the carpet all over had black smudges which looked really dirty. 2) The bed in the new room was on the side facing to step out like a slide at a holiday park. It was worn out by the” heavy weights” over time and never repalced. I fixed this problem temporarely myself by turning the very thick second mattrass over. 3) My wife and I were not able to watch our own old digitized pictures and short video's (TV has an USB port) because the television terminated everything in such that we even could not watch TV at all. Watching only TV was restored by a very helpfull staff member. 4) Between my bed and the wall were a lot of big and thick parts of clocked together dust. (see pictures) These rooms stay very dark even with all ”lights”turned on and by accident I noticed this because I used my flashlight in the night. 5) Vd Valk send us by e-mail a voucher for a welcome drink which did not specify any period of validity. When were thirsty the last day we decided to use it and went to the lobby and showed this voucher and the answer was that it was only valid on arrival. When I told the lady that this voucher did not mentioned anything about it she then told us to get a cup of coffee where we just had breakfast 1 hour before. This first acquaintance (in Dutch kennismaking?) with vd Valk hotels was ice cold and for us never more. So to say, our first and last.

Though we weren't expecting our rooms to be in the Kasteel itself, the accommodation in the modern blocks was corporate and dingy and though described as ”deluxe with a balcony” had no views of the ancient pile or anything of particular interest. To be honest, I have stayed in more interesting Travel Lodges in the UK and paid half the price. The whole place oozed mediocrity, from the check-in clerk who volunteered no recommendations on how to experience the Kasteel which was, in effect, sealed off to tourists, to our bathroom which had no natural light or air and a shower situated in the bath. All very disappointing. Dinner in the Old Water Mill was marred by a delay of 25 minutes before we saw a menu and extremely long gaps between courses which we put down to a shortage of kitchen staff or maybe a lack of english menus; both seemed plausible. The food itself was high quality/mid-range though definitely not gourmet or fine-dining. Oddly, Limburg wines were not included on the wine list but a very limited number of bottles from the best promoted vineyard in the region were available by the glass on request. The entremet was literally inedible though I appreciated the free glass of dessert wine I was given in compensation. Service had its faults such as asking us what we wanted to drink before we had been given any kind of drinks/wine list but was generally characterised by a sincere effort to provide attentive service. We opted not to have the breakfast buffet at 23 euros a throw and though the check-out clerk verbally acknowledged we hadn't partaken, somehow he included a line item on the bill ”breakfast excluded” which added 46 euros to the bill (yes, added) which we only discovered as we prepared to drive off. Utter stupidity and a symbolically apt end to our misadventure at Kasteel Vaalsbroek.

Excellent! We arrived a little early but it was no bother and we were checked in swiftly by a very kind and professional receptionist; she was very helpful too with a great sense of humour. The rooms are very nice, big and clean and the bathroom is big, with a choice of shower heads and a separate bath. The breakfast buffet offers A LOT of options and I was impressed, it would have been perfect if they’d have served vegetarian sausages but that’s me being incredibly picky. Check out was swift plus you can also check out online or leave your keys in a drop box. There is ample parking and the location is very good as you are just off the motorway between Belgium and Germany. We booked directly with them so they offered us a little treat which was super nice. I thoroughly recommend this hotel; the parking, rooms and staff are very, very good!