GODFREY FITZSIMONSstays at Hotel Excelsior in Munich
WHEN I STAYED at the Excelsior in Munich in the olden days it was reasonable for the price.
Then it refurbished itself in a major way in 1986, and up went the rates. But, like so many top-of-the-range hotels on the Continent these days, it has had to add a few sweeteners. Such as three nights for the price of two. Such as a free minibar (but hold that thought for the moment).
Its One More Night deal is not just for the off season. I took advantage of it in August, at a rate of €115 a night, and it’s available again over Christmas and in February.
Or you can live a little. A night in the Bavarian Suite. A bottle of Ruinart champagne, strawberries and cream and a bunch of red roses in the room. Use of a Rolls-Royce Phantom (mit chauffeur) for three hours. All for €423 per person. Did somebody have the bad taste to mention the recession?
The Excelsior could hardly be more conveniently located in Munich. It’s across the tram tracks from the train station, on a pedestrianised, tree-lined boulevard – Schützenstrasse – that leads within 100m or so to the central Karlsplatz, aka Stachus. Tram, U-Bahn and S-Bahn services are virtually outside the door.
If you’re so loaded down with Louis Vuitton baggage that you need help when you get off the train, it will even send somebody over to rescue you. It will probably be the concierge, who (whisper it) reminded me a little, but delightfully, of a certain Manuel.
This being Bavaria, the decor of the Excelsior’s lobby is some way removed from minimalist: it’s an exuberance of friezes and moulded alabaster door lintels and wrought-iron balusters; big oil paintings that, if you could penetrate the varnish and patina of the ages, might be landscapes; overstuffed upholstery; and the inevitable set of stag’s antlers – a royal if not actually an imperial. I’m still a bit dubious about the genuineness of the unicorn head above the fireplace.
By contrast my room was almost monastic in its restraint, with sage-green carpet, delicately wrought metal wall sconces and candelabra and marble-topped tables with cabriole legs. It was an extremely spacious double, with queen-size bed.
The bathroom had two basins, and the separate toilet boasted a third. The gilded fittings in the bathroom are a bit de trop, though: gold taps are impressive only if they’re made of real gold.
Some of the rooms overlooking the street at the rear of the building can be noisy, but the closed windows are soundproofed, or you could request a room giving on to the peaceful inner courtyard.
I dined in the hotel restaurant, smallish and called Geisel’s Vinothek, because its walls are lined to the hand-painted, appropriately vaulted ceiling with wine bottles from, it seems, every terrace in both hemispheres.
I ate perch, cooked à point, on a bed of pepper and herbs and a ragout of potato and egg, with a champagne foam (whatever that is).
A dessert order of creme brulee turned out to be three delectable and subtly different little dishes of the stuff.
I decided not to take the hotel up on its unusual offer of a cooking course “on request” in the kitchen.
Nor did I feel the need to carry my distended stomach across to its sister hotel, the Königshof, a couple of hundred metres away, to take advantage of its complimentary “wellness” programme of sauna, steam room, whirlpool and fitness room. But some more virtuous people might.
I always avoid stuff-yourself-to-the-gunwales buffets, and I had room-service breakfast instead, elegantly and punctually delivered, for €15.
Oh, I almost forgot. That free minibar. No spirits, I’m afraid, just beer, mineral water and soft drinks included in the room rate. You can’t grumble, though. Every little helps.
WhereHotel Excelsior, Schützenstrasse 11, Munich, Germany, 00-49-89-5513700, excelsior-hotel.de/en.
WhatCharacteristically High Bavarian first-class hotel.
Rooms114, with eight suites.
Best ratesThree nights' BB for the price of two from €259 per person. Two double rooms for family of four €290 per night. Both offers run from December 18th to January 10th, then start again on February 13th. Or ask for the Excelsior package of two nights' BB from €179 per person at weekends.
AmenitiesClimate control in some rooms, minibar, satellite television with pay TV, radio, free Wi-Fi, porter, concierge, eight-hour laundry service. Pick-up service from main train station.