Arena Hotel

Business trip, stayed five nights. Left at 8.30am daily & returned at 10pm. I had no complaints what's so ever, and trust me I am very particular ! For me who returns flogged each night from a grueling day, it's 75% about a beautiful comfortable spacious double bed room and 25% about the general ambience. This little hotel had it all. Entrance not impressive, but once you got inside you immeadiately felt the cosyness and a nicely decorated hotel. The Reception girls Laura and Olga were incredably helpful and most courteous. The room, spacious, huge double bed, spotless and very comfortable and well appointed. Even the bedrooms corridor, was beautifully decorated & looked well. Daily house keeping excellent with nightly bed turndown. The Negitive: insigifcantly the breakfast was soooo basic, but hey, for the money, it was brilliant to have the convenience of having it included. The neighbourhood: 20mins max walk to the Train station, even Very late at night it felt very safe and really cosompolitan; Novara...a quiet quality city. Exhibition Centre 'Rho FieraMilano' is 30-40mins journey €5.25 each way or get a weeks ticket for peanuts from the Train station. Milan City Centre just another 5mins further on. Last decent Train leaves 11.28pm from Milan City Cntr. For budget travelers or couples...I would highly recommend this hotel; it's only a hop from the City Centre. For Train Times later than 11.30pm visit trenord.it and from Bergamo Airport visit terravison.eu/milan-bergamo ...€9 return ticket, an hour's journey, it's for nothing!!

Although we knew it’s difficult to find and we had luckily seen pictures of the hotel it took us 30 minutes to first find the location and then find the entrance! There are misleading and confusing signs on the street which let us make 3 circles around the block by car. Even our navigation system couldn't locate it exactly. Interior old-fashioned and a bit scary with porcelain dolls and carpet. No elevator! Free wi-fi. Rooms small but partly renovated. Flat screen tv. Comfortable bed. Bathroom small with new fittings and old wooden slide door. Big problem: air conditioning! The day we arrived (mid-June, 32°C!!) the air conditioning got activated the first time that year and therefore had some trouble with working in every room so we tried to be patient. The next day the reception told us that it is controlled centrally for the whole building (huge!!) and does only work between 3 p.m. and sometime in the middle of the night. Fortunately we spent the whole day outside. Quite rooms which enabled us to sleep until 10.30 a.m. the first time ever in a hotel. Located only few minutes from the city center. Breakfast is ok. If you don’t get up too late you can get fresh, very tasty brioches which is the typical Italian breakfast. As well they offer fruit, yogurt, cereals, jams and butter. Expecting cooked breakfast or tasty bread which is not usual in Italy can only be disappointing. As the choice of hotels in Novara is limited this hotel for a reasonable price is acceptable for few nights.