Grandhotel Stary Smokovec

We have just returned from a wonderful stay at this hotel with our family, and we are very happy with our experience. Our room was lovely, comfortable, spa was also very nice. The food was delicious, with a great variety and quality that made every meal something to look forward to. I would also like to give a special mention to the reception team. On the day of our check-out, I had a special request, and the staff were incredibly kind and accommodating. They went out of their way to help and fulfilled my request to my great delight. This thoughtful and positive attitude made our departure particularly pleasant and showed how much the hotel values its guests. We would be happy to return and would definitely recommend this hotel to other families looking for a comfortable and enjoyable experience, especially free entries to water parks and rides on cable cars.

Grand Hotel Stary Smokovec, nice, quiet – somewhat winding – hotel in the High Tatras. Only the "Grand" hotel was a very loooong time ago, the nostalgia has remained. The hotel is ideal for excursions in the area. Our double room ( no. 301 ) was right next to the elevator – so you could constantly hear the elevator chime when it arrived on the floor. The elevator capacity is intended for 8 people ( 630 kg ), but without luggage, without a backpack, and everyone anorexic. The room was functionally furnished, including a wing chair and a desk chair. TV, minibar, and 2 large closets with a safe. Bathrobes and slippers were in the closet. The beds were very good and comfortable – we haven't slept this well in a hotel bed for a long time. We could even open the windows for ventilation. Room service was good. Our bathroom with a bathtub for showering was unfortunately not really practical ( both over 70 plus ) since it was always very slippery after showering and that without any grab bar !!! The body lotion was attached right next to the shower gel in the tub ?!. You should really only apply lotion after drying off, right? The magnifying mirror is also not suitable for short people (170 cm), it is way too high up and completely without light. We had half board – the breakfast was okay as far as it went, but the cheese selection left a lot to be desired – always the same cheese, and there were no egg cups for the eggs either?!. Coffee was only available by the cup with a diverse selection from 2 machines. Unfortunately, the dinner was, for me personally, always just barely lukewarm. The labeling of the dishes was written in such tiny print that you could hardly read it on the small signs. To our great delight, the manager also had problems reading it!!! The menu that was laid out in the morning was also only written in a 3-point font – see picture. When clearing the tables in the morning and evening, the service was always particularly fast, but unfortunately not when it came to the bill; that always took forever or you had to pay at the "counter" and that was when the search for the receipts began. Unfortunately, we were only able to use the pool once, but the water was pleasantly warm at 30 °C and in the smaller pool it was another 5 °C warmer (35 °C) – the massage jets were also very pleasant – the bath towels were available at the spa reception – we did not use the saunas. Even if one thing or another didn't really suit us, we can still recommend the hotel – after all, everyone has to decide for themselves what is good.

We stayed at the beginning of August for 3 nights over a long week end. We stayed in 2 deluxe rooms as the standard ones had sold out. We think that there is no significant difference between the deluxe and standard rooms in terms of size, bathrooms and furniture, apart from the deluxe rooms have a nice balcony you can sit out on and the standard rooms have no balcony. The rooms are quite large as well as the bathroom. The bathroom is good though will need updating at some stage. The side of the bath to step into the shower is quite high so probably not ideal for elderly guests. The hotel has a really good wellness centre which is continuously staffed and maintained such as clearing up water on the floors which can be a bit slippery. There are two types of sauna plus steam bath, and cold plunge pool, two jacuzzis and a reasonable sized swimming pool. We did not eat dinner at the hotel but the breakfasts were very good and well up to standard of any international 4 star hotel. There was plenty of hot and cold options, plus fresh fruit and you could have omelettes made to order by an omelette chef included in standard breakfast price. The omelettes tasted really good and the coffee from the machine was also good. The hotel is in the centre of Stary Smokovec village and just one minute walk from the funicular railway lift taking you up to Hrebienok. The stay at the hotel includes one ascent and descent per day on any of the lifts in the High Tatras which makes the hotel room price good value. There is a nice comfortable bar and lounge area. All in all a very nice hotel to be recommended.