Du Lac

We had a fantastic 5 nights at the Hotel du Lac. On arrival we were a little wary as the hotel fixtures and decor seemed a little old fashioned BUT we soon realised that while older, the hotel was beautifully clean and the staff were all, without exception, friendly and helpful. Our river-view room was perfectly set up for our family, albeit our teenage daughter had a cardboard bed, like the ones used at the Paris Olympics! It was perfectly adequate though and did make us chuckle. At least there was a bed all made up for her which wasn't the case in every hotel we stayed at during our holiday, so we appreciated that. The bathroom was decorated in quite an old style BUT was exceptionally clean and had possibly the whitest, cleanest tile grouting we'd ever seen in a hotel! The only downside with the bathroom was that the water pressure/amount of water coming out of the shower was quite low but that just meant we needed to spend a little longer than usual in the shower when washing our hair, to ensure the shampoo was rinsed out. We had an issue with the hotel hair dryer plug sparking and blowing the electrics in the room; the electricity was quickly restored by the hotel staff and on return from our day out there was a new hairdryer waiting for us at reception and they couldn't have been more apologetic for the inconvenience. Breakfast was included and was lovely - everything you'd want from a continental breakfast. If you're expecting an American-style buffet breakfast, or full English, you're not going to get that but what you will get is service with a smile and delicious bread, pastries, cereals, yogurts, fruit, meats and cheese - everything you need to set yourself up for a full day of exploring the region. Plus the view from the breakfast room is amazing - see the photo. The hotel is absolutely ideally located right next to Interlaken Ost, which is ideal if you're planning on using the local trains, boats and buses. We pre-booked parking at the hotel and then used our Jungfrau travel passes to get around - we could whizz out of the hotel with 5 minutes to spare and still make our connections because we were that close to both the train station and the boarding point for the Lake Brienz boats. We were also only a short 10-minute stroll into the main part of Interlaken and close to lots of restaurants and shops, and to the funicular up to Harder Kulm. The other lovely thing was that when we got off the train tired after full days of mountain exploring, we were right at our hotel and didn't have to walk far! The main thing we loved about the hotel though was the friendly welcome we got every day when we returned from our trips out - without fail every receptionist asked if we'd had a nice day, what we'd been up to and had a little chat. When we checked out, the receptionist shook my husband's hand and said they hoped we'd be back. If we did return to Interlaken in the future we'd most certainly stay again.

The hotel is very well soundproofed, the sound is clear next door + upstairs, the evening is very noisy and unable to sleep. The hotel service was poor as noisy requests for room changes were refused and were refused on the grounds that they were currently full, given the clear availability. When asking to check out, the hotel said that the soundproofing was helpless, so there was no check-out fee, and in subsequent communication with the booking platform, the hotel lied and refused to deal with the soundproofing when it checked out, making it difficult to imagine such a service in Switzerland. Breakfast was very poor, a few eggs and a few sausages, not a normal hotel breakfast service level at all.

Very well located just next to Interlaken Ost train station. It's not by the lake but by the river. We had a lovely room with a small balcony overlooking the river. Very good value for money for Interlaken.