Description: A friend who had regularly stayed in Prague on business trips recommended the small 22-bed Hotel Sax to us. It’s extremely well situated, halfway between Prague Castle and Charles Bridge, in a quiet cul-de-sac in the centre of Prague’s "Lesser District," just up from the American and German embassies.
We’d made our booking through a Prague Travel company and were collected from the airport and driven to the hotel door (booking through the Internet had been much cheaper than a direct arrangement with the hotel). The hotel has obviously been created out of more than one building and what would have been an open courtyard has been created into a magnificent atrium. It is now an extremely light, bright, and modern hotel with some outrageously extravagant modern art installations.
The bedrooms are arranged around the enclosed courtyard and have the appearance of a modern block of cells. The en-suite rooms are basic and functional and not recommended if you want to spend more than sleeping time in your hotel. The do have a somewhat clinical presentation to them and are well fitted out in a utilitarian fashion. However, although this is a fair description of the hotel, I want to stress that all of the staff members were extremely friendly and obliging, and we did feel very comfortable in this establishment.
Although English was not their strength, we did manage to understand and be understood, and the hotel did have a good range of local tourist information and were able to recommend restaurants to us. You can’t buy a drink in the hotel, and there were no facilities in the bedroom. We were thankful that our friends had bought a travel kettle with them for that early evening coffee with a wee dram!
There were no dining facilities here, but it was close enough to restaurants and the ground floor had a very airy breakfast room. Breakfast was served buffet-style and can best be described as plentiful and adequate, but a little boring. There was extremely strong percolated coffee or a do-it-yourself cup of tea together with hard boiled eggs, cold meats, cheeses, bread rolls, and some less-than-average jams. In the afternoons, the hotel puts on a complimentary afternoon tea with hot drinks, biscuits, and pastries. We stumbled across this one afternoon, but most days we were out until early evening, preferring to take tea and cakes in the local restaurants. Still, it’s a nice touch from the hotel.
But check out the decor. There is an amazing giant white origami mobile hanging in the main hall, set off quite beautifully by delicate plants hanging over the black metal railings. The bright red settees and the huge ‘60s-type art installations adorning the walls all compliment this modern retro hotel enclosed within the Renaissance-styled exterior.
We thought that the Hotel Sax offered a decent value in what can be quite an expensive city for hotels.
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