I arrived at the Eaton Hotel at 1pm after a long flight from LAX via Seoul, only to find that my room was not yet ready. This was not a good way to start a vacation. I realize that check-in isn't until 3pm, so I shouldn't be complaining.

The Eaton is located on Nathan Road (The Golden Mile) in Kowloon, across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. Kowloon is definitely the place to stay. Staying in Hong Kong (in my opinion) would be like staying in the Central Business District of a large city; after the workers go home, it becomes a ghost town. Kowloon (reached via the Star Ferry for about US$0.30 each way) was definitely the right choice, with many hotels, restaurants, and shops to visit. The Eaton is located about 1 mile from the harbor via either bus or subway. Since my room wasn't ready, the hotel management bumped me to a Eaton Club room on the 16th floor facing Gascoigne Road. The hotel was very nice and relatively new. It had a large opening onto Nathan Road but was very confusing because the lobby is actually on the fourth floor. I wandered the lobby for several minutes with my suitcase (without getting any help) before finally figuring out I had to take the elevator--the signs weren't clear or prominent. There was a coffee bar on the ground floor with free Internet-access PCs (four), but most times I wanted to use them, they were being used by kids playing games.

The room I received was very nice but small by American standards. The Club rooms were for business people (I was on vacation), so they have Ethernet or DLS Internet ports and a fax machine, neither of which was of any use to me. I found the room to be very comfortable, with a stylish decor. My only complaint was about the road noise, even being on the 16th floor. The windows I believe were double paned, yet street traffic was very noticeable when trying to sleep. I would recommend this hotel as long as you get a room away from Gascoigne or Natan Road, or if noise doesn't bother you (the views are amazing up Nathan Road, with the traffic and neon signs).

There is a pool and gym on the top floor (I didn't use these, so I can't comment) and a nice cocktail lounge on the fourth floor. Apparently this is a popular place to get married, because almost every day I was there they were having multiple wedding receptions. My only other complaint (other than road noise) was that I took the Airport Express Train to the Kowloon station (about US$15), but there was no free airport shuttle. There are lots of Kowloon hotels that partake in this great service, but the Eaton was not one of them. The cab ride from the station was very reasonable, so this was more of a gripe than a complaint.

Because of the discount, we opted to spend the extra saving on a better room. We chose a deluxe room that had floor to ceiling windows going in a curve around one end of the room. Considering the price we were paying the hotel did seem very luxurious.

Staff were polite and friendly, rooms were clean but signs of wear and tear were beginning to show. We were glad we had a safe in the room and we never touched the mini bar.

While I was there it was my 30th Birthday. Although I never mentioned this to them, when I returned from my days shopping, there was a bottle of wine and a card waiting for me. It was a really nice touch.

The breakfast buffet was nice but it got a little unoriginal towards the end of the trip. I'm not sure the food was worth the money but the lack of hastle sure was. I made use of the hotel bar's happy hour but after this, like everywhere in Hong Kong, the drinks got expensive. The nightly live music was also a bit intrusive but on the whole not bad.

The hotel has a business centre with free internet access but I never got round to using it. The rooms also have broadband connection for laptops.

The hotels air-con was fierce. The lifts were like fridges but sometimes this was a life saver. The room air-con was much better and very controllable.

This hotel is perfectly situated to see Temple Street Night Market and is close to Jordan Subway station, so getting around was never a problem.

I would recommend this hotel and would stop there again (if I was lucky enough to go back to Hong Kong).