Hotel Plattenhof is situated in the University quarter of Zurich, which whilst still pretty central, is a little quieter than some other areas. Due to the trams, the centre of Zurich is no distance away, and even on foot, it only takes 10 minutes to be in the middle of the city.

We arrived in Zurich on a Thursday night, and following the clear instructions from their website we found the hotel easily. We checked in and were shown to our rooms. I had one of the "Standard" rooms on a corner of the building on the 4th floor (don't worry, there's a lift!) and my parents had a "Design" room on the 1st floor.

My room had windows on two sides, which as it turned out in daylight, made the room lovely light and airy, with views over the city. The modern decor was clean and simple and quite restful. This didn't extend into the bathroom which was covered in an odd '70s style lino, which didn't really go with the theme. However the fixtures were modern enough, clean, and worked, which was what mattered.

The twin bed was really comfortable, and the crisp cotton bedding was lovely. It wasn't until the first morning when the lack of curtains became apparent as the light streaming in woke me up. There was an outside blind on one window, but I never got around to figuring out if that would help, since there are worse things to wake up to than sunshine!

I only have two little niggles really - the TV wasn't showing any of the English channels, and the shower was a little hard to adjust directionally, but other than that, I loved my little room.

My parents room was that bit swisher - designer lighting, funky furniture, and a stylish bathroom, and a bit bigger. All very nice (and a bit lost on them), but we weren't there to spend time in the hotel rooms, and both rooms were very nice thank you.

Breakfast is between 7am and 10am and served in their restaurant - Sento - which is a modern Italian on the ground floor. It's one of the best buffet breakfasts I've ever seen - a great range of pastries, bread, cereal, fruit (dried and fresh), ham, cheese, yogurts, etc., and the traditional Birchermuesli (porridge with fruit and yogurt mixed in). You can even boil your own eggs, which was a nice touch. Plenty there to set you up for a day of sight-seeing.

When you've finished sightseeing, there's a nice bar at the front of the hotel - again, funky and modern - which serves a good range of drinks and cocktails, with a range of bar food too. A long Calenda beer is a very welcome thing after a day on your feet!

It's a very nice little hotel, with friendly, helpful, and efficient staff, who made our stay all the more pleasant.