Mercure Gdynia Centrum

We arranged for a shuttle from the airport to take us to the hotel. It was 120 PLN, and the driver spoke good English and on the way in showed us a little of the city.

The hotel is an old communist build, and is currently being slowly refurbished. This was our only grievance as we were not told about this when booking, as the work was adjacent to our rooms and continued from 9am till late each day including weekends. The rooms they have refurbished are good (loads of pictures on TripAdvisor – so I won’t post any here – but I will post a room that is due to be refurbished as there seem to be none showing).

Check-in was smooth, and Platinum status fully reflected in the upgrade to a sea view suite.  We were given a bottle of wine (60 PLN at the restaurant) and some hotel branded chocolates. A very nice touch, as the hotel at this time was fully booked by two conferences. The mini bar was well stocked but chargeable. There is a kettle and some coffee sachets and machine pods as well as two bottles of water that were replaced on request.

English is widely spoken throughout the hotel including housekeeping. You have to sign a form to allow the windows to open fully (and they lock them for some reason when the room is cleaned so you have to ask again).  There are three windows and I think the problem is that the middle window is very large.

The key cards unlock the elevator access as well as the access to the indoor pool, and room. They are totally white, so if you rely on them to show a taxi driver you have to hunt for a business card to serve this purpose.

There was a small selection of English language channels (all news) as well as a range of satellite local channels. USB and HDMI sockets on the TV were available for use.

Breakfast selection was large and restocked as needed. It is 55PLN if you don’t include it in the room rate. The only other breakfast options is a Starbucks at the top of the street and a “milk bar” a few hundred meters away this is very good value. They will try for a full English breakfast if you show a picture – my OH did this and was very pleasantly surprised.

The Winestone restaurant was giving a 15% promotion during our stay and was an excellent choice. (Rib Eye Steak 250g for 74PLN less discount)

The hotel is very near the port and the beach area, and is conveniently situated for exploring the City. On a night you can see the town lights of Hel over the bay from the room. You can “earn” 100 reward points (2€) by not having your room cleaned if you wish. They will only empty the bin if you chose to hang the blue sign on the door.

TripAdvisor advertised that the spa area has a hot tub – the hotel does not – and is aware of this – but does not seem to want to change the listing. Also the pool is used as a public swimming pool. It has its own entrance and charge, but free to hotel guests. It was impossible to find time when the pool was quiet, and this was disappointing.

Overall, a very pleasant although too short a stay. It is a hotel that we will be going back to in the future.