Hotel MARITIM di Dresden

For our latest German city adventure we chose this hotel because of its location. We arrived by train from airport and had a short 10 minute stroll from the Mitte station to the hotel which is situated on the river Elbe, it being a warehouse in a previous life. We had already requested a river view and got one on the fourth floor, perfect. easy walking distance to the city centre too either via the zwinger palace or along the river. The hotel staff were very smart and courteous and always pleasant. the rooms were spotless and the beds were comfortable if a little too soft for me but I do like a very hard mattress. We saw that there is an option for asking the maid to not service the room with a view to using less chemicals and therefore benefitting the environment, I'm a bit cynical about this and suspect it is to save the cleaners wage bill . As I said this is just my cynical view! there is a terrace where we took breakfast each day as we were blessed with nice weather. (Watch out for the crafty crow that will steal your bread roll and tip over your tea pot). The breakfast was buffet style and the choices were superb, if a little too much choice. Hot drinks were either obtained from the machine or you could request a pot from a waiter. There is a bar service and we enjoyed a few refreshing beers on the veranda following a hard days sight seeing and also a night cap following a hard nights dining out. We didn't use the hotel restaurant as we have a rule of always eating out when visiting a city. check in and out was straightforward. There was quite a bit of building and road works taking place during our visit, it wasn't noisy but it did make the neighbourhood feel a little tatty and unloved in places but this was beyond the control of the hotel , however, this didn't spoil our overall enjoyment, its just that the hotel is in a more commercial part of the city which is still being improved. There is a wellness centre and pool which we used, the Friday afternoon was quite relaxing apart from the man who thought he was swimming for Olympic gold and wanted everyone to know that he could swim. Saturday afternoon was very different, It felt that I was around a pool in Benidorm with loads of kids screaming and jumping in and throwing balls about, it certainly didn't feel or sound like a relaxing wellness spa!. I gave up and went and had a relaxing beer by the river instead. The whole experience was enjoyable and I would certainly use this hotel again.