Best Western Nordic Hotel Ambiente, Langenhagen, Germany – review written 26 February 2015

At last I find a hotel with a restaurant. Normally, I’m told that there isn’t one and it’s always a bit of a disappointment. I tend to check into hotels in the early evening after a busy day, and I look forward to chilling in the hotel restaurant with a decent meal and a glass of wine. Instead, I regularly find myself wandering the streets of a strange town looking for a restaurant. Not today, as Buzz Lightyear might have said.

The Nordic Hotel Ambiente in Langenhagen – where CDs were first mass-produced and where Elrike Meinhoff was arrested in 1972 – near Hannover in Germany has a restaurant, but despite this, I still wandered out to see what was on offer. In fact, there’s a decent Italian restaurant somewhere but I can’t find it; I first stumble across a pub and then a Chinese restaurant so I headed back to the hotel for dinner.

Armed with a copy of the Economist I ordered a salmon starter and a cod main course, not forgetting a wheat beer, and settled in for a relaxing evening reading about President Putin.

This is a good hotel. Let’s start with the check-in, which was fast, efficient and friendly. Within minutes I had my room card and soon I found myself in Room 210 on the second floor. They say little things please little minds and I was taken aback by, of all things, the wood-effect linoleum flooring because it looked like real wood. In the corridors they had the same pattern repeated but this time it was carpet (quite a design feat, I thought, resorting to touching it to confirm it was carpet and not linoleum).

I’m pleased to report that the Nordic Hotel Ambiente trusts its guests: there was a full minibar!  As for the bathroom, it was good to have a walk-in shower and not the usual shower-in-the bath set-up.

The WiFi worked fine, there was a decent flatscreen TV – but no British channels – so I switched off the light and fell asleep.

The next morning, last night’s hotel restaurant had a new identity. The bright sun was a contributory factor, but everything looked more colourful than last night, there were nightlights on bare tables and it took a lot of effort to re-imagine the white-tableclothed restaurant from last night.

I chose fresh fruit, yoghurt and muesli with a pot of tea and a couple of small croissants and then, after a walk around town (which is dominated by a pleasant shopping mall) I returned to the room to pack. Checkout was straightforward and soon I was on a tram heading for Hannover Hbf and a train to Brussels.

I liked the Nordic Hotel Ambiente for many reasons: the people on the front desk were friendly and helpful; the room was comfortable and the food and beverage options were good. I’d definitely return.