The hotel is located in a nice location surrounded by lakes and forest; the hotel needs a complete renovation as the rooms are basic and old; the hotel has a nice spa with swimming pool; the breakfast is good, parking is free. The prices we paid (103 euro 2 adults + 1 child of 10) maybe is too much but again the location and the spa compensate the lack of rooms.
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Official Hotel
Booking.com
The hotel is outside the city, on the lake and it strangely looks like a retirement house. We just met old people taking baths and sauna, dancing along the corridors and singing karaoke. But anyway the room was quite comfortable and the breakfast buffet is good.
It happened that we should stay this hotel at Varkaus one day. As looking, it is quite old motel type hotel with many rooms in different located buildings.
Inside of hotel is same as expected, simple medium room with old TV set, wood furniture and so-so bed.
Actually we tried to cancel them after seeing it, but office lady was booked it and we can not cancel it at that time.
Sauna is ok with swimming pool. Except them, everything is not so good. I avoid this hotel next time.
We booked this hotel because it was close to our relatives, and spent three nights there. During this whole time the hotel room was not cleaned - not even the trash was taken out. We did get a very small compensation for this when we complained about it. They have an interesting concept where your room is supposed to be cleaned 'every other day'. The family room we stayed in was ok, with a double bed and a bunk bed for kids. It was nothing special but tidy on the outset. Some of the fittings seemed a little tired. The whole hotel looks a little tired from the inside, and some small repairs were underway while we stayed there. The hotel lay-out is a long low building so going to your room usually means walking endless corridors and opening lots of doors - can be annoying if you are with kids or have disabilities. However, you can usually take an easier walk to the room by going outside. There is a small spa with some extras like jacuzzi and showers, as well as a water slide, and our kid enjoyed this. I thought it was a bit too small.
This hotel caters mainly for members of various patient organizations or trade unions who come here for treatments or holiday packages with different activities - there were lots of things to do around the hotel, as it is situated on a beautiful lakeside. For example, you can borrow a rowing boat, play frisbee golf or bounce on a trampolene. When we stayed there there were lots of families staying. The breakfast was rather basic, and some things ended before we could get our hands on them, but they did offer porridge, meats, cheese, and sometimes even croissants and some fresh fruit. Carelian pastries were a nice touch. You have to order in advance for special diets. They had buffet meals for lunch and dinner but we did not try those. There was also karaoke on some nights, others there was live music. There were playrooms for kids - one for smaller kids and another for youth, but at least in the latter almost all the games were broken. If they charged less for the rooms then it would be easier to accept that not everything is in shape but with the kind of prices they charge they should put more effort into it!!
There's also a guest harbour and a caravan park which seemed rather popular. They have different services for these customers. The hotel is a rather long drive from the center of Varkaus but the environment is definitely one of the better things this place has to offer.
We booked a family room via booking.com, 2 adults and a baby. Our room was outside of the hotel in separate building. All the buildings are old, but not in a cool way. It's like an episode of Gordon Ramsey's hotel Hell, Gordon's voice in your head asking questions why there are old lonely furniture wondering around public facilities. Nothing fits nowhere. It's in desperate need of new life! Our Room was ok, not too bad. There was supposed to be a fridge and a kettle in the room, didn't find them. As my mom said, sheets were clean! That was the positive thing! :D
We went to find something to eat just little bit after 6pm, restaurant was just closed. That was ok, but it would be a good idea to have little bit better things to buy than just few sandwitches and buns. For example; baby food (long preserve time and a familyhotel...), cookies, snacs, better sandwitches, candy, good selection of fruit juices and fruits. Maybe salads would be good evening foods to take to rooms.
In all the rooms would be nice to have a kettle, tea/coffee/milk/sugars, just the basic things.
The surroundings and the view from the hotel restaurant is BEAUTIFULL, so with a lot of paint and a beating heart running the hotel, would have every chance to be a good place. But at the moment the price is 50% too high compared what you get. I think If the price were lower, more people would come and wouldnt mind that its not so cool at the moment. At the same time piece by piece, would renovate the rooms to this century And could again ask over 100€/Room/Night. But not like this.
And for god sake, PLEASE take the lonely, ugly furniture to their final resting place...?
We stayed one night at Spa Hotel Kuntoranta with our two small kids.
The hotel lobby was a depressing sight with old people sitting idle and waiting for nothing in an uncomfortable socialist style building. The staff was careful not to greet us or smile at anyone. Room was relatively tidy but a horribly looking and with old furniture. Luckily it was quiet. We didn't need anything more than that. There is absolutely no AC in the rooms so I can only imagine how hot they will be during the summer.
The first thing that surprised us was that the "dinner" service ended already at 6PM (it was Easter time, but still). Luckily we had asked that in advance, so we were okay with the idea of traveling back to Varkaus town centre for the dinner. During the breakfast we discovered that the place was almost full. Even today I'm thinking how did the old people survive the evening there..?
The pool area was a positive surprise and the kids loved it. They are actually still begging us to take them there. Perhaps some day - but ONLY for the pools. There is a nearby spa alternative in the form of hotel "Vesileppis". And there's nothing wrong with the Varkaus swimming hall, either. :-)
