Hotel les Jardins de La Molignée

The hotel is very modern, lacking warmth and atmosphere. The staff is friendly and the rooms and bedding are comfortable but, in my opinion, does not deserve 4 stars. Generous buffet (no herbal tea) served in cantine looking room, the tables are bare, not set for breakfast leading guests to eat from a tray.

I have just returned from a truly lovely stay at Hotel Les Jardins De La Molignee. I can see that other reviews are a little hit or miss but I'm glad to report that my stay was a total hit. Truly the staff could not have been more welcoming and friendly. I had heard that this area of Belgium was more French-speaking and although I can just about get by in French, I was a little worried about my language skills. I needn't have worried. The staff could easily switch languages and in fact seemed to enjoy speaking English with my friend and I (I still tried a bit of French though!). The hotel was a lovely size so it didn't feel too small nor did it feel too impersonal or large. It has around 50 rooms so a really great size. Our bedroom was a little larger than I had expected it to be and it seemed like it had recently been refurbished. The bathroom was really clean and lovely and it had a great powerful shower (choice of rain shower or normal shower). There was also some nice body and hair wash available plus slippers and lots of fresh towels. The beds were comfy and having air conditioning in the recent hot weather was literally perfect as we couldn't wait to get back to a nice cool room after our days out! The choices at breakfast were pretty impressive. Yoghurts, fruit, pancakes, waffles, some other hot choices, pastries, bread, cheeses, meats - various jams and sauces too - we were spoilt for choice! It was also an added bonus having the pool area - I enjoyed a quick dip while I was there. What's more I really did love the terraced area outside - a nice walled terrace area with terrapins in a pond and flowers - a great place to enjoy a late afternoon drink. Another thing to mention is that the hotel really is in a brilliant location. We wanted to do a lot of walking and we were arriving by train so did not have a car (though if you do have a car, the car park is really big). Yvoir station is perhaps a 15 minute walk (give or take 5 mins) and that links nicely with nearby Dinant and Namur for days out. We also made use of all the lovely walking routes (Ravel 150 and also the walks along the river). We walked over 9 miles each day. The rail bikes at Warnant (about a 30 min walk up the Ravel 150) were super-fun too! Above all I cannot thank the staff enough - every staff member I saw always greeted me with a friendly 'bonjour' and I felt a really valued customer. Big shout out to Alex and also the lady on reception who helped us a lot (I've forgotten her name already but she had curly dark hair with glasses and loved speaking English!). I am already looking for an excuse to return before too long as it felt like a home from home.

I'd really like to give this one star extra, for the excellent service, but the room and general stay was not worth the high price. The swimming pool area was rather cold, jacuzzi wasn't working properly (and a bit dirty, but thats to be expected with the traffic + clothing). It was also VERY loud and wild (3+ full african families with about 10-15 unsupervised kids) but I can't fault the hotel for this to the full extend. The rooms were clean (bar some lonely spiders in the corners, its the season) and they were full renovated, no defects or dirty finish anywhere. But they were rather unimaginative, bland boring white walls, white ceiling, white tiles. We also had alot of noise up until 1am, thin walls, we heard alot of talking, laughing (some fighting) etc. So keep that in mind, bring earplugs if you're a light sleeper. Breakfast was good, 3 cold meats, saussages, bacon, eggs, yoghurt, cheeses and the default cereal, jam, etc. Breakfast room was absolutely packed to the brim though. That all being said, staff was very friendly and very helpful. I'd give them a 5/5 seperately!