Hotel Bristol: Zurich Budget Hotel Review

This Hotel Bristol Zurich review is part of a series of posts from a short Zurich trip. Other posts include:

After already leaving for Asia, I decided to change my Zurich plan to stay in Zurich proper, rather than heading to Interlaken, and I needed a hotel. Since there wasn't award availability at the Park Hyatt Zurich and I wanted to spend most of my time walking around Zurich anyway, it made sense to find a budget place to stay since I'd basically only sleep there. Particularly since it was just me and I wasn't traveling with my family, I just had a few requirements: clean, convenient to Zurich's city center, and around $200 (keep in mind Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world, currently ranked at #6 after Tokyo, Luanda, Osaka, Moscow and Geneva according to a Mercer cost of living survey).

I found Hotel Bristol, which fortunately still had availability and offered a TravelSort rate of just $180, including complimentary breakfast. At that rate for Zurich, I wasn't expecting much, but in any case it was walking distance to the Zurich Central Train Station, perfect for my needs.

After initially walking the wrong way on the hotel's street, I finally made it to the hotel–if I'd gone the most direct way, it was literally a 5 minute walk from the train station. The cherry receptionist checked me in, giving me a room on the second floor, told me where breakfast would be served, and pointed out the key drop. As at many smaller European hotels, there's a physical key that's a bit heavy to carry around, so you just leave it at reception whenever you go out.

I walked up to my room, which was small but clean and neat. Zurich was quite warm when I was there, so I was glad there was at least a fan in the room, although no air conditioning.

I'd booked a single room, so as expected there was just one single twin bed that I slept fine on, although the hotel does have “Grand Lit” rooms with a double bed, as well as rooms with 2, 3 or 4 twin size beds. No queen or king size bed rooms, however, which I know can be a dealbreaker for many couples. There was a wall-mounted flat screen TV.

The bathroom was basic but immaculately clean, with a bathtub-shower combo, sink, toilet and heated towel rack (love this in winter).

I wasn't expecting any kind of view, but was glad that the window opened to let in fresh air. While the street in front of the hotel didn't seem terribly noisy, I was still glad to have a room on the back side of the hotel, as it was completely quiet and I got a great night's sleep. There was a desk by the window that I would have used for working, but the hotel's free WiFi involved using a cell phone to receive the code, and since I didn't feel like paying roaming charges for that, I opted to wait until I was at the airport lounge for free WiFi.

Breakfast the next morning was in a nondescript but perfectly adequate room:

The buffet included all the usual suspects: croissants and rolls, jams, cereals, yogurt, cold meats and cheeses, hard boiled eggs, coffee and tea. I had some yogurt with some of my own Dorset cereal that I'd brought with me, and used the hot water and my Nespresso powder to make a great cup of espresso, but that's only because I'm a bit of a breakfast snob. Everything looked perfectly fine if not gourmet, and you could easily fuel yourself with the breakfast spread for an energetic morning exploring Zurich.

The Verdict: For Zurich, I think this hotel is an incredible deal if you're looking for a no frills budget choice that's clean and convenient to everything. The main gripe I had was with a WiFi system that required you to use a cell phone to receive the code, since not all travelers will have a working cell phone in Zurich. And while the hotel can certainly arrange an airport shuttle for you, if you're traveling light it's an easy 5 min. walk to the train station, which connects directly to Zurich Airport.

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