Kameha Grand Bonn
299 EUR (package price)After we visited a couple of hotels in Bonn, we finally wanted to check out the only five star one in the former German capital. On the right / Beuel side of the River Rhine, right at its shore, is home of the Kameha Grand Hotel, which is driven by the same company as the Bonn Marriott, which caused rather mixed feelings on our side. We were going for a nice weekend with a brunch package in a special room. Here is our experience.
Kameha Grand Bonn – Location
The area where the Kameha Grand Hotel Bonn is located is called Bonner Bogen (“Bonn Curve”). It is a new living, commercial and recreational area right at the River Rhine. Traffic connections are excellent, as there is an exit of the A562 motorway more or less right around the corner. The tram stop Bonn-Oberkassel and Bonn Schießbergweg are both not too far away.
The area has still been in development, when we visited the hotel in late August 2020. There are various restaurants around, from rather down-to-Earth to quite posh options. The back entrance of the hotel gives direct access to the riverfront. We opted against a river view room, as we wanted to go fot the somehow funny Fair Play Suite option (see below).
Kameha Grand Bonn – The Fair Play Suite
Our room price for one night was 299 Euro. However, this did not only include standard amenities like access to the spa (see below), but also a late check-out until 15:00 hrs, the Sunday brunch and room service without additional charges. The rate was refundable.
Even though called Suite, the room was in fact a junior suite with a lovely seating and relaxing area. Everthing was really spacious, you had more than sufficient space to store your luggage and items. The light switches were a bit hard to handle – and I have to admit that even though we made long use of the room and arrived quite early and left close to check-out time, we did not fully get how the controls for the electricity are working ideally. We even had a tiny bar with a coffee / tea making facility.
I really liked the layout of the room – I however missed a working desk. I feel that nowadays a room of that price range just needs to feature a spot where you can put up a laptop and work. Furthermore, the positioning of the power plugs was not really ideal, especially around the sofa area. The positioning of the TV sets was also quite unfortunate, as you typically controlled both sets in parallel from the sofa area.
The sanitary area of the 45 square meter room featured a semi-open space concept for the basins. A bit of weird, the showers were located right in front of the bathtub, so that you would wet the exit area of the tub when you took a shower. The toilet was sepatate, all necessary amenities were available.
You might have spotted some hints already why this place is called Fair Play Suite: the room featured four unique spots if your companion, the TV program or other hotel amenities do not lead to sufficient distraction: The most obvious one was the table soccer table, which has been our favorite. Playing darts was a bit weird, though, and would have required to move the table soccer for a good distance to the board. However, I definitely liked the boxing buddy, which is a nice way to get rid of aggression (especially if you have some hand sanitizer thereafter). Finally, there was a small basketball basket in the toilet. We wanted to try out if we enjoy that kind of additional entertainment – and I have to say that it has really been a lot of fun.
Kameha Grand Bonn – Brunch / Food
As said above, our rate included access to the Sunday brunch, which was held in the Next Level restaurant. The place is absolutely beautiful, some tables even have some Rhine view. We also loved the staff there, who did a brilliant job. The selection of dishes was really lovely and featured some really nice food including oyster. However, even though there were strict social distancing rules, just very few guests constantly ignored those and definitely reduced a joyful experience significantly. As other guests obviously felt disturbed as well, I wished that hotels and restaurants would sometimes take decisions in favor of the majority of their guests.
For the Saturday dinner, we went for the RheinAlm restaurant, which is featuring Alpine cusine in a chalet style. The Rhine view balcony is just beautiful – unfortunately there were quite some wasps at that time of the year so that we went for an indoor place. Including tip and drinks, our three course dinners were 90 Euro in total, which we felt was an amazing deal, regarding the saturating dishes and nice food quality.
The hotel also features a bar in the reception lobby. Furthermore, it is well known for his awarded Japanese Star Fine Dining restaurant YUNICO, which is located on the top level with Rhine view.
Kameha Grand Bonn – Spa / Fitness
Due to Covid-19, you had a daily allocation of two hours in the spa and fitness area. We reserved our slot with the booking, so that we had a perfect start of the day there. The place is very relaxing, its heart is definitely the Rhine view infinity pool. The lower level also features two saunas and a steam bath (which is not operating during the pandemic).
The upper level of the area is dedicated to treadmills and other fitness appliances. There is also a nice balcony which gives a beautiful look – unfortunately, you also spot best from there that this area is not only very popular with the hotel guests, but also with the pigeons.
Kameha Grand Bonn – Services
We had some issues with the reception staff at the Marriott, but there was no reason for any complaints at the Kameha Grand: the check-in was very professional and very welcoming. The receptionist also explained all our bookings in a very relaxed atmosphere. Also the check-out was very professional and friendly. Unfortunately, even though I claimed it twice, the hotel did not manage to e-mail me a correct and proper invoice for our stay, including tips, drinks, parking and other additional costs. The WiFi in the hotel was sufficient, but even maybe even slightly on the disappointing side, regarding that this is a new built area and the German Telekom is more or less neighboring the hotel.
The hotel also features a hotel garage, which felt to be connected with other Bonner Bogen parking locations. The daily parking rate is 20 Euro.
Kameha Grand Bonn – My View
No doubt, staying at the Kameha Grand was a great experience. The service was lovely, the room with the sportive amenities has been a lot of fun. Apart from that, the location and the spa area has been a beauty, food was perfect. There were some minor things like the average WiFi and the invoice issue which prevent an even better rating – but this place definitely deserves to be in the Top Pick! rankings.
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