Of all the great hotels in and around Munich, I chose the Westin Grand Munich for a recent visit to Germany. Why would I do such a thing considering how far away it is from the city center?
I was asking myself that exact question as I was booking the reservation. The pics didn’t look all that great actually, and it wasn’t exactly cheap either.
I basically did it for the Bonvoy points. And you know what? I’d totally do it again.
A full review of my 1 night stay at the Westin Grand Munich
The nice thing about booking a mediocre-looking hotel is that it keeps your expectations in check. I certainly wasn’t expecting a 5 star experience as I walked up to the front entrance. In the end, that helped me to enjoy my stay much more than I would have if I had expected to be spoiled rotten.
Behold the Westin Grand Hotel in Munich. How much you wanna bet that I’m the first person in the history of the world to introduce it that way?
I’m also willing to bet this will be the nerdiest review of this hotel you will ever read, so hold onto your butts.
The location
The Westin Grand Munich is located in the Arabellapark district. It’s a quiet residential neighborhood on the northeast side of town, and the area seemed extremely safe and clean.
Getting to central Munich from the Grand Westin takes about 25 minutes via the train (10 minutes to walk to the train station and then 15 minutes on the train).
Close proximity to the train station makes this an easy hotel to recommend for anyone visiting Munich. Don’t let its distance from the city center dissuade you!
Checking in (and an overview of the lobby)
Imagine my surprise when the guy checking me in spoke English in a perfect American accent. He was an ex-Pat for sure (but I didn’t ask). Is it wrong that I felt disappointed not to hear a thick German accent instead?
Ok, yeah, I will admit that the lobby is worthy of being labeled as a “grand” hotel. That’s the reception desk on the right.
A detailed pic of said reception desk. I told you this was going to be nerdy!
The good news is that I didn’t have to wait long to get checked in. It took all of 3 minutes to be checked in and sent on my way.
The only thing I could think of as I was standing here taking these pics of the lobby is why there is such a nice hotel located this far outside of town. The hell?
As you can see, the lobby of the Grand Westin is beautiful. Sure, it looks a bit dated, but it’s definitely nice enough to live up to its “grand” name.
That carpet tho. I’m digging it (like a ditch).
Getting to my room
With a room assignment on the 20th floor, it gave me some time to digest my initial impressions as I was making my way up the elevator and to my room. Long story short, I was getting “Westin DTW” vibes the entire way.
The 20th floor hallway: Clean. Sophisticated. A little bit “grand” and a whole lot “Westin.”
Room 2023 is mine for the night. I’m ashamed to admit that I was so tired and delirious from traveling that I didn’t even notice that my room number matched the year. I wonder what else I missed?
My room
At least they were being consistent. The feeling of being in a Westin hotel didn’t wear off once I was in my room and having a look around.
Hello? Anyone home? God I hope not.
Inching slowly into the room confirmed that I was indeed alone. Whew!
I’ll show you all the details in the moment, but here’s an overview of the entire room.
Let’s start with the bed. Yeah, this qualifies as “grand” as well. I think maybe they were onto something with the naming scheme!
You have no idea how tempting both the bed *and* the chair looked after arriving from the US just now.
Long story short, this chair (despite how frumpy it looks) ended up being highly soothing to my tattered body and soul.
Looks like a fairly decent place to sit and watch Netflix or YouTube after a long day of sightseeing, right? Too bad it’s not gonna happen, because that’s not an internet enabled TV.
At least the pillows are thick enough to absorb the tears you’ll be shedding once your realize it’s German language broadcast TV or nothing.
For those of you who are truly desperate, here’s a spot where you can watch Netflix and YouTube on your laptop instead.
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It’s not a bad little desk actually. Hard emphasis on the word “little.”
There are definitely parts of this room that are really boring, and parts that are really nice. The entryway is one of those really nice parts.
Good news: the coffee maker is only 3.25 feet from the bed. I measured it (because I’m weird like that).
I can’t vouch for the quality of the stuff, but it looks like a decent coffee station to me.
Speaking of beverages, they provide both a bottle of still and sparkling water. Neither is free for the taking, so think long and hard before popping one of these bad boys open.
Directly under the coffee machine is a decent sized refrigerator. I filled it with takeout sushi from a local grocery store. Sushi is German food, right?
The closet! Don’t worry – I resisted the urge to fill it with sushi.
Never mind the adolescent sarcasm in this review so far. I can’t resist giving this room a big thumbs up (because it’s actually quite nice)!
Despite this being my first European Westin experience, it looked (and smelled) exactly like any other Westin back home in the US.
The view
There wasn’t much of a view from my room unfortunately. As I said earlier in this review, the Grand Westin is located in a more residential part of Munich. All the interesting stuff is located nearly 10 miles away (in the other direction).
Danke to whoever it was who bribed the architect to make the windows so large! Whatever you had to do to make it happen is very much appreciated.
At least it’s not a view of a prison. Or a garbage dump.
Here’s a pic of what the view is like at night (brought to you by my insufferable jet lag).
And this is the view you’ll have when throwing the window blinds open at 4pm (after awakening from another jet lag induced coma).
“At least it’s not a prison. Or a garbage dump.”
The bathroom
I love German hotel bathrooms! This was the only part of my room that didn’t feel very “Westin” – and I certainly didn’t mind. All I’m going to say is that the Germans know how to build a good hotel bathroom. Check it out:
Whoa. This isn’t as nice as the bathroom in my room at the Frankfurt Airport Hilton, but it kicks the snot out of nearly any Westin hotel bathroom back home in the US.
Not only is there a tub…
…there’s a shower that looks exactly like the one I had in my room at the Sheraton CDG. Maybe it’s a European thing?
I wouldn’t go as far to call this a true European-style bathroom though. 404 bidet not found.
At least there’s a convenient toilet mirror for watching yourself do really disgusting things.
If things get really disgusting, you’re in luck. These soap dispensers (in both the shower and tub) are gonna come in handy.
The towels were just so-so.
At least they provide robes. And I can tell you from personal experience that this on hanging on the bathroom door was more than just so so. It was borderline heavenly!
I can’t remember what it was that I was thinking as I was taking this pic. I was either taking mental notes on how to improve my own bathroom at home, or I was feeling mortified for using the word “heavenly” in a hotel review. That’s not a word to throw around lightly.
The restaurant
One of the best parts of my stay was the breakfast buffet in the Greenhouse restaurant (located adjacent to the main lobby). Yes, it was a little pricey at 32 Euros per person, but the spread of food was amazing. It was one of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve had in a while.
This is the entrance to the Greenhouse restaurant (in the lobby). Just follow the scent of weinerschitzle if you’re having a difficult time finding it.
My breakfast buffet haul. The first round anyway…
The quality of the food is excellent. Not only was it delicious, I was stoked to have finally found a legitimate use for the macro photo function on my iPhone!
Why is nobody else taking pics of their food? This is delicious!
Pros and cons of the Westin Grand Munich
In summary, I found this hotel to be slightly dated but nice. I’m not exactly sure what the reasoning was to put such a large hotel in Arabellapark (it seems so far away from anything interesting) but it’s a property that I would stay at again. Really!
Weighing the pros and cons in that comfy chair probably skewed the results a bit, but it is what it is.
Pros
It’s located in a really quiet area
The rooms are larger than the average European hotel room
It’s proximity to the train / subway station is extremely convenient
It’s squeaky clean
The breakfast buffet is one of the best I’ve seen anywhere!
Cons
It’s not a very convenient place to stay if you like being in the center of the action
