Belgium Brussels Crowne Plaza Europa

[anyway]

Stayed there for a week in August (2005). Winning bid was only $48 (as in August all eurobureaucrats are on vacations and the hotel is rather empty).

This business hotel is located in EU quarter, near European Commission (Berlaymont), and there is plenty of faceless glass and concrete buildings all over the place.

Metro station (Maaelbeek) is literally under the hotel, although there is a confusing system of stairs and tunnels to get there. Schuman train station is one quarter from the hotel, but most of the regional trains don't stop there (our - from Luxembourg - did).

Central train station is the closest from the 3 main ones, it's a 15 minute walk along Rue de la Loi and Parc de Bruxelles (or you can use metro to get there).

Front desk persons were very helpful, but the room we got was awful - smoked in (in a non-smoking floor!) and extremely worn (even the minibar menu was falling to pieces). I politely complained and was moved to another room in the same 5th floor (higher ones were marked as "business" in the elevator). This one was in a better shape, still not 4*, but we didn't complain further. The room was spacey, had 2 beds, a couple of chairs, 2 tables, a wardrobe, a safe and minibar (non-automatic) with enough space for our own food and drinks. (No breakfast was included.)

There's a fitness room on the 11th floor. Business center prices were around EUR 20 for an hour.

Concierge was a bit arrogant, answering our questions about nearest shops with "This is a BUSINESS area!" OK, we found them ourselves. We managed to get a map of Brussels from him, though.

Three squares down the Etterbeeksesteenweg is a very nice Leopoldpark (we spend a couple of evenings there), and, if you cross it, there's a Forte Dei Marmi Square with plenty of cafes and restaurants to have breakfast or dinner at, and a small supermarket - GB-express (with a good selection of Belgian beers and chocolate) - opening times are 8.00-20.00 everyday. A very good frituur is on the side of the square - take-away French fries (should be called Belgian fries actually) cost EUR 1.90 there. There's also LIDL and COLRYT a bit further down Graystraat, supposedly cheaper than GB-express, but we didn't go there (they are open only from 9.00).

Overall we got wat we paid for, but definitely no more.