Detailed Review
Reflecting a distinctive Belle Epoque luxury and elegance, Hotel Le Palais is located in the quiet residential area of Vinohrady. This historical palace was built in 1897 and later in 2002 became a luxury hotel. The 60 rooms and 12 suites feature marble bathrooms, air-conditioning, telephone and high speed internet access, satellite television, DVD player, safe, complimentary minibar and coffee and tea service.
All the amenities of a deluxe hotel await its guests, including a lavish Health Club offering whirlpool, sauna, steam bath, aroma showers, hydro-jet, solarium, gym, and Beauty Salon Alena Klenot and Hairdresser. The kitchen of the Restaurant Le Papillon, which already ranks amongst the best in Prague, offers an exquisite choice of international and Czech cuisine. Open terrace for sunny breakfast, casual lunch and candle light dinner, elegant library with a fireplace for relaxing, 24-hour Lobby bar and Concierge complete the offer.
Two conference rooms for up to 80 people and an elegant library for up to 20 people create the ideal environment for business meetings or private occasions.
Press Quotes
"Built in the belle epoque architectural style and set in the "Notting Hill" district of central Prague, it exudes charm." Guardian 07
Independent Reviews
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“A quiet, residential area is home to this charming boutique hotel, which channels Belle Epoque chic in the Nove Mesto district.”
As well as all the obvious luxuries (flawless service, excellent food, supremely light and comfortable rooms) it puts lots of imagination and effort into the little details. Highly recommended.
Hotel Le Palais
By Angela Moore
A lovely Belle Epoque gem, tucked away in a quiet residential area to the south of the Nove Mesto. It feels like an undiscovered secret. This was originally an apartment block, where the famous Czech painter Ludek Marold lived for much of his brief life; he painted frescoes in his apartments and in corridors. Many of these, as well as both stairways, are now listed historical sights.
A tophatted doorman will whisk you into a formal little lobby, which opens into a bar decked out in dark green and crimson. Brass fittings and little lamps gleam among the clusters of tables and chairs. Beyond the bar, a panelled library and club room with a proper fireplace make for a peaceful and clubby retreat.
The hotel has a new draw: a garden terrace, where tables are gathered on a deck under smart white umbrellas. There is a view from here, down over a valley to another residential area, very green and pretty. You can have breakfast here or in Le Papillon, where smart French food is served in an attractive, primrose room.
Downstairs, there is an extensive health club with a gym, a series of treatment rooms, a Jacuzzi, steam rooms and saunas and a series of aromatherapy showers; everything but the treatments are free of charge for guests. The staff are a standout, cheerful and charming and very proud of their hotel.
The rooms
There are 60 rooms and 12 suites, though it’s hard to believe it as the hotel is so well laid out. If you get a chance, skip the lifts and walk up the stairs to see Marold’s charming ceiling frescoes of swifts in a blue spring sky which appear to fly from painting to painting.
Rooms are filled with charm, in cheery springtime colours, with pretty floral bedspreads. The fresh décor is a welcome breath of air in a world filled with moody ‘contemporary’ hotels.
Room 222 has soaring ceilings and a lovely view over the terrace and valley. It feels quiet and secluded, very peaceful. Four Petite Suites nestle under the eaves on the fourth floor. Suites (Royal and Executive) are huge and would be called apartments in any other town. They have lots of individual character – The Belvedere Suite has a large living room and an extra bay window, the Marold Suite has an original fladro ceiling and a proper fireplace.
There are lots of little extras to keep you happy: plasma screen tvs with dvds to borrow free, electric blinds covering the huge, full-sized windows and heated floors in the bathrooms. The fat pillows on the beds come in your choice of feather or anti-allergenic; there are fresh flowers on tables; welcome baskets aren’t the usual grim fruit offerings but are elegant little trays of petits fours. Minibars are included in the room rates (in higher room categories), as is the overnight shoeshine service, as is the ‘jogging map’, which shows routes for joggers through a nearby park, with levels of difficulty.
These little touches add up and up to make a nearly unbeatable whole – if you don’t mind the taxi ride into town.
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