Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

This will not be a very detailed hotel review simply because we were not there very long and I needed to prioritize sleep over taking photos. Our tour of Bucharest ended after 3 PM and we were taken to the JW Marriott. It’s a massive building and is also a conference center. But it’s gorgeous, the staff were uniformly wonderful, and it was a shame we couldn’t spend more time there.

The hotel opened in 1999, though the building was part of the urbanization plan that saw several other very large buildings being built around the same time. It has 402 rooms and a great location that’s within walking distance of the Old Town and is across the street from the National Cathedral, the Cathedral of the People’s Salvation.

Ground Floor/Lobby

Upon entering the hotel (pro tip: use the automatic regular doors on either side of the revolving door) you’ll encounter a “boulevard” of sorts that crosses your path. This is the Grand Avenue and is lined with shops on either side.

Continuing on, you’ll pass elevators on either side and straight ahead, up about three steps, are the helpful front desk folks. Since we were essentially arriving from our boat, Viking had forwarded all our info to Marriott, so we just checked in at a special table and our luggage was waiting for us in our room. But, and I found this interesting, they made a point of telling us that if we had a Bonvoy number, we should talk to the Marriott front desk folks to be sure to get our number attached. We both attached our Bonvoy numbers although since we weren’t paying the hotel for the room, we did not get credit for the stay.

Front Desk

Lobby Seating

Guest Floor

Our room was on the fourth floor. I mentioned the hotel was quite large and we ended up making several turns before reaching our room, which was nearly at the end of the hall.

Elevator Lobby

Just one section of a hallway that provided many twists and turns

Guest Room

The room had the standard layout with closets on one side and the bathroom on the other, before stepping into the area with the beds. We were booked into a Deluxe Guest Room with two double beds. At 323-387 square feet, it felt positively massive compared to our stateroom on the boat. It even seemed a little large for an American hotel room and extra large for a European room. Plus we each got a double bed, not a twin, so that was a bonus too.

While a key card was needed for the electricity, at least the air conditioning worked very well. Though the temps were down in the 50sF (or lower) at night during our stay, we were able to cool off the room to our liking and I appreciated that the thermostat displayed the temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

The bathroom was fairly large and had a lot of counter space, which is always welcome when two of us have to share.

The step into the tub was a bit higher than you’d find in the US. To keep the shower spray out of the rest of the room there was a fixed panel as well as a swinging panel that made it easier to get in and out. Unfortunately the swinging panel also tended to let some water out underneath it, but not as bad as the half-panel often found in Europe. The shower head did have an adjustable spray, which I really liked, and the faucet was a simple 1-handle affair, similar to what you might find in a kitchen. It was nice not to have separate controls for temperature and on/off.

Both the hand and bath toiletries were by Aromatherapy.

The bathroom does have an electrical outlet that can be used for the hair dryer (which is stored in the first drawer in the closet) but we opted for the outlet by the desk. 

The closet has two large sections for hanging clothes and an iron and board were provided. The third door of the closet conceals a few drawers and the safe.

The mini-bar must be unlocked when you provide a credit card at the front desk, but we didn’t bother with that. The coffee and tea station sat over the mini-fridge.

The TV was turned on to a cooking show when we arrived but we turned it off and never put it back on.

The beds were super-comfortable and despite going to bed early we each slept quite well.

My lowly Silver status couldn’t have had any impact on our room assignment (since we hadn’t provided our Bonvoy numbers when the rooms were assigned) but we ended up with a really great view of the cathedral.

Dining

The hotel has several restaurants and bars with several of these on the First floor (not to be confused with the Ground floor). There’s JW’s Steakhouse which is where I believe the breakfast buffet is served, but since we left the hotel well before 6:30 AM I’m not positive. We had dinner at Cucina, the Italian restaurant, and found it to be quite good and very reasonably priced, especially for a hotel restaurant.

Other Amenities

The hotel does have a spa, a gym, and a pool but I did not have time to check any of these out. I had to have my bag ready for pick-up at 3 AM ahead of a 3:30 AM departure so sleep was my priority.

In The End

It’s a lovely hotel and I’d have been happy to spend more time here exploring both the hotel and the city but time did not allow for that. But I’d love to come back and do just that!