Clarion Hotel Prague Old Town at 8,000 points per night review

Clarion Hotel Prague Old Town is a great hotel location for a tourist for several reasons. The location is in Old Town, far enough away from the center of Old Town Square as to not be overwhelmed with tourist crowds upon stepping out the door, yet close enough to be in the thick of the action in less than ten minutes. The Vltava River is one block away for river walks to Old Town. Several grocery stores and restaurants are within ten minutes walk.

My room was on Floor 2 and the balcony door of 211 is open as seen in the center of the photo.

Clarion Prague Old Town Lobby

The lobby was small and not really a space to hang out. Usually the only people hanging out in the lobby were people with luggage waiting to leave the hotel. The hotel has a restaurant and bar, generally very little activity that I observed throughout the week. I only walked through the space to go to the breakfast dining room set back from the bar area.

There is a computer monitor set off from the reception desk. I printed boarding passes that were directed to the reception desk printer.

Directly outside the door, within 50 meters of the hotel entrance, are cobbled alleys to meander through as you wind your way around enchanting Old Prague/Staré Město architecture.

One of the main reasons I like the Clarion Hotel Prague Old Town hotel location is ease of transportation with the tram stop Dlouhá třída two to three minutes walk and serviced by nine tram lines, including tram #26 and #91 night tram to/from Nádraží Veleslavín, the location outside the Line A Metro station where the #119 Prague Airport bus stop is located. 32 CZK/$1.40 USD for a 90 minute ticket will cover transport on airport bus, then tram or metro to Prague city center in 45 to 60 minutes. Most places around Prague a tourist will want to visit are easily accessible on a 24 CZK/$1.05 ticket valid for 30 minutes of travel.

I found the trams far more enjoyable this trip than Metro. Being above ground is a far better way to learn the layout of the city.

Náměstí Republiky Metro Line B is about 7 minutes walk from the hotel.

Clarion Prague Old Town Room 211

The hotel has five guest room floors.

There were no English language stations on the TV, except RT. Minibar had items I cleared out to load the refrigerator with beer.

A quirky thing about the room that I did not realize until about 1 am on the first night of a six night stay is the curtains did not close sufficiently to cover all the windows. The second day, after careful examination of the curtains, I realized there was a curtain missing. I notified the desk when we left the hotel and when we returned 10 hours later there was a complete set of different curtains installed in the room.

The highlight of the room was a balcony with a full size balcony door we could open and take the room chairs outside to enjoy the spring afternoon weather.

Daytime temperatures were in low to mid-60s (17-20C) most days and night time temperatures in the 40s. With the windows open the room stayed at a comfortably cool temperature for our liking. We are used to a cool ocean breeze environment in Monterey, California.

Our summer stays at Clarion Prague City have been uncomfortably warm and I suspect the same could be true of Clarion Prague Old Town with AC seemingly not good at getting room below 21C/70F. Hot hotel rooms are something we don’t enjoy and in Prague, and even in Oslo, where the temperature was 38F outside, Kelley kept the patio door wide open all night.

For the most part we used the room as a bed to sleep and spent our days out and about exploring the city.

Clarion Prague Old Town Breakfast 

Standard breakfast buffet fare, except no oatmeal. One different offering were a generous selection of desserts most mornings. Personally I would have preferred more veggies.

Scrambled, fried and boiled eggs, sausages and bacon, roasted potatoes, vegetable ratatouille, beans, couscous and flapjacks.

Fruit was primarily fruit cocktail and canned fruit like sliced peaches. Salad was basically cucumbers and tomatoes.

Each day I made a sandwich for Kelley to take back to the room. Only on the sixth morning did she actually get up before 10am for breakfast in the dining room, the morning we checked out to travel to the airport for a flight to Oslo.

 

Choice Privileges Points for Prague

Most of my Choice Privileges hotel reward stays in Prague have been at Clarion Hotel Prague City in Prague 2 district. Both hotels have favorable aspects, yet both hotels are basic room accommodation. Air conditioning seems weak at both hotels. Breakfast is included at both hotels. Both places have refrigerators.

There are many outstanding hotels in Prague and many kinds of accommodation available. The attraction to me of the two Choice Hotels are for their locations and the ability to buy Choice Privileges points for $5.00 per 1,000 points during Daily Getaways annual sales or $7.50 per 1,000 points at any time through Points Plus Cash reward nights, paying $40 to $75 per night all in when these hotels are 8,000 to 10,000 points per night is a deal I can’t beat.

There is a third Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague 9, a part of the city away from any tourist destinations I have cared to visit on my stays in Prague.

My 6-night reward stay cost 48,000 points (8,000 points per night) + 180 CZK/$7.91 USD at 30 CZK per night city tax.

Clarion Hotel Prague Old Town seasonal reward rates

APR 7, 2019 - APR 18, 2019:

At 20,000 points summer reward rates I would likely opt to pay the room rate or find a better hotel deal in Prague.

TripAdvisor Clarion Prague Old Town #305 of 655 hotels in Prague