Waldhotel Bärenstein

I stayed at the Hotel Bärenstein for four nights in July 2024 as part of a family event. We were 18 people altogether, plus an additional six who attended a function and stayed for one night. My family of four had two double rooms. The rooms were very spacious and well-equipped with a TV, coffee/tea station, fridge, free bottle of water and ample storage space. No A/C, though, but the weather wasn’t too hot, fortunately. Otherwise, our boys’ room in particular might have gotten quite warm, as it was a rather odd maisonette room with a small downstairs room and a long hallway, bathroom, and sleeping area upstairs under the roof. The décor of both rooms was completely tasteless. It really was pretty bad, as in orange carpeting, red and green checkered sofa, blue chairs with gold legs and brown curtains. And no, they weren’t trying to be hip, all of it was rather old-fashioned and a bit worn. The hotel has a good-sized indoor pool and a very nice spa area with two saunas and a steam bath that we made extensive use of. The food was so-so. Breakfast wasn’t bad, but choices were rather limited and the coffee wasn’t good at all. One can order speciality coffee from the servers free of charge, but they didn’t offer this if I recall correctly. We had to ask. We had dinner twice at the hotel, once on our first night there and once as part of the family function. The first dinner wasn’t good at all. The soup was much too salty and the fish I ordered was bland. The desert wasn’t good, either. None of our party liked the food. It was much better on the second occasion, though. It still wasn’t the most delicious food we ever tasted, but we enjoyed it. The restaurant ran out of the wine my parents had chosen as dinner wine midway through the meal, though. The staff were friendly enough, but didn’t always seem very eager to accommodate the guests. They once closed the bar half an hour early, for example, even though we were still sitting in the beer garden outside, having drinks. The hotel’s location is good with hiking paths starting directly at the property, one of them an easy walk to one of the major sights in the area, the Externsteine. Several other sights are a short drive away.