Rhein Neckar Hotel Mannheim

“Clean and friendly hotel”

Stayed for one night but the welcome was great and the rooms comfortable. A small courtyard at the rear was available to sit out. A short tram ride (five minute walk) into the city centre was easy. Breakfast good. Very friendly and helpful staff. The surrounding area does not have much to offer how… more

Stayed for one night but the welcome was great and the rooms comfortable. A small courtyard at the rear was available to sit out. A short tram ride (five minute walk) into the city centre was easy. Breakfast good. Very friendly and helpful staff. The surrounding area does not have much to offer however (unless I missed it!).

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“Cheap business hotel in a sketchy area, but not dangerous”

Rooms are clean enough, my bed was almost as long as I am, German breakfast buffet was more than anyone should ever eat, and most of the patrons were working class service people, on the road, away from home, who likely choose to stay here regularly. Since we were three people, we paid "extra" for … more

Rooms are clean enough, my bed was almost as long as I am, German breakfast buffet was more than anyone should ever eat, and most of the patrons were working class service people, on the road, away from home, who likely choose to stay here regularly. Since we were three people, we paid "extra" for a "suite/apartment", but you decide, after looking at my photos. I highly suggest that you pay the extra for the funky underground parking lot, if you expect to see your vehicle again. We had a German friend find us a room with three beds, near our convention of 45,000 people, at the last minute, for a cheap price. I have no right to complain. I went to Greece last year, and everything was........ GREEK to me. So in Germany, I just kind of assumed that everything would be.......... well, GERMAN. Mannheim is a working class city that was bombed heavily in World War II, and I am not convinced that it recovered, if it was nice before it was bombed. Germany is the industrial machine of Europe, and relies heavily upon immigrant workers, as does my home state of California. I am not sure about every person working in our hotel, but I am pretty sure that 100% of the other people in the neighborhood around this hotel are recent immigrants. Sketchy is an American word for something just on the edge of not being OK, and I use this word for this part of Mannheim for good reason. Women would walk alone on the streets, but they keep looking over their shoulders, and cross to the other side of the street when a male approaches. Second clue about the neighborhood was when we went for lunch into a typical looking family restaurant, and nothing on the menu looked German. One of my Italian co-workers finally recognized a menu item as Croatian, and the owner was only too happy that we were there to eat. We just told him to bring us some food, and the biggest plate of meat and potatoes that I have ever seen arrived for each or us, washed down with two large draft beers. Grappa is also the local custom, even at 11AM. I had been driving through three countries, since 2:30AM, to reach this place, so I was ready for the challenge. We were the only customers for lunch that day, but the bar was busy, which is some kind of social statement. 10 Euro per person, no matter how much you ate or drank. That night, all of the possible lunch places were closed, and dinner places (I hesitate to use the word restaurant) were very dimly lit with colored lights. We were three guys of a type not normally messed with, but we walked for about a mile before picking the least of all evils, a Spanish Tapas establishment, with a curtain inside the door. Once inside, it turns out that the owner was Portuguese, but born in Switzerland, worked in Italy, but now lived in Germany, serving Spanish-style food. OK... We asked what he would like to serve us, and he suggested mixed fried seafood platters (we were nowhere near the ocean), and we agreed, since we did not want to pick something that he did NOT recommend. I think that he sent someone out to buy the ingredients (probably frozen), after we ordered. Coming from Italy, we were not about to order wine, so we asked for his best beer, which is brewed with water from the local cemetery. We were the only dinner customers in the best restaurant in that part of town, at 8PM on a Saturday night. So what does all of this have to do with a review for a hotel? Travel can be an enrichening experience only if you allow the world around you influence and maybe enrich your experiences. Our very un-German experience gave us another look at the reality of Europe, and reinforces my desire to see Croatia in the near future, all thanks to this hotel experience. I am of half German ancestry, so I will make it a point to go back to more traditional German places in the future, I promise!

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