Esos Hotel Quelle

“Nice small hotel,”

This is a small hotel at the top edge of Bad Ragaz. It's quite charming in its way and we had a good week here - skiing. I would be happy to stay again. We only saw two staff/owners here - both were very welcoming and helpful - anything we asked they were only too happy to help. We asked for a few… more

This is a small hotel at the top edge of Bad Ragaz. It's quite charming in its way and we had a good week here - skiing. I would be happy to stay again. We only saw two staff/owners here - both were very welcoming and helpful - anything we asked they were only too happy to help. We asked for a few relatively simple things - an early breakfast on the last day to leave for a flight - this was no problem, and if we could borrow a Swiss power adaptor - again no problem. Wifi - an essential in a modern hotel - was fast, easy to connect, and gave no problems all week. They have a different network on each floor (same password) and it was very efficient. Breakfast - there was a good variety and it was well laid out. One chap kept it in very good order and I'm sure that he would be happy to do other things if asked. A nice touch was that they had tea/coffee etc. on in the afternoon as well, which made it pleasant to sit downstairs after the day's skiing catching up on work emails. Parking - there are some allocated spaces a short way further up the street. However - there aren't that many, and one night we found they were all full. That night I had to find a space in town. I asked the guy on reception the following day and he said there was a private space opposite I could have used - parking spaces in Switzerland are very tightly controlled. I won't say exactly what other space - it's for the hotel to give that information out as they see fit - but I'd recommend if you have a car, ask when you first arrive. Language - I need to practice my German so I speak it all the time, but I didn't get the impression that the people here were particularly fluent at English. I may be wrong on this. This is BTW an area where people often speak Romansh as well as Swiss-German, and often too Swiss-French or Italian; so how many languages can you expect people to speak? Of the wider area - this is a great area for skiing, if a bit away from the big-name famous resorts. But big-name famous resorts just cost a lot more per day and you can only ski one run at once! The local resort of Pizol-Wangs is great, and you can also travel to Flumserberg, Malbun, Grusch, and others all within about 30min drive. They obviously do evening meals sometimes (maybe in summer) but were not doing evening food whilst we were there. In Bad Ragaz however, there are plenty of restaurants. Quality is generally good - prices are high. For a simple and price-friendly meal, there are two take-aways (pizza, kebabs, burgers) fairly close by - one on the corner of Sarganserstrasse and Weiligstrasse, and the other a short way down Bahnhofstrasse. Both also do eat-in as well as take-away. Both are good for when you want a meal but don't want to pay full Swiss restaurant prices. Overall its only a small hotel, but pleasant, clean and tidy. Our room was quite spacious although was a little short of storage space, and it was a little odd that the main window had outside shutters which were closed, but the complicated inside arrangement with the windows (don't ask, just trust me) made it virtually impossible to open them. There was however an outdoor sitting area / balcony. Too cold to really use it in February, but would be nice in the summer. In summary, I'd be happy to stay here again.

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