"Okay, this hotel is WILD! It's in a very central location in Prague, which is good and bad. It spills right out into the center of it all, which in Krakow or Vienna is awesome, but in Prague, this might mean spilling right out into the middle of a raucous stag do complete with 30 drunken Brit boys and their bachelor who, by all means, is dressed up in a chicken costume. Prague has been almost ruined by the numbers, no throngs of day drinking, partying tourists. The best analogy I can offer of Prague 2026 is that it is the New Orleans of Europe--New Orleans during Mardi Gras mind you. Now, to the hotel. The Dominican is an unusual and lovely building--a former monastery with all the weirdness of that internal architecture--lots of steps up and down (Escher painting like), beautiful wood floors, and stucco walls. The inside has been meticulously restored and each floor has a lovely sitting room with old-ish furniture that looks beautiful but is hardly comfortable as lounge furniture. The rooms are fantastic--quite large and luxurious. This was the only hotel we had in Central Europe with a proper queen sized bed (most hotels provide singles pushed together--which have their benefits and detractions). Our room offered a lovely four poster bed, lots and lots of room, bit windows, and an incredible bathroom with a large bathroom and all the amenities (shampoo, body wash, loads of towels, a towel warmer, etc etc) that you could want. There was a lovely armoire to hang our clothes, and the feeling in the room was one of deep comfort--a lovely place to return to after a long day out elbowing chicken costumed bachelors out of your way. now, here's the rub about this hotel: wait for it: to enter the hotel, you have to walk through a restaurant. Yes, you heard me right. Okay, well, you don't have to walk through a restaurant to enter the hotel, but to get to the elevators you have to walk through a restaurant--a ramen restaurant. It's incredibly strange. There are two entrance/exits from the hotel. At one, you enter the "lobby" or front desk, and are greeted, rather solemnly (because yes, this is central Europe) by the hotelier. Then, you have to wind, very hungry caterpillar style), through the restaurant, past the kitchen, all while rolling your bags through the buffet table, and the stacks of bowls, and the clean up station of, I'll say it again, a ramen restaurnt. on the other side of the hotel, you can enter by literally walking through a gauntlet of tables where folks are sitting and sipping rice noodles out of huge ramen bowls. I think now of that lovely BBC show "The Hotel Inspector" and of what Alex might say about such a set up. Surely with such beatiful and well appointed rooms, and the great good fortune of having renovated a monastery, and the greater good fortune of a central location just minutes from the astronomical clock and the center of the city, you would settle for a lobby area that forces guests to walk through a ramen restaurant. Surely there are other options here. Architects? Please advise."
