A fully weekend of relaxation

annacolorful (40)in #travel • 7 years ago (edited)

Weekends are sacred. Especially for full-time employees, like me. They belong to my personal islands. This is where I can switch off and relax. Often, however, the weekends are also filled with (voluntary) commitments.
The weekly shopping, for which otherwise there is hardly any time, parents and acquaintances who want to be visited and other activities, which are always fun, but always carry this certain "must do" character with them.

In April, a weekend was free of all these "constraints". Because me and my friend Jo had a wellness weekend. From Friday afternoon to Sunday evening everything was under the motto "relaxation".

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A great view just everywhere

Our wellness package

First of all, I would like to point out that we booked the hotel due to a good deal on the Internet.
This package included for each of us a free back massage, a free dinner (buffet), a bottle of water in the room and free bathrobes.

Trans World Hotel Kranichhöhe in Much

The Trans World Hotel Kranichhöhe in Much

Arrive and explore

The hotel is located in rural Much, about 40 minutes by car from Cologne.
After checking in and putting down our bags and suitcases, we devoted ourselves directly to our first program item.
After a short wait, the relaxation program began on Friday with said back massage. Relax for 25 minutes, close your eyes and feel lighter every minute. I have had massages many times and I have to say that this lady did a very good job. Especially for the neck area she had an extremely effective technique to relieve even the deepest tensions.
After my massage it was my friend's turn and I had time to take a closer look at the spa and wellness area.

Beauty area

In addition to the beauty area, where facials can also be treated, the hotel offers a large wellness area with indoor pool, sauna area and outdoor areas for lying down. In an outbuilding there is also a gym and a sports room where various courses are offered. The hotel also has a beach volleyball court and several indoor and outdoor tennis courts.

In the following I will not report further chronologically, but about the individual experiences and activities as such.

Wellness area with indoor pool

Schwimming and sauna

Flooded with light and simply a great view everywhere

The wellness area around the indoor pool is very open and bright. The large floor-to-ceiling windows allow plenty of natural daylight to flow into the entire room. The indoor pool itself has a swimming temperature, i.e. it may be too cold to splash around in. It offers space for about 3 to 4 people to swim and also has a countercurrent system (which is designed for slow swimmers).

Wellness area with indoor pool

Finnish sauna outside

Wellness area outside

After our massage application and a subsequent dinner, we then tested the saunas for their potential. The hotel has a steam bath in the upper part of its wellness area as well as two in-house and one external steam sauna in the garden.
It can only be reached via stairs through the swimming area or from outside. This offers the opportunity to enjoy several sauna sessions undisturbed by other hotel guests who swim or spend time in the garden. It also has its own balcony with a view over the slope, where you can relax wonderfully.

Since the cold temperatures were already on the march back when we were there, we usually had the sauna area to ourselves. This gave us the opportunity to make ourselves an infusion the way we wanted.

From the Finnish sauna (85°C) and partly from the adventure sauna (55°C) we had a wonderful view over the slope into the nature, which I enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, we have not tried the Finnish sauna (90°C) in the garden below.

In the entire wellness area there are enough loungers to relax and tables and chairs to sit on. One never had the feeling of not getting any more space to lay down (even though the swimming and lying area was quite full of people).

Indoor sauna area

Sauna area: View from the balcony

Breakfast buffet

Restaurant and Food

The hotel's own restaurant called Verde is large (130 seats), but very cosy and modernly furnished. The adjoining sun terrace also offers plenty of additional space for further seating and a wonderful view over the slope into the open countryside.
The service was excellent, which was reflected in the attentive behavior towards the guests and the quick refilling of the buffet.
The restaurant offers regional cuisine, international classics and seasonal highlights. The food we have eaten includes 2x breakfast and 2x dinner.

Dinner

As already mentioned, our offer included a free dinner. We were allowed to help ourselves at the rich buffet, which was intended also on the part of the hotel.
Right in front, the buffet was great! And I say that, too, because the buffet was aimed at mixed delicacies. Everything I tried, from different kinds of warm vegetables, rich carbohydrates like potatoes or noodles to salad variations and dessert was delicious!
On the second evening there was a hotel own barbecue master who grilled the meat outside on the sun terrace. This was also the reason why my boyfriend had decided for the buffet again on the second evening. Of course this offer was not relevant for me, but the quality of the taste of all the other options the evening before also convinced me to choose the buffet again.

Of course there were also various dishes à la carte, but here none could appeal to me as much as the selection at the buffet.

Breakfast

Breakfast buffet

Muesli wih dried fruits

The breakfast was also buffet-like in the same place as the evening before the evening buffet. And here, too, I must express my highest praise.
Especially the fact that you were offered so many different things than you know from a normal hotel breakfast ("English Breakfast" or "Intercontinental Breakfast"), for example, totally amazed me.

The breakfast buffet included

bread, rolls and croissants
cheese and sausage plate
jam and honey from the local beekeeper
various salads (e.g. tomato mozzarella)
hearty dishes such as eggs, sausages and mushrooms
(Bircher-) cereals and (dried) fruit

The breakfast buffet impressed me even more than the evening buffet, which is mainly due to the fact that I found more for myself at the breakfast buffet. But this does not diminish my enthusiasm at the evening buffet.

View outside the hotel room

The room

Our room was very lovingly decorated and very cosy. On its 18m² it looked very harmonious in its entire style. Our offer included an overnight stay in a Business Class room with a view of the garden. This view is the same view of the slope as from the sun terrace.

Hotel corridor

Hotel room

Beach volleyball field

Recreational activities

On Saturday, the only complete day, everything was under the motto: activities in the immediate vicinity and time-forgotten. After a round of yoga in the hotel room, we first went swimming in the hotel's own swimming pool before breakfast.

The day before, I read in a flyer in the spa area that the hotel has its own e-bikes, which can be hired at various time rates.
And that's exactly what we did. In the afternoon we rented an e-bike for 2 hours each and rode with them through the local area through woods and meadows.

Exkurs…

Many people always dream of seeing the world and having been to the most beautiful place in their lives. I'm not exempting myself. But this small tour through the rural area of Much has shown me once again that we also have beautiful areas in Germany that are worth visiting.

A bit hilly here (without e-bikes the whole tour wouldn't have been so pleasant) a few cows on the pasture there, a wonderful sunshine and the loneliness of the expanse, apart from a few farmers on tractors, these were exactly the components that I would not have thought they would inspire me so much. Especially since I'm a peasant child myself and I'm from the country.

"Time for recreation"

Conclusion

All in all I enjoyed our weekend at the Trans World Hotel Kranichhöhe in Much very much. The hotel offers you everything you can imagine for a short break at the weekend. Its close location to Cologne and Bonn as the nearest major cities makes it a perfect oasis in the middle of the countryside.
Especially the price/performance ratio is simply fantastic. Even without bargains from the Internet, a very nice wellness stay can be realized here for relatively little money.

But this is exactly where I come to my criticism of the hotel.

The whole hotel complex looks a bit outdated and neglected. The building itself, built in the 1970s, conveys from the outside an atmosphere similar to that of a youth hostel that you travelled to as a child on a school outing.
And also in the hotel itself one notices in many places unfortunately that this certain extra, which constitutes the luxury and recovery factor, is simply missing.
The swimming and sauna area completely lacks a well thought-out feel-good atmosphere. The blue loungers, which stand around everywhere, are comfortable - no question - but unfortunately they seem a bit cheap. They stand quite carelessly everywhere and there are no storage areas for books or drinks. In some places there are provisionally positioned plants, some of which also look a bit taken along and unkempt.
Some walls are covered with wall stickers, which contain "relaxing" slogans. Unfortunately, due to the otherwise almost non-existent wellness flair, these seem a little out of place.
The relaxation room in the sauna area also offers nothing except actual peace and quiet. Unfortunately, this room has failed in its functionality for me because of its bright lamps, no warm temperature and no other reassuring furnishings either. I preferred to lie down on the sauna's own balcony, which is a huge plus (!).

Only the restaurant Verde with its sun terrace meets the standard that the hotel could represent. (And here I forgot to take pictures...) I also have nothing against the rooms and the already described extremely competent staff (in the whole hotel).

Wellness area

I would like to emphasize anyway once again that both I and my boyfriend liked it very much there. After all, the hotel has 4 stars. I just think that my criticisms should be mentioned, because I think this is very conspicuous. Especially, because you expect more from a wellness hotel on average than from an ordinary hotel.

We've definitely got a taste for wellness vacations now and will definitely have another one soon - maybe even again in Much.

Love
Anna

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