Zeitgeist Rathen by STEIGER Hotels

Nice Hotel with very friendly and Service oriented staff. Hotel ist reached on the other side of the Elbe by a ferry. Small but fine selection of food (Buffet). Also vegetarian and vegan variants available. A lot of the offered food is self made, self backed bread and buns (Brötchen) are very tasty! Spa area with a Steam and a hotair sauna with showers and a relax room. Free water ist offered in the Spa area. Hiking paths (e.g. Bastei) and the National Park are in close reach.

We stayed here with my husband to celebrate his birthday. The photos online look much better than the hotel in reality. The hotel is clean, and the retro-style interior is quite charming. The absolute highlight was the pianist playing on Friday evening – we really enjoyed his performance! What we didn’t like: the hotel advertises breakfast and dinner, and the pictures look beautiful, but in reality dinner is a buffet with salads and just two main courses to choose from. Nowhere was it mentioned that drinks are not included – not even water! Afterwards, the waiter asked us not only to pay for drinks but also to leave a tip, which felt completely unreasonable. The food itself was tasty, but the situation with paid drinks was very odd. At least water should be included. The “aqua center” is simply one pool in the basement plus a Finnish sauna and a steam room – and that’s it. Breakfast was buffet-style with a good selection, but overall the photos are much nicer than the reality.

Clean rooms, friendly staff in restaurant. Swimming pool and sauna facilities great. Staff at reception problematic: Unfriendly, and even unable to tell me where the nearest ATM was. Basic information like that should be known to someone working at the reception of a 4-star hotel.