Kalev Spa Hotel & Waterpark - Tallinn, Estonia     

This is indeed a hotel attached to a spa, and the spa is primarily an Olympic, 50-m pool just on the outside of the walls of Old Tallinn. It is a great place to stay - for a fairly moderate price - in a fairly good location of Tallinn, and frequent, free and convenient lap-swimming, sauna, and whirlpools will be good for any business traveller and the non-alcohol-bent tourists. The pool itself is excellent and world class, especially during times when it is not crowded (this is the main Tallinn public indoor pool). The hotel is more *** than ****, especially the normal rooms, which are very small, quite noisy, and not very comfortable. The Spa Class rooms, especially those on the 5th floor with a balcony (fantastic view over the end of the old town and the ferry harbor) are quite nice though and certainly worth the € 25 price difference - but this makes the hotel not much cheaper than comparable ones in the neighborhood. The hotel and its lobby are dominated by Finnish and other Scandinavian tourists which seem to be able to combine heavy drinking and partying with a spa break - this is why they don't use the big pool, I guess. ;-) It is for them that the hotel was built, and to them it is marketed, so this kind of crowd, which is not for everyone to be around, must be borne if one stays in the Kalev Spa hotel. The breakfast is sometimes understaffed, but the food offered is quite okay if one understands that this is Finnish (not "Eastern", as some previous reviewer wrote), with many warm spicy items but also with fresh cake and salads. There are some tables in the breakfast room which overlook the pool from the 4th floor. The staff is mostly helpful, some are a bit bothered (understandable seeing the clientele and mass check-ins, but still). Excellent and cheap laundry service. Slightly overpriced internet connection. The location is very close to Old Town, literally meters, but at its more quiet end, which in the end is more of a blessing than a problem. About 5-10 minutes slow walking to the heart of it. A RIMI supermarket is 5 minutes away. From the airport, take a taxi; from the harbor, walking is possible (~15 minutes). In sum, for what it is, this is an okay hotel - but it is great if you enjoy swimming and (simple) water parks.

Though I wasn't a guest at the hotel itself, I've been to the Spa several times now for my weekend trips to Tallinn. My first experience was so good I decided to become a repeat customer, but my last experience pretty much ruined my impression of the place. I made an appointment over the phone with a specific masseuse. I showed up at my appointment, told the receptionist who I had an appointment with, and was told to go with someone who looked different than I remembered. I asked the receptionist if my masseuse (and I mentioned her name) had changed her appearance, and she just smiled. It didn't take me long to figure out I had someone else. Annoyed, I mentioned it to her after coming out of the massage room (and interrupting all the girls crowded around a computer, looking at some pictures of a fashion model), and she ignored me, and just asked "How do you want to pay?" I spoke to the front desk manager, and she mentioned that maybe it was a language problem. I don't buy this at all, since "I have an appointment with XXXX" is about as basic as English gets, and the look on this girl's face when I confronted her showed she definitely understood what I was saying (she totally avoided eye contact with me). I left my number with the manager, and never heard back. The lesson? Be careful at this Spa. Some of the staff is excellent, and some just doesn't care. You're just another tourist to some of them, and will be leaving soon, so why bother listening to you?