Apart-Hotel Hammer - Bad Wildbad, Germany     

This is the second time my wife and I have stayed at this hotel in this Black Forest spa town and each time it has exceeded our expectations. We stayed here once four years ago and now, which is July, 2008. We travel to the Black Forest for the annual Rossini opera festival in July. The hotel is supposedly a three-star but really it is better. For a mere 78 euros a night we have a large two-bedroom suite with a kitchenette (a stovetop and fridge, but no microwave or oven), dishes, plates and silver. We have a great balcony with a beautiful view of this charming little valley. A comfortable bed and a good bathroom. Outside our balcony is a fir tree with narrow pine cones that -- I now realize -- are the model for the weights on cuckoo clocks. The building was constructed probably in the 70s or 80s, and was recently updated. It is up a hill, which accounts for the view. You drive up the hill, but once you're parked you will probably want to walk. The proprietor, Juergen Hammer, tells us he used to run a large hotel in Asia and now runs his own little hotel here. He knows what he is doing and how to run a good hotel. Breakfast here is excellent, like most German hotel breakfasts.. I recommend the hotel -- and for that matter the little valley, the spas and the festival -- for anyone looking for a relaxing vacation. By the way, the Internet is free -- and that's how I'm writing this review.

A delightful apartment/hotel. My 3 criteria are cleanliness, price and location. This filled all three. The owner speaks excellent English. Located on the hillside of BadWildbad,our 2 bedroom suite was large and immaculate with a balcony.- the view was nice. It was a short 3 minute walk into the town, People with mobility problems may not want to consider walking down as the walk back from town is uphill and relatively steep. We found a good restaurant in the town. There is a Roman bath in town, but we did not use it. This would be a good location to visit Baden Baden, a much priceir town. We did not have breakfast in the hotel, as we used our own kitchen facilities-but the breakfast table looked liked it offerred a wide variety of food.