Hermis Hotel - Kaunas, Lithuania     

This hotel is almost midway between the airport and town centre so if you arrive by plane it means a cheaper taxi journey. You have to take a taxi really as local transport to the airport is terrible. Should be 45Litas (approx $25.) I booked a single room with hotels.com but when i arrived i found i'd been given a 2-storey suite for the same price. It was very nice and spacious, with seating area downstairs with TV and bar, and double bed upstairs, all open plan except a spotless ensuite bathroom. Breakfast was nice the next day with hot food and fruit, meats, cereals etc. I didn't get time to use the spa and pool, gym etc. excellent hotel for this part of the world.

The Hotel Hermis is a small hotel (13 rooms) with busy public restaurant and leisure facilities on the same site. The building itself and the rooms have obviously been built (or at least refurbished) very recently, and the standard is much higher than you would typically find in other independent hotels in the region. The rooms are actually suites or large split level rooms (depending on which side of the building you are staying on), providing an accomodation space far bigger than a standard double room, with additional facilities such as coffee tables, armchairs etc. Facilities are good and bathrobes, slippers etc are provided. There is free internet access on a PC in the corridor. The (Italian) restaurant on-site is good, and prices very reasonable (no higher than the general standard in Lithuania), this is also where breakfast is served. The leisure facility looked good (and again, very modern) but was busy. The location of the hotel was quite unexpected, it is on the main road in from the airport to the city centre, but not close enough to either to be classed as a genuine central or airport hotel and presumably is aimed at attracting business travellers for the nearby offices and industrial areas. One gripe was that on check out (the first time, of two stays) the hotel tried to charge the standard tariff and not the pre-booked rate which was guaranteed by the booking website, this was resolved without much difficulty but it took a while to sort out.