{"id":14630,"date":"2019-01-30T21:02:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/?p=14630"},"modified":"2019-01-30T21:02:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:02:27","slug":"holiday-inn-express-cologne-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/2019\/01\/holiday-inn-express-cologne-review","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Inn Express &#8211; Cologne &#8211; Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L7J0XhHCShM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Last summer I packed my hand-luggage and jumped on a train to Manchester airport. I downloaded a mystery boarding pass to my phone and discovered that I was heading for a surprise trip to Cologne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This trip really was a surprise. It was arranged by the fab folk over at <a href=\"https:\/\/wowtrip.travel\/en-gb\/\">WowTrip<\/a> who specialise in surprise holidays around Europe. I must point out that the trip was kindly gifted to myself and a bunch of other bloggers who took part in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebloggercourse.com\/\">Monica&#8217;s Blogger Course<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14613\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-370x278.png 370w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-570x428.png 570w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-770x578.png 770w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-1170x878.png 1170w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course-773x580.png 773w, https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wowtrip-The-Blogger-Course.png 1192w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/huesofdelahaye.com\/\">Hues of Delahaye,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/beingbuttons.com\/\">Being Buttons,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivialeaves.com\/\">Olivia Leaves<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/taylorheartstravel.com\/\">Taylor Hearts Trave<\/a>l,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetravelbunny.com\/\">The Travel Bunny<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ellecroft.com\/blog\/\">Elle Croft<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.roamingrequired.com\/\">Roaming Required<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephaniefox.co.uk\/\">Stephanie Fox ,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.andshesoff.com\/\">And She\u2019s Off<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetravelhack.com\/\">The Travel Hack<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventuresofalondonkiwi.com\/\">Adventures of a London Kiwi,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/britpakgirl.com\/\">Britpakgirl<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find out more about WowTrip, what they offer and what we got up to during our stay in Cologne in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/2018\/11\/surprise-holidays-wowtrip\">my full review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I want to tell you about the hotel we stayed in and share my room tour video &#8211; you can find the video at the start of this post or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L7J0XhHCShM\">over on my YouTube channel.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/daisyhatami\/46093905821\/in\/album-72157700857823182\/\" title=\"Holiday inn Express Cologne\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4858\/46093905821_71692ca3c9_b.jpg\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" alt=\"Holiday inn Express Cologne\"><\/a>\n\n\n\n<p>Accommodation is an important part of travel for me. I like to be in a central location with a clean, comfortable, safe and modern hotel. WowTrip guarantee a central hotel with a 3* or 4* rating. For the price you pay for the trip I think this is really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express. It&#8217;s just &#8217;round the corner from the Old Town and a quick walk to the nearest U-bhan. An excellent location for exploring Cologne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/daisyhatami\/45182183925\/in\/album-72157700857823182\/\" title=\"My room at Cologne Holiday Inn Express\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4909\/45182183925_fca4b9fb29_b.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" alt=\"My room at Cologne Holiday Inn Express\"><\/a>\n\n\n\n<p>The hotel had recently been refurbished and was very modern. My bedroom and bathroom were clean and the bed was very comfortable (<em>perfect\u00a0for\u00a0those\u00a0early\u00a0days\u00a0of\u00a0pregnancy).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was pleased to find lots of plug sockets around the room and particularly near the bed. I think this is essential in a modern hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4830\/31154810837_8be2cfe691_b.jpg\" alt=\"Hotel key card\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The hotel and location both felt safe. I like that you have to have a keycard to activate the lift. I&#8217;ve stayed with Holiday Inn a few times now (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/2015\/10\/holiday-inn-berlin-alexanderplatz\">my\u00a0review\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0one\u00a0in\u00a0Berlin<\/a>)<\/em> and they always feel safe and secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The continental breakfast buffet was included with our stay. This was just a standard breakfast, nothing too exciting. However, I was pleased it was included as part of our WowTrip. It\u2019s always nice to be able to grab a coffee and croissant before heading out for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was very happy with our hotel for the trip. It ticked all the boxes, especially as it was all arranged as part of a surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have any questions about the hotel feel free to leave them below and I&#8217;ll be more than happy to answer them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last summer I packed my hand-luggage and jumped on a train to Manchester airport. I downloaded a mystery boarding pass to my phone and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15034,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions\/15034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prettygreentea.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}