On arriving having to check-in at Hotel Metropol next door. the 3 female receptions, too busy talking to attend to us. The Alpina around the corner, entrance by keycard. No point, bar next door, which had free access to the accomodation area. At night the pub was very crowded, spilling into the street. Having to walk past drunks spilling onto the road, was of a concern, feeling of insecurity. In the morning having to go to breakfast at the Hotel Metropol the remains of the night before outside the pub, strong smell of urine and vomit, also on the footpath, definitely put you off breakfast. The location to the Railway Station and tourist info great, but not enough to make us stay there again.

I stayed in 13 hotels over the course of my journey around Europe, and, sadly, this one takes last place. The biggest problem is the location. I gave location a "2" because this hotel is situated one block from the Hauptbahnhof, but it's *right* above a nightclub. I saw the reviews saying that it was noisy and still booked here, thinking people were probably exaggerating and it would be tolerable. Not so. Not only is the nightclub noisy, the people hanging AROUND the nightclub are even noisier. There are cars that pull up and just park in front of the nightclub/hotel with their music blaring. I had earplugs in all night and still got only a mediocre night's sleep.

This hotel is run by Hotel Monopol, a 4-star hotel a short walk away. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes the desk staff vacate Alpina because they had to run over to Monopol to get something, and Alpina will be locked until they get back. Lobby is tiny, elevator is tinier. Breakfast is posh and extensive, but you have to walk over to Hotel Monopol to get it. On the plus side, I thought our room was very clean and the desk receptionist was very friendly (when she was around).

On a sidenote--you may want to really evaluate why you're coming to Luzern in the first place. If it's for the lake, save yourself the noisiness of Luzern and just go to Interlaken instead. It's *much* prettier, and just as touristy and expensive as the other must-see cities in Switzerland. I honestly didn't find much to do in Luzern. The shopping is all too expensive, as are most of the restaurants, and the covered bridge--one of the city's major attractions--is covered with giant spiders on the inside.

We really enjoyed our stay in Luzern. Aplina is about a block from the train station, so when everything shuts down on Sundays, you can still get food from the food stations here. The hotel is also conveniently close to the tourist info center and where the buses leave for excursions to Mt. Titlis, Jungfrau, and Pilatus. There is not wi-fi included in your stay, but there's a pretty good signal for the free luzernwlan in that area and we were able to log onto consistently. For those of you missing a good tall cup of coffee, there's a Starbucks conveniently located in the hotel next door. The breakfast was excellent, we loved having our own personal balcony, and there was a cute little park right down the street where we relaxed after a long day of sight seeing. The staff were all friendly and helpful.

The rooms are clean and spacious. But, if you stay here, request a room in the back. Our room was directly above the night club that is open until 3:30 am. We got no sleep at all.The elevator is tiny and slow. It took us 30 minutes to get our luggage to the room. This a true tourist class hotel with limited services. I will stay somewhere else the next time I am in Luzern.