We stayed here in summer 2006. It is actually in Bavaria rather than Hesse. The hotel is modern, but is cosy with attractive and tasteful decor. We stayed on an all-inclusive family package deal which was so generous we could hardly believe our luck. It even included sparkling wine and chocolate from the minibar. The food was high quality and well presented.

There were plenty of sports facilities including a modest gym, a nice-looking indoor tennis court and outdoor tennis as well. The swimming pool is possibly the best part of the hotel - three pools and nice seating areas, with a large wellness area. On Thursday nights they light it with candles for 'moonlight swimming', which is very romantic. The hairdressing and beauty therapy are reasonably priced and completent, and the hairdresser in particular is lovely, and great with kids. You can also have professional physiotherapy there, which I can recommend highly.

The childcare was in a lovely room, but like so many Steigenberger Hotels, seemed to be run to suit the preferences of the playleader in charge, opening for different hours each day. She was a very kind and sweet lady who did a lot of art with the children, but it was too limited for our energetic boys, and in the end she put them into the indoor tennis court area to burn off a bit of steam. I wasn't entirely happy about this when I found out about it, as they were largely unsupervised, and there was a big trampoline in there without a safety net around it, so knowing our two, they were lucky not to break a limb. However my husband thought I was being paranoid. I would say the childcare is best suited to children between 4 and 8, preferably female.

Overall I thought the hotel was pretty good, but I would say that I was put off by one main thing - the service was very old-fashioned and tardy at meals and we often waited 45+ minutes before our order was taken, unlike other guests. We were also given the most indifferent tables by the maitre d' each time, and when we asked nicely whether a window table might be possible one night, we were told they had all been pre-booked for the next fortnight. However when we eventually got fed up of the terrible service and complained, we were told this was not true, but they still didn't do much about it. I found that annoying. My husband pointed out to me later that no families with children ever got to sit near the window.

The local town had a reasonable number of shops, but was a bit limited on the coffee and cake front, and dated generally, so I think in future I'll go back to South Bavaria with the family.