Knowing that we can redeem the free night stay and enjoy member’s rate, we bought the Accor membership.  This is not our first time buying the membership and we did quite like the affordability of the membership.

I booked the rooms via their website. Very easy to navigate website! The rooms were more expensive nearer the staying dates and I was really glad that I booked the hotel more than a month before our travel dates. The amount was almost doubled when I checked the rates a few days before our travel dates (I paid less than $500 for 3 nights but it was showing at more than $1K)!

When we reached the Hong Kong Airport, we followed the signs to the Airport Express (after walking to and fro as some who we met on the way told us that it’s easier to take Bus A21 to our hotel).  We bought the Tourist ticket from the station customer service and the travel pass consist of 2 trips of Airport Express and 3 consecutive days of unlimited MTR rides (plus some good discount coupons for Disneyland and Ocean Park!).

Ok, basically to get to Novotel Nathan Road Kowloon, you can chose the following method :

1. Take the Airport Express Train to Kowloon Station and take free shuttle bus (K1) to the hotel, by stopping at Eaton Hotel Hong Kong and walk about 2-5 mins depending on speed.
2. Take bus no. A21 from the airport bus terminal to Jordan area, alight at bus stop no. 10 on Nathan Road, walk along Nathan Road one block and turn into Saigon Street. 

If you want to chose Option 2, remember to buy the Octopus card from inside the Airport terminal before walking to the bus bay.  If not you can chose to purchase a one-off ticket from the counter at the bus bay.

For Option 1, just buy the card from the self service machines or from the customer service counter at the station if you want to buy the tourist special card like the picture shown above.

Something interesting in the train was the indicator on the distance and it’s very clear to everyone which is the next station. Cool!

Inside the Airport Express train, there are no designated seat as compared to Japan…

Once you reach the station, there will be clear English signs to lead you to take the free shuttle bus, or rather van.  It’s a mini van to be exact. There’s also clear route information inside the van.

And TV display! You can’t miss your drop off location! And there’s an area for tourists to place their luggage.

As it’s the fifth stop, I did personally felt that the van went round and round…it will be faster to take a cab 😡

We nearly got lost because I thought that it’s easy to navigate to the hotel and hence did not do too much research beforehand.  Wrong step for me, especially lugging with luggage and a child.  So here’s the detail direction if you intend to take airport express and K1 bus to Novotel Nathan Road.

Source : Google Maps

And we finally reached the hotel entrance.  The first counter is the concierge.

For check-in, you will need to take an escalator up to the other level. And what greets you will be a big open lobby which has the front desk, a bar (Tasca Bar),  imac-s, a tourist counter and a kids’ corner!

Dawn @ the kids corner, under my watchful eyes!

We were “escorted” up to the premier floor to do our check-in. While Dear was settling all the paperwork, I was busy exploring their lounge and taking photos 😡

A quiet and private place to have breakfast and cocktails :

A small conference room for use:

2 imacs for Premier guests to use :

And guess what? They have this stuck to their imacs to ask guests to review them!

The premier floor guests can enjoy complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea and cocktails at the lounge, free use of internet in the room, free local calls, and if you want to have a full breakfast, you can dine at the Square @ Level 1 too.

We had most of our breakfast at the premier floor, mainly because we liked quiet place and also the convenience.  They served a decent spread which was enough for a good breakfast for us.  The coffee was great too! The only not-so-good was that the spread was the same every day.

We didn’t get to enjoy their afternoon tea because we were out most of the days in the afternoon.  But I managed to get some photos taken on our first day there when Dawn was having a nap in the room.

Yes, the canned drinks were free to take and it was a god-sent on one of the very hot evening where we were so tired and de-hydrated after a day out.

I didn’t manage to take pictures of their cocktail session because most of the sessions were packed with hotel guests.  There were a variety of wine, beer and liquor to chose from and we managed to enjoy one short beer session…in our own room (because it’s too noisy in the lounge and it’s not a place where Dawn should go at that time).

This is our room with a free rollaway bed for Dawn.  Look at Dawn! She had already snored her way to the ZZZ land by the time I took these photos.

The TV with a table and a bench to put our bags.

A small “panty” area with a window view to the bathroom (*wink*) 😀  Dawn discovered this window shortly after and we had to close the blinds because she kept peeping and laughing.  It’s amazing that such things amazed a kid so much! HAHA!

One thing I like this hotel is the way they utilised space.  Under the pantry top, there’s a pull out drawer to reveal the cups and the complimentary coffee and tea bags. And…condoms..this is the first time I see this in a hotel’s mini-bar item!  In additional, there’s an universal adaptor free for use! How thoughtful!

Here’s the closet which has the safe, iron etc.

And the door to the closet is also the door to the bathroom! Brilliant!

A well-lit bathroom.  Told Dear that I must have such well-lit bathroom for our house!

Look at how they display the towels…you will not forget that you are staying in Novotel.

A sign about their water, but they also provide complimentary bottled water.

And a well-stocked bathroom…and they are one hotel that never fail to stock up even if our opened bottles were still at the shower area but still enough for the next day use.

They also pride themselves with their pillow ala-carte menu…We didn’t try because the pillows on the bed were already very comfortable for us.

We had a good stay in the hotel.  But it was a pity that the hotel’s restaurant did not serve good dim-sum for their breakfast.  It’s kind of strange that being in Hong Kong where it’s famous for Dim Sum, the hotel’s standard is way below those instant-packed (frozen) dim sum that I can find in our local supermarket.

Oh, one thing to also take note if you want to stay in this hotel – there is no lock for the bathroom door (as at July 2011) in the room. 🙂