A hotel this useful to the Eurostar could get away with being mediocre and still be popular.
A hotel so close to some of Paris’ most vibrant eating and drinking spots might be tempted to spread a few laurels and lie back.
But luckily, the 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord is a great place to stay, as well as being almost within arm’s reach of the ornate high-speed train platforms of Gare Du Nord and warranting a proximity alert for hipster bars and restaurants, included Les Arlotsrestaurant Billili and Michel’s cave.
Inside, it’s a pleasant, lush kaleidoscope of African and Asian-inspired decor with hipster flourishes.
Just 50 steps from the threshold of Gare Du Nord, the busiest train station in Europe, you enter a fun 235-room property in a majestic 19th century Belle Époque building that is half hotel, half exotic bazaar, and confortable. also.
MailOnline Travel’s Ted Thornhill checks into the 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord (above)
The 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord is “almost within reach” of Gare Du Nord (above)
Gare Du Nord (above) is the busiest train station in Europe and is the terminus for Eurostar services to Paris.
The hotel’s entrance is adjacent to the legendary Brasserie Terminus Nord restaurant (which has no connection to the hotel of the same name), and the reception area resembles a traditional Parisian newsstand complete with a small shop selling a variety of useful knick-knacks.
All rooms are located between floors one and six.
Our fifth-floor family room (I’m there with my partner and young daughter) comes with a multitude of touches that make it fun, original and refreshing, from wine boxes that double as bed supports to classic wooden shipping boxes for bedside tables and groups of cone-shaped bedside lamps and from antique rotary light switches to a cheerful bathroom with pink tiles and a baby blue sink.
The bed, for its part, is extremely comfortable, worthy of a hotel with a much higher price.
Additionally, there is a balcony with views of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica to the northwest and, of course, the Gare Du Nord opposite.
Ted describes the 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord as “a fun 235-room property in a majestic 19th-century Belle Époque building that’s half hotel, half exotic bazaar.”
Neni Restaurant, featuring pink velvet-upholstered banquettes and retro lampshades.
Neni serves Israeli and Eastern Mediterranean-inspired “soul food” and “a decent breakfast”
The hotel entrance is located next to the legendary Brasserie Terminus Nord restaurant.
That there is a view of a building across the road is no surprise. But I had never really appreciated how impressive this structure is.
I usually enter and exit the Gare du Nord wrapped in a blanket of mild stress, eager to catch a Eurostar or emerge unscathed for a journey that awaits me in the always frenetic street in front of the station, Place Napoleon III.
But up here, from my mysterious fifth floor, I have time to appreciate the station’s 19th-century architecture.
A ‘wonderful’ coffee station installed in the back of a vintage Citroen Acadiane
The hotel’s ‘chic speakeasy’ bar, Sape
The reception area “resembles a traditional Parisian newsstand complete with a small shop selling a variety of useful knick-knacks.”
Ted’s family room, which “comes with a multitude of touches that make it fun, original and refreshing, from classic wooden bedside boxes to clusters of cone-shaped bedside lamps.”
With its majestic female statues on a cornice and its grand 540-foot-high façade, it is truly magnificent.
Back inside, the hotel continues to enchant.
There’s a chic, speakeasy-style bar called Sape, a cool coffee station set up in the back of a vintage Citroën Acadiane, and a restaurant, Neni, serving (after all, the service isn’t the fastest) Eastern Mediterranean. Israeli inspired “soul food” and a decent breakfast.
Perhaps the highlight, though, is the decor: pink velvet-upholstered banquettes and retro lampshades.
The hotel’s location inevitably means that many will treat it as a pre-train crash site and the hotel recognizes this; For example, on our bed there is a pillow embroidered with the words “almost home.”
But it is much more than that. Indeed, this is a hotel worthy of serving as a headquarters for a city break stay. A fascinating sanctuary in the middle of the bustle of Paris.
And a bargain at only around £130 ($160) per night.
