Easter Sunday in the Eastern Orthodox calendar
NOTE – second of two outward bound days for Bill
LHR to DAM
flight number: BD947
London Heathrow to Damascus International
departure time: 14:50 departure terminal 1
arrival time: 22:00
Bill's Damascus hotel - Oriental Hotel - Damascus Old City
Oriental Hotel Webpage: http://www.orientalhotel-sy.com/
Trip Advisor review for the Oriental Hotel
1. “Potential to improve”
IanAberdeen , Aberdeen
Jan 4, 2009
A recently converted house in the Christian quarter of the Old City, under the same ownership as the Shahbandar Palace. Beautiful place to stay, with very traditional furnishings, but including pillows that seem to be made of stone. The staff’s ability to speak English is limited, and they generally need a lot more training to bring the service up to the same standard as the surroundings. Our room was not serviced when we were out for the day, allegedly because the staff did not know that we were out and were reluctant to knock on the door and disturb us! The hotel’s restaurant is OK, but there are better nearby. Free wifi in rooms. Satellite TV with over 1,000 channels – and no guide to help you find a useful one.
Expensive. Visa cards accepted.
Liked — quality of furnishings
Disliked — service and comfort
Aqaba to Amman to Jerash
After breakfast in Aqaba, drive to Amman for a city tour. Then continue to Jerash.
Jerash main tourist information website:
http://www.tourism.jo/HistoricalSites/jerash.asp
Olive Branch Resort, Jerash, Websites:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293988-d1027601-Reviews-The_Olive_Branch-Jerash.html
http://www.olivebranch.com.jo/about_us/about_us.html
Olive Branch Resort O/N
We spend three nights in this hotel.
TripAdvisor reviews for the Olive Branch Resort, Jerash
“oscar0734” declares “Avoid the Olive Branch”
England
Apr 27, 2008
Really poor and disappointing. The room was passable but we were the only people staying there and were served by a "skeleton" staff. The owner left us (and we were the only two staying!) to some youths that couldn't cook. We were given a menu to look at and after about 1/2 hour we went walkabout to see where the staff had gone. The filthy state of one of the adjacent kitchen areas was appalling. The breakfast was inedible. We stayed only one out of the two nights booked and were delighted to escape. It was such a nice location but so far from anywhere! There is no escape.
Liked — Nice Views
Disliked — Deserted
“Shauny A” says “Great views and peaceful setting”
Preston, United Kingdom
Mar 31, 2008
The hotel is located atop a hill affording great reviews of the rolling countryside. Being situated in a rural location it is quiet. Our room was fairly large with a balcony overlooking the valley below. The rooms are bright and modern in style. The hotel provided an evening buffet meal for our tour party which was of a good standard. The hotel has a bar serving alcohol. The breakfast was of a reasonable standard. My only complaint was a lack of water in the bathroom in the morning. I guess we'd used all the hot water the night before. Overall I'd recommend this hotel.
Liked — the views and peaceful rural surroundings.
Disliked — lack of water in the morning.
