HUP

A few minutes drive from Eindhoven, the HUP hotel is hidden in the middle of nowhere. But it knows how to reach to its audience. The “sportiest hotel in the Netherlands”, according to the hotel’s website, attracts guests with its sports facilities, fun look and little surprises at every corner…

When you enter the cul-de-sac where the HUP Hotel is located, you wonder if you are in the right place. The building has the look of an old hotel from the 90s. But this effect quickly fades when you walk through the doors and you don’t know where to look at. A huge slide lands in the hall next to the pool table, half-sphere swings spin around in slow motion, neon lights above the counter catch the eye… The place looks great! You immediately feel like exploring the place. And that’s just as well, because with the colourful carpet with its sports field-inspired pattern and the flashy coloured lifts, the youngest ones can’t stay put. Our girls ran off to discover the rooms.

Where do we sleep?

We opted for a large room (Club XXL), so that we could put the girls to bed and enjoy the evening in another room. The kitchenette also helps when travelling with a baby who does not have the same rhythm as us. The sporty mood is still there in the room. A net turns our table into a ping-pong table, motivational phrases are displayed in large letters on the walls, we store our things in lockers…

A large double bed is next to 4 beds that I want to call “bunk beds” (what would you call them? See middle photo below). The beds are soft and the duvets are warm. Maybe a bit too much when it’s Indian summer, but we won’t quibble.

What do we eat?

This is where we come to the downside of the experience. We did not fall in love with the hotel’s restaurants. The breakfast buffet is very complete (bread, fruit, pancakes, eggs, juice, coffee machine, cold cuts, cheese …), but not very qualitative. The bread is a bit dry, the pastries a bit overcooked, the juices a bit bland… Nothing terrible, but not enough to make you want to eat there for a week. The same goes for the evenings, everything is a bit too oily, bland, dry or soft (I’m referring to the fries, but you’re probably a bit picky when you’re Belgian…).

Beware, in a hotel so open to families, breakfast is taken by storm from 7am and the restaurant fills up between 6pm and 6.30pm. And since it’s the sportiest hotel in the country, you’ll see entire families in sportswear from the first service to the last.

What do we do?

First, we test all the activities in the hotel and there are a lot of them. Between the multi-sports hall (a basketball court, a miniature golf course, an area for practising shooting with a ball), the indoor swimming pool with its pool for the little ones (beware, the infusion time is limited to your child’s ability to stay in very hot water), the ball pool between two floors, the children’s cinema, the indoor games room (and not the least), the bowling alley … You’ll be able to spend the whole day inside!

But we managed to get out and do three visits! We loved discovering Strijp-S, the former Philipps factory district, now rehabilitated and very modern. We saw it in delightful sunshine, in the middle of Dutch Design Week, so we may be a little biased. But we really liked the place!

We visited Eindhoven, which is a nice little town. We came across a lovely children’s bookshop (any other children’s bookshop fans in the room?).

We went to the Dierenrijk to meet all kinds of animals and we were surprised by the size of the park. We were expecting something modest but it was more like a Plankendael, for those who know.

Our stay was a great experience. We enjoyed playing with our girls and taking advantage of all the facilities. On the other hand, we liked the place a little less than they did. We don’t miss the food, the decor is maybe a little too much and the hotel is a bit in the middle of nowhere, not quite in the countryside, not quite in the city… We are not really in a place that we can call made for families (because the parents are a bit left out), but we really enjoyed playing with our girls for a few days!

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