A Place Like Home Apartamenty Witosa

Good
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
  : What we liked the most was the view. We stayed in the east-facing flat 81 on the 11th floor, with the view all the way to the sea. The balcony and the flat were cool in the afternoon even during the heatwave, and the little table and chairs on the balcony were perfect for meals. The location was perfect for us, as my family whom we were visiting live just across the road. It was also ideal for avoiding the crowds and noise of the Dominican Fair in the Old Town, and of course it's just a 10 minutes' tram ride to the Old Town should you want to go there. However, if I was just a tourist visiting at a different time of year and not needing to be close to my family, I'd rather opt for an apartment in the Old Town itself for sightseeing purposes - although the Gdansk Chelm district where the flat is located is great for families as there are lots of playgrounds around. The flat itself is clean and pleasant, furnished in a simple but neat IKEA style, with all the essentials - the washing machine (with washing powder supplied) and drying rack came particularly useful. The bathroom is small and basic and not spectacular but is clean and does the job nicely - the shower always has hot water and great water pressure. The free wifi was fast and faultless, even with all four of us streaming stuff, doing online working and using multiple devices.
  : The biggest problem in the flat, which affected our stay quite a lot, is the lack of black-out blinds or curtains in the bedroom and in the living room (there were four of us, so we used both rooms for sleeping in). As I said, it's an east-facing flat, so beige gauzy curtains don't do the trick - we got woken up at 5am in a completely bright room; by 5:30am the sun was shining straight into our eyes. We sorted it out by ordering takeaway pizzas and sticking the boxes to the windows to darken them - it sort of worked but it's not an ideal solution in a flat whose main attraction are beautiful views. Otherwise sleepmasks are a must, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Please sort the blackout blinds out! Another thing that needs improving is the common access area to flats 79-81, which at the moment has some dirty and patchy wall paint and just looks messy (like the whole tired staircase in the block); a lick of paint would help enormously. Hand-written and missing flat numbers and flimsy doors of assorted styles just look cheap and unwelcoming. I also didn't like the fact that access to the flats is just via door codes, and there's no way you can lock it from the inside. In theory, anyone who knows the code can walk straight into the flat day or night. The doors are very flimsy, and you can hear anything that's going on next door. One night we had very rowdy people renting flat 79 opposite; I got woken up by banging at the door at 4am by a guy wearing just underwear who was apparently locked out of his room by his drunken mates and was banging at the door, swearing and shouting for over an hour. It sounded like he was banging at our door. Not a pleasant experience. A more solid door with an indoor lock would partly solve the problem. In other words, it's a very nice flat, and I'd be happy to be back, but I wouldn't be coming back until it has blackout blinds and more solid lockable doors.