On our latest visit to Bangkok we took the opportunity to check out a serviced apartment in Soi 11 – Citadines, just across the road from the venerable Federal Hotel. It’s quite a long trek into the soi – probably a good 500 metres from Sukhumvit Road, and 150 metres further in than the last serviced apartment we tried at the Grand President. They do offer a complimentary tuk-tuk to Nana BTS station between 0700 and 2000, though we never used it.

We booked a studio apartment, their smallest and cheapest offering (and cheaper still thanks to Agoda). Although it was their smallest, we reckoned it would be spacious enough – 30 square metres sounded reasonably generous.

Checking in was straightforward. We were in quite a hurry so nipped in to our apartment just long enough to dump our hand-luggage – we didn’t hang around to wait for the other bags to be delivered. Nevertheless, they arrived safely while we were out.

Our first impression was that, yes, the apartment was spacious enough for the price. Unfortunately, it was also immediately evident that the space wasn’t used as well as it might have been – something that became more and more difficult to ignore as our stay wore on.

The bed was described on Agoda as queen-sized. However, by modern standards it was far too small for two adults to sleep comfortably in (think of the tiny bed Eric and Ernie used to appear in on The Morecambe and Wise Show), although there was enough space in the sleeping area to accommodate a larger bed if they’d wanted to.

Ample space was given over to bathroom facilities. And yet there was a tiny, silly bath-with-shower, probably the smallest bathtub we’ve ever seen that didn’t have to be filled with hot water from a kettle. It had a good, powerful shower with a large head – almost large enough to be described as a rainshower – inside the bath. But it’s such a nuisance having to clamber in and out of a bath just to get a shower. The space would have been better used with a shower cubicle and a washbasin instead.

As it was, a large amount of space was devoted to a fancy washbasin outside of the WC/bath/shower room. On the other hand, there was no workspace to speak of in the kitchenette. A redesign could have provided a much more sensible use of the compact space.

The facilities were all clean and modern – as they should be, the Citadines properties are all new. There was a nice big wall-mounted flat screen TV and DVD player which could be run along tracks so you could watch from the sitting area or the bed.

There was supposed to be free WiFi throughout. Bizarrely, though, our room appeared to be in a black spot – we could make a connection in the lobby or the corridor on our floor, but lost it when we were in our room, so often had to fall back on the LAN cable. Even after the technician set up a WiFi repeater in our room, it would only work for a couple of hours or so before failing again – we had to keep deleting the connection and setting it up afresh.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

All in all, it wasn’t bad for the price but the problems with the WiFi, the shower inside the bath, and the silly little bed put us off so it’s unlikely we would return. This would be an OK place for a businessperson, but not recommended for a couple on holiday.

79 Sisowath Quay
Phnom Penh
+855-77-503-144

The California had changed location and moved north along Sisowath Quay since we last stayed there in 2008, but the friendly and helpful atmosphere was the same. This is the best place to hang out in Phnom Penh if you want to meet expats and travellers and, of course, benefit from the experience and wisdom of Jim, the proprietor.

Downstairs there is a large well-stocked bar and a free pool table. It’s a spacious place so even though it can get a little busy at peak times there’s plenty of room to relax. If you sit at the bar, you can be sure of meeting some interesting characters.

Whilst not billing itself as being accessible for disabled people, it would be possible for a wheelchair user to eat, drink and go to the toilet. (So many places let you eat and drink but have completely inaccessible toilets.) In the California, there’s a small ramp up to the WC cubicles and both have extra-wide doors.

Upstairs (no lifts) consists of 10 guestrooms, all beautifully clean and nicely furnished. It’s fair to say the standard rooms are “compact” but the space has been put to good use and we were very comfortable there. We had hoped to book a deluxe room but had left it a bit late and the deluxe rooms were already fully booked. Jim therefore put us in the best standard room, which we were very happy with.

I can’t imagine finding anything better for the price. ($27-$35 per room per night.) It’s in a great location, clean and comfortable, and the bar is a lot of fun. We were a little bit surprised when we received our bill at the end of our stay. The staff member asked if we were shocked because it was so much, but that wasn’t the case at all. Quite the opposite – we had expected it to be more, so that was a nice surprise.

There’s a good menu of breakfasts (served all day), Mexican food, some Western favourites and Khmer food. The food is very reasonably priced and tasty. We ate there several times.

There is free WiFi throughout, in the bar and in the rooms. Smoking is allowed.

To sum up, the California will be our first choice of where to stay when we next visit Phnom Penh. Highly recommended!

Find out more on their website:
http://www.cafecaliforniaphnompenh.com/

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The FCC’s website describes it as a “boutique hotel” offering “refined luxury, casual elegance”.

I’ve never been entirely sure what really defines a boutique hotel. Perhaps it’s more easily defined in terms of what it isn’t – not a chain, not uniform, not large, not cheap. On those counts, the FCC certainly qualifies. There are other FCCs, in Phnom Penh (the earliest – it was the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, hence the name) and Rangoon, but three properties hardly constitutes a chain, and they’re each distinctive. As for the size, there are just 31 rooms and suites; and the room rate is just over £110 a night. (However, we booked through Agoda, who were offering four nights for the price of three; and the room rate does include breakfast – of which more below.)

Arriving and checking in was straightforward – helped, of course, by the fact that even at the leisurely pace of Cambodian traffic the airport is only about a quarter of an hour’s drive from the town centre. After our welcome drink – a refreshing cold herbal brew – we were shown to the room.

The first impression we had of the room was how small it seemed. The total space available is 36 square metres, which is a reasonable size; but the bed seemed to fill most of the space, and the desk most of the rest of that. And there was only one chair, which meant that I had to sit on the bed over my netbook while Kay lorded it at the desk with her laptop. (WiFi is available throughout the FCC and is free.)

However, the bathroom is quite generously sized, and seems to serve as a dressing-room too (the wardrobes are in it, including the safe). The toiletries were good quality, too, although the shampoo and shower gel came in little pottery bottles that were refilled every day, rather than the small plastic bottles you can take home to decorate your own bathroom. On the downside, the shower (which was a rain shower) was in the ceiling above the bathtub rather than a separate cubicle. One curiosity was that the bath tap didn’t have a spout. Instead the water came out of a recess in the slate-tiled wall, just above the tub – at first glance, it looked like some kind of recessed soap dish, except that it sloped away from the wall. Strange!

We ate every meal at the FCC. (This was partly dictated by the fact that Kay had injured her ankle just a few hours after our arrival and was effectively confined to a wheelchair and thus to the hotel for the length of our stay – you can read more about this on our sister site, Can Do Can Go!.) Room service is available 24 hours a day and is no more expensive than ordering food at the restaurant, which is very reasonably priced itself. The quality of the food is generally very high.

Breakfast is included in the room rate and can be eaten either in your room from 04:30 to 10:30, or in the restaurant from 07:30 to 10:30. (The early start can be explained by the fact that many tourists choose to visit the Angkor complex at dawn to watch the sun rising over the temples.) The servings are generous to say the least; we were caught out by this on our first day as we’d ordered one toasted banana bread from the Continental options (for Kay) and one poached egg “Benedict” from the hot options (for me). They brought us two servings of each! Put it this way – we didn’t bother with lunch at all during our stay. Our only gripe would be that the poached eggs were sometimes too cold when delivered to the room – a great pity, as otherwise they looked as if they would have been delicious (and they certainly were when we ate them at the restaurant).

The staff were pleasant and very helpful. This proved invaluable when Kay injured her ankle – apart from kindly offering Tiger balm to try to help ease the pain (unnecessary; we’d already sourced some ice from a nearby petrol station shop), they also managed to locate a wheelchair somewhere in the city and arranged the hire for us. And when we asked for information about the organisation they’d hired it from, they immediately produced a leaflet from the NGO concerned for us to keep.

The bar and restaurant were pleasant enough places to sit and drink or eat at, with an ornamental pool separating the bar area from the restaurant’s ground floor. (I saw the upper floor briefly – it looked like a comfortable place to eat. But of course wheelchairs can’t go up stairs, and there was no lift.) Although the bar’s billed as staying open until midnight, there didn’t seem to be anything much doing after about ten o’clock, and the staff had virtually shut the place by eleven – a bit of a downer if you’re wandering in after an evening out and fancy sitting down for a pleasant drink outside.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5
It’s not particularly cheap, but it’s a nice quiet place to stay, with friendly staff and good food. We’re very likely to go back!