I had the pleasure of staying at the Bastion Hotel in Zoetermeer for about two weeks for business…read more The room is exactly how you see it in the pictures: A very utilitarian room. But what makes this hotel stand out is the service. I had several out of the ordinary problems and the staff was quick to fix. It is about a mile to walk to the nearest restaurant (not counting McDonalds) so I took most of my meals at the restaurant at the hotel. Food was good and priced okay. They vary the menu a bit so I could have a variety of food. I like to eat a lot of vegetables so they would just bring me a big bowl of the daily vegetable with my main course.
Here are some tips on getting to the hotel from Schiphol:
1) Buy a ticket from the train kiosk to "Zoetermeer Oust" (Zoetermeer East). Do not confuse it with just plain Zoetermeer.
2) Go down the stairs to the train and take the train to "Den Haag Centraal" (The Haag Central). Do not confuse it with other Den Haag trains. The train stops at Den Haag Centraal, so it is easy to know when to get off. There are express trains and non-express; the express only saves about 15 minutes, so it is not worth waiting for.
3) Once off the train in Den Haag Centraal, then look for the preprinted posters with the trains schedules. The schedules are listed by time, so you will just have to scan thru them looking for "Zoetermeer Oust". Note the track number.
4) Go to the track number and confirm you are getting on the right train by patiently waiting for the monitor to show Zoetermeer Oust. Jump on the train by pressing the green button to open the train door.
5) It is less than a mile walk to the hotel from the train station. It is not worth taking bus as the bus stop is pretty far from the hotel. You can not expect to hale a cab so be prepared to walk. If you can not walk very far then you should take a taxi from Den Haag or have a phone number for a taxi cab company handy. It is confusing on how to walk. There are two routes:
a) walk west to get out of the station, then north to go under the big highway, then east along the highway until you come to a pedestrian underpass under the same highway, then under the underpass and continue west. You will see the hotel at this time.
b) walk east to get out of the station and take a stairway over the train. This is the shorter route but requires climbing steep stairs. Then walk east until you get to the hotel.
To get back to the train reverse those steps, but be forewarned that that reversing steps b will require you to already have a ticket as the west entrance does not have a ticket kiosk.
Word of caution: Google maps will have you walk along the road that parallels the track. This is not safe as there is no foot path.
The hotel website refers to taking a "sprinter". A sprinter is a commuter train that makes all the stops along the way. This is a potential point of confusion because sprinter is also a bus from Mercedes.
