The 4 star Pribson Hotel in Amritsar - near to the Golden Temple and Wagah Border
Updated: Apr 7
In what was to be our last accommodation in India, we stay at the Pribson Hotel in Amritsar, conveniently located just 15 minutes away from the famous Golden Temple. We had a great stay here and enjoyed the food, ambience and hospitality. This hotel is fairly new and offers great sized rooms along with excellent service and good food.
We always knew that this was one of the more 'bougie' hotels on our itinerary and it certainly did not disappoint. There are a few small not-so-important things that perhaps need to improve, such as better WiFi, cleaner linens and a better food range. But these are minor concerns, and do not do enough to push this out of the four star range for India. Overall we had a really good stay and we hope this review will convince you to try it too.
Thank you for stopping by, and a warm welcome to our India series here on Jenn & Leon Travel Blog. We had always wanted to visit this country, officially the 7th oldest in the world, and not only was the time finally upon us, but it came with our good friends and fellow Youtuber's Jackson and Marjo!
If you missed our earlier posts and would like to catch up, head over to our dedicated INDIA page or look out for the links in this blog.
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Our Pribson Hotel highlights
Throughout our time in India one of the things we were most looking forward to was this very trip to Amritsar, in the main to see the Wagah Border Crossing Ceremony and the Golden Temple. The Pribson Hotel ticks all the boxes on that front, providing transport services to both places, with them being 45 and 15 minutes away respectively. Plus it is a fantastic cost too for a 4 star hotel! Let's take a closer look...
Jump to where you want to be
⪢ The location: the Pribson Hotel in Amritsar
There are a lot of places to see in Amritsar, and even though we only got to see one of them in the end, we wanted to list some of the options here. Just to show you how ideal the location of the Pribson is! All times refer to a taxi or rickshaw.
● 10 minutes away from the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh, Durgiana Temple, Gobindgarh Fort, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama and Amritsar Junction Railway Station.
● 20 minutes away from Sadda Pind.
● 45 minutes away from the Wagah Border.
● Local Transport: nearest Bus Stand 5 minutes, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport 30 minutes.
The hotel can accommodate most excursions, arranging transport, tickets and a personal driver if need be. For example when we went to the Wagah Border, our driver waited almost 3 hours for us.
⪢ The cost
With Canada and Britain being our home countries, the price per night at $59 cad is an absolute steal! This being India though, we do see this on the higher side of what you can get. The hotel does do enough to justify the price and its rating, yet there are many more in Amritsar that we looked at that offer a similar standard for more around the $40 mark.
Per night cost: $59 CAD / $43.47 USD / £34.47
4 night cost: $236 CAD / $173.83 USD / £137.94
** prices quoted are at time of writing (April 2024) and are subject to change at any time. Please check the official website for up-to-date information.
⪢ The Rooftop Terrace
Even though the hotel has been open for over 18 months, it is still a work in progress. As we were not told about it, we had no idea there was a rooftop terrace until our third day here! As we said though, parts of it are still under construction so it is not up to all that much.
The view is really nice though, giving you a good extended view of the city from 3 different angles. As the hotel is opposite an overpass, it is very loud up here. It's nice to watch the traffic go by though, catch some sun and pass a bit of time. No doubt this area will continue to improve though, starting with some seating hopefully!
⪢ Inside the Pribson Hotel
The hotel has been furnished really nicely and the lobby and hallways are pretty pristine when it comes to decorating and cleaning standards. It is really bright and open when you come into the building, and there are plenty of places to sit and relax.
We could sense the young age here with everything feeling fresh and new. There is a high standard and it certainly gives off a four-star vibe!
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One Udaipur's highest rated hostels, Dreamyard offers fantastic views on Lake Pichola, along with great service and traditional Indian decor.
The Food at Pribson Hotel
So of course, despite feeling a lot better in Udaipur, our stomach issues (see pretty much all of our previous posts) came back to haunt us here in Amritsar, albeit far milder than before. We managed to add a bit more variety into our food choices though thankfully, which was something we were very much looking forward to. We were stopped in our tracks on the second day however, and ended up sticking to eggs and toast, along with plain maggi (noodles).
The menu does seem fairly limited, and very similar to much of what we have seen in other hotels. The restaurant is located on the ground floor, and room service is also available. The dinner menu is bigger than the breakfast one (below), and offers a mix of Indian and Chinese cuisine.
From what we tried, we cannot complain about the food. Taste-wise it was good, although it often came lukewarm when ordered as room service, which is a shame. There are a few things to be careful of when ordering to your room, in particular around drinks, whereby there are different sizes and charges which got confused several times.
⪢ Make a note
We were not provided with a bill on ordering, and these are all kept and collated at the front desk. We would definitely advise keeping a close eye on your tab, if not clearing it daily. Be sure to ask for the itemized bills, as we found that at first we were just given a plain sheet with the total value and therefore could not see exactly what we were paying for. We did have a fair few incorrect charges, water being one of them, which the manager kindly removed after we informed him of the errors.
Our Room at the Pribson Hotel
There are four room choices available, the standard, deluxe, premium club and Pribson suite. We had a standard double booked, but we were kindly upgraded to the deluxe suite.
The room was nicely decorated and fairly modern. It was a comfortable place to spend time in, especially given that we weren't up to going out much with our bathroom needs. The bed was not spectacular but fairly comfortable. It was a little on the firm side, and also the sheets had a couple of stains on them (not fresh ones thank goodness). But it did have good pillows, which can always be a saving grace!
The room comes with a kettle, TV and air conditioning. We seldom use TV's but they are always good to have, especially if you want to cast to a bigger screen (we mainly stream on our laptops).
The staff were a little patchy on replacing the tea and coffee but we could easily get more when we needed. Perhaps the weirdest thing, was that the provided plastic cups kept splitting at the bottom. We say 'kept' because we actually went through two of them, and Jackson and Marjo did too. We do drink a lot of coffee, apparently enough to break cups!
⪢ The bathroom
The true test of any bathroom is its cleanliness of course, but also its space, lighting, hot water and water pressure (for us anyway). This one excelled on that front; the pressure in the shower was so strong it was practically like a massage. The water was on the more warm side, but still ok. Lighting was just fine and overall the bathroom is a very nice space.
There are some basic supplies provided such as toothpaste, shampoo and bodywash, although bizarrely no hand soap. There was also no hair dryer, although we think we could have asked for one.
⪢ A bit scruffy, and terrible towels!
We must add that despite its young age our room was a little scuffed in places, with markings on the walls and furniture fraying a little at the edges. We also had a problem with the bath towels we were given, both of which had big stains on them. We asked for replacements, only for them to come with stains too. This is definitely an issue for the hotel, and we did raise this to profuse apologies to the manager. Hopefully this has been resolved now!
Pribson Hotel Hotel Facilities
There are not a great deal of services to talk about here, so if you are looking for a pool or gym, you may be disappointed. It does look like there is more work happening towards to the upper floors so more could be added in the future.
For now, you will have to make do with a multi-cuisine restaurant and the room service. We did order a fair bit of room service, although we did eat downstairs in the morning a few times. The restaurant is a really nice space, clean and tidy, and the servers are friendly and helpful. The same can be said of the room service team, although they were a tad slow on occasion, and kept forgetting drinks (or saying they were sold out, and not removing them from the bill).
Pribson Hotel Services
The Pribson Hotel offers a number of key services including:
● 24 hour concierge
● Front door security + CCTV
● Elevator
● Foreign Exchange Facility
● Doctor on Call (how cool is this?!)
● Cloak Room / Baggage Storage
● Laundry
● Central Air-conditioning
● Airport transfer
● Excursions (such as the Golden Temple & Wagah Border)
All major Credit Cards are accepted too, which is very handy given there are not many ATM's nearby
⪢ Make a note
When it comes to laundry, typically most of us would never consider hotel services because of their quite frankly, exorbitant costs. That being said, in India however, prices are fairly reasonable and given our full-time travel limited wardrobes, and lack of laundry facilities in general, we did do this in our homestay back in Jaipur.
It was a disaster though, paying $10 for all of our clothes to come back damp and smelling pretty bad. We complained and found out that as per 'custom' clothes are usually washed in the nearest body of water. Nearest body of what now?! No thanks!
Needless to say we did not use the service at the Pribson, but we did read a review of someone who did, and they complained that their clothes came back damp and smelly... go figure.
How to find the Pribson Hotel in Amritsar
The Pribson Hotel is as close to the centre of the city as you can get, and is easily accessible for taxis and rickshaws. There is ample parking available, and the hotel can service transport and airport needs efficiently. We did also order a Grab from here, which found the Pribson easily.
⪢ Contact Information
Address: 46-Hide Market, Chowk, Grand Trunk Rd, opp. Post Office, Hussainpura, Amritsar, Punjab 143001, India
Contact Number: +91 9878 187 818
Opening times (manned concierge): 24 hours
Website: thepribsonhotel.com
Check-in: 14:00 / Check out: 12:00
Save for later: All Seasons Homestay: A beautiful and convenient Jaipur hotel
A 3-star homestay that really feels like so much more! This beautiful hotel is in a great location and is themed on the six seasons in India.
Our Pribson Hotel experience ratings
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
The Pribson Hotel certainly stands out as a good 4 out of 5, although there are some improvements that are needed before we could give it a clean sweep. The service is excellent here and the staff are really friendly. It is an excellent location and is a good price with the rooms nice and spacious, and the hotel itself very modern and clean in the common areas.
Downsides for us were the dirty towels (several times), lack of complimentary supplies and the under-developed rooftop. The food could improve too, but overall, we would definitely recommend the Pribson Hotel.
✓ Cleanliness: 3/5
The towel stains are a problem and it seemed to be that all of the towels (that we were provided anyway) should have been replaced a long time ago. This is one of the basics so despite the good standards of the hotel overall, this was a bit of an own goal.
✓ Cost & Value for money: 4/5
✓ Food & Drink: 3/5
✓ Location & Security: 5/5
✓ Service: 5/5
Coming up: Our final adventure in India, the incredible Wagah Border Crossing
Genuinely one of the standout excursions of all of our travels, the Wagah Border Crossing is a place like no other! Here, every day for a mammoth 64 years, both India and their great rivals Pakistan conduct the Beating Retreat Ceremony.
The ceremony kicks off with a synchronized goose-stepping march by the soldiers. Think synchronized high kicks, stomps, and elaborate arm movements, all meant to impress and intimidate the other side. This isn't just a silent display, though. Verbal challenges and playful banter fly back and forth, adding to the electrifying energy of this place. Then comes the highlight: the flag-lowering ceremony. As the national flags of India and Pakistan are majestically lowered, the thousands in attendance erupt in cheers and patriotic chants.
While the ceremony might sound aggressive, it's important to remember its history. It began in 1959 as a goodwill gesture, and despite the political tensions between the nations, it continues to be a symbol of shared heritage and border discipline. For the locals, it's a source of immense pride and a way to connect with their cultural roots. For tourists, it's an unforgettable window into the complexities and nuances of India-Pakistan relations. Don't miss this post, the last in our India Series!
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