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Milan is home to one of the best known Hyatts in the world, the Park Hyatt Milan, but the city is also home to a second, much less heralded Hyatt property as well – the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale – which sits approximately 1.5 miles (2.5km) to the NW of the Park Hyatt.
Earlier this year, I took the opportunity to combine a look at the new-ish ITA Airways A220 aircraft (review coming soon) with a visit to the Hyatt Centric Milan to see if the property offers World of Hyatt fans a good (and considerably more affordable) alternative to the famous Park Hyatt. This is a review of that stay.
The admin
- Length of stay: 1 night
- Actual cost of stay: €187/~$215 (including taxes)
- Cost of the stay in points (had I booked with points): 17,000 (cat. 5 – off-peak)
- Elite status at time of stay: Hyatt Globalist
- Points earned from the booking: 1,035
- Upgrade instruments used: None
- Room booked: 1 King Bed
- Room received: Terrace Suite
- Upgraded: Yes
Location & getting there
The Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale is located in the “Central Station” area of Milan a little northeast of the city center.
If you’re traveling from Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) and wish to travel into the city by public transport, you can take the Terravision bus service (at the time of writing, this runs every 30 minutes and costs €10) or the train/metro and both will deliver you to Milan Central Station which is a ~10-minute walk away from the hotel.
If you’re traveling from Milan Linate Airport (LIN) and wish to travel into the city by public transport, you can take the local bus service, Autostradale, (at the time of writing, this runs every hour minutes and costs €5) which will deliver you to Milan Central Station (~10 minutes walk from the hotel), or the train/metro to Repubblica Station (you’ll probably have to change train lines at Dateo station) and this will leave you with a ~7-minute walk to the hotel.
The hotel is well connected to the very heart of Milan by both bus and subway services, but if you’d like a bit of exercise and the weather is cooperating, it’s a pleasant 30 – 35 minute walk from the hotel to the main cathedral (the Duomo) and from there, a lot of Milan’s more visited areas and attractions are close by.
On this occasion, I arrived into Milan Linate Airport, and after checking what an Uber to the Hyatt Centric cost (€30) …
… I decided to use the subway/train network and my legs to get to the hotel.
I took the M4 line from Linate to Dateo Station where I changed to the S13 line which took me to Repubblica Station.
Even though I stopped between the station and the hotel to take pictures and despite confusing myself a couple of times, it only took me about 45 minutes to get to the Hyatt Centric Milan from the moment I exited the arrivals hall at Linate.
The upgrade
As I almost always do, I had booked the cheapest room available at the Hyatt Centric Milan for this stay, but a couple of days before I was due to arrive, the Hyatt app showed that I had been upgraded to one of the property’s Terrace Suites.
The Terrace Suites (I think there’s more than one) are located on the 12th floor and are the second highest room category that the Hyatt Centric Milan offers, so this was (by far) the biggest complimentary upgrade that I’ve received in a while.
The lobby & check-in
The building in which the Hyatt Centric Milan sits is a modern one and isn’t particularly chic or attractive and it can appear very grey when the skies are overcast and full of rain.
Once you’re inside, however, things brighten up, and the lobby feels welcoming.
Equally welcoming are the staff, and the front desk manager who checked me in (swiftly) was very helpful with tips for what areas to visit and what restaurants to consider on this very short stay.
The Terrace Suite
The Terrace Suites are on the 12th floor of the hotel and the first thing I noticed as I exited the elevators is that the hallways are all quite short and quite dark.
The feeling of darkness continued into the suite and while this probably had something to do with the dark grey clouds that were hanging over Milan at the time, it also had a lot to do with the dark wood decor.
Note: A lot of the images that follow have been brightened up to allow you to see what the inside of the suite looks like. In reality and outside of a sunny day, the room will seem a lot darker.
This was the view that greeted me as I entered the suite:
Immediately through the door and on the left is a desk with a very large lamp alongside the room’s coffee maker, cups and complimentary water.
And directly ahead is a narrow sitting area (with sofa) that’s divided from the sleeping area by a partial wall on which there’s a flat screen TV.
The sleeping area can be accessed through gaps in the wall on either side of the TV.
The sleeping area features a king size bed, a flat screen TV (on the dividing wall) and a huge closet with drawers.
I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in a room of this size that has so much closet space.
Within the closet you’ll find some basic amenities, the in-room safe, and a mini bar with a few complimentary drinks inside (a nice touch).
There are no ceiling lights or standing lights in the sleeping area, just two flexible reading lights positioned on the shelving behind the bed alongside a dim mood light that’s built into the shelving.
On bright days, this may be fine as the suite has floor to ceiling windows running down one side, but on overcast days and at night, the lack of lighting here is sub-optimal.
There are EU-style 2-pin power outlets on both sides of the bed built into the headboard/shelving …
… and there’s a single USB-A port on each side of the bed embedded among the light switches which are partially obscured by the bed’s pillows.
The ensuite bathroom is behind the bed and although it has two entrances (one on each side of the bed), you can’t pass through the bathroom from once side to the other because the shower cubicle is in the way.
If you pass through the left door to the bathroom, you enter the area with a nice double vanity unit and the entrance to the shower cubicle.
You’ll find a rain shower and regular shower in the shower cubicle, and the full size toiletries are by “BeeKind”.
On the other side of the bathroom (accessed through the door to the right of the bed) is where you’ll find the toilet, a bidet, a washbasin, and a view though the shower cubicle to the other side of the bathroom.
The bathroom is very nice, but this suite’s biggest selling point sits just outside … literally.
The Terrace Suite gets its name from the outside terrace which runs the length of the suite and, in this case, faces east.
On a nice day this will probably be a good place to relax and to take in some Milanese sunshine (especially in the mornings), but the view isn’t going to win any prizes.
Most of Milan’s beautiful street and buildings lie to the south of the Hyatt Centric, so the view eastwards doesn’t offer much … but it’s still very nice to have some outside space.
Overall, the Terrace suite gives me mixed feelings (I’m leaving aside the fact that this was a complimentary upgrade as I can’t allow that to alter my view).
On the positive side of things, the room feels and looks modern, the bathroom is very nice, the bed is both large and comfortable, and it’s great to have access to an outdoor terrace.
On the negative side of things, however, the room can feel very dark and the lack of lighting combined with the dark decor doesn’t work very well when it’s not beautifully sunny outside.
Also, the suite’s sitting area can seem a little pointless thanks to the fact that it’s very narrow and I can’t imagine many people choosing to sit in this area for any extended period of time.
Sure, as a place to briefly sit down to put on your shoes or as a place to wait for a few minutes as you wait for your partner to get ready to go out, it’s probably fine. But who’s going to sit here to watch a TV that’s just a few feet away? And who’s going to choose this area rather than the sleeping area to catch up on some reading or to mindlessly scroll through some reels?
The honest truth is that the room would probably be better without the dividing wall, but as it’s that wall that makes this a “suite” and not a “room”, I suspect that’s why the wall is there.
I should also add that, confusingly, the room contains quite a few things that look like switches but which serve no obvious function.
A good example can be found by the entrance of the room where there are two panels.
The upper panel has 3 bits of plastic that look like switches but which cannot be depressed and the bottom panel has only one moveable switch which controls the power to the room, so what’s the point of these?!
Anyway …
I think the best way to sum up my thoughts on the Hyatt Centric Milan Terrace Suite is to say that while having an outside terrace can definitely be a lovely thing to have access to, if I was booking a suite at this property with my own money I’d take a pass on this one and book a Premium Suite instead.
The Premium Suites are found on floors 7 – 11 and while they don’t have a terrace (obviously!), their layout looks more practical and on the dates that I’ve checked, they’ve always been considerably cheaper.
Note: I haven’t viewed a Premium Suite, so this is just my opinion based on the Terrace Suite I stayed in and the information I found online about the Premium Suite.
Dining & breakfast
The hotel’s restaurant is located on the 4th floor and is called “Rivington“.
This is how the property describes it:
“Rivington restaurant is a love letter to New York City, imbued with Milan flair, that promises a culinary and sensory journey inspired by the classic restaurants of Manhattan. Great attention is given to the art of the American craft cocktail, which in New York tradition is the focal point of the start of any great meal.”
And this is what the menu looked like at the time of my visit:
And here’s a link to the latest menu.
Rivington is divided into two very distinct areas. The first area (to the right as you enter) is decorated in the style of a regular restaurant (somewhere you’d enjoy lunch or dinner).
The second side (to the left as you walk in) looks and feels much more like a cafe/diner than a fine dining establishment.
It’s in this part that breakfast is served (although I believe the more upscale looking area is used as an overflow space when the hotel is busy).
I didn’t take the opportunity to eat dinner at the Hyatt as I was far more interested in trying out one of the local restaurants the front desk manager had recommended, but I did have breakfast there on my one and only morning in Milan.
Breakfast is predominantly a hot & cold buffet offering the usual items we now see across Europe and the US (although the quality of the food was noticeably better than what passes for food at a lot of US buffet breakfasts).
As well as helping yourself to the buffet, you can have eggs ordered to your liking or can order an omelette with your chosen fillings and the coffee is made to order (there isn’t a coffee machine in sight).
On the whole, the buffet offering was good, and the omelet that I ordered was delicious – whoever cooked it knew what they were doing and it clearly hadn’t spent an age under a heat lamp before it was placed in front of me.
Bars
The Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale has two bars.
The first is a lobby bar called “Intermezzo” which is open Tuesday to Saturday between 15:30 and 00:00 (this was closed during my visit).
And the second bar is “Organics SkyGarden @Cielo” which is located on the top floor of the property (13th).
This bar’s big selling points is its indoor/outdoor seating and its views across Milan, but as I was only there for one evening and as the weather on that evening was being less than cooperative, only indoor seating was available.
This bar is open between 18:00 and 00:00 Tuesday through Saturday and between 15:30 and 00:00 on Sundays and Mondays. A small food menu is offered daily between 19:30 and 22:30 (click for the latest menu).
Gym
When it comes to the hotel’s gym/fitness center, there isn’t much to say.
You’ll find it two floors below ground level (so it’s lacking any natural light) and it’s small. It’s also quite well equipped (for a gym of this size).
If you need a quick workout, this will probably do a job for you, but there’s nothing about this gym that’s going to encourage anyone to spend more time than they have to in here.
It’s functional and that’s about it.
Final thoughts
One of the main reasons I wanted to check out the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale was to see if it offered World of Hyatt members a good-value option in this expensive city and I came away thinking that it does and that I’d happily visit again.
As I’ve already said, I wouldn’t pay for a Terrace Suite on a future visit as I don’t think that’s where the value is to be had – if you need a suite, a Premium Suite would probably be the one to go for – but with friendly staff, an acceptable location (it’s not central, but it’s relatively easy to get to all the major sights from the hotel), a nice rooftop bar, and reasonable room rates, the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale is definitely worth considering if you’re planning a visit to the area.
Related (reviews of other Hyatt properties in Europe):
- Review: Park Hyatt London River Thames (a high-end Hyatt in the wrong location)
- Great Scotland Yard Hotel London review (Hyatt Unbound Collection)
- Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars review
- Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill review (Regency Suite)
- Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment review
- Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport review
- Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin review
