Hotels UK

With a side of France. :)
I'll chronicle here the hotels I stayed in for my trip to the UK, brief commentary, and leave the Googling to you.

Night one: Novotel St Pancras, London
After that ordeal that was the Relay For Life, we wanted to stay in a very comfortable hotel, and this is a very comfortable hotel. The bed was excellent, service excellent, location right next to the Kings Cross, Euston, and St Pancras rail stations.

Night two, three, four, five: Hotel Eiffel Park, Paris
This location just can't be beat in Paris, five minute walk to Rue Cler, fifteen to the Eiffel Tower (The majesty of that Ultimate Steampunk Edifice just can't be believed until you've been there and touched it.), metro stations all over the place with all the major sites of Paris within trivial reach, including Versailles. We booked a theme room, I loved it to pieces, except the mattress was living hell. I was fine, I'll sleep on bricks or eat anything not nailed down. Anyone who needs a soft mattress, however, will do what we did, and take the mat off the bench for an extra padded layer, or bring an air mattress, or run away screaming. That aside, the staff were helpful and informative, friendly, breakfasts were good, and every manner of service needed was within a stone's throw of the hotel. Everything you've heard about rude French is a lie, or something you bring with you.

Night six: Travelodge Kings Cross, London
A cheap rack for the night next to the train station we needed. A little grubby but not too bad. Helpful staff, serviceable for the night, breakfast is a zoo in the morning. You'll be lucky to get to the coffee machine.

Night seven, eight: Best Western Palace Inn, Inverness
Your basic Best Western attraction in a lovely location right on the river Ness, most services, and free wifi. (Woot!) I'd stay again.

Night nine, ten: Tingle Creek Hotel, Ebrusaig near Kyle of Lochalsh, and more famously, Eilean Donan Castle
Family run hotel with all that TLC, great locations a short drive away including Plockton, and a longer drive up to Portree on the Isle of Skye. Comfortable beds, limited TV channels, free wifi, attached pub. Nothing else in walking distance.

Night eleven: Falls of Lora Hotel, Connell (by Oban)
This was the most eccentric building I have ever laid eyes on. Classic Victorian building plus additions over the years, but the interior is overrun with curios and oddities and whatnots. (I loved it in so many ways.) Drawback being the hotel is entirely smoking allowed in the rooms. Bonus being, when we did get there they gave us three keys, stated the prices per person per room, and off we went to inspect them. One room had some pretty bad smoke odour. The other two weren't too bad at all. Some rooms just ventilate better than others, I suppose. Oh, and free wifi.

Night twelve: Holiday Inn Express, Greenock
We tried looking for something less corporate, but the hotels we did look at were houses of horror. A corporate hotel was just what we needed. Clean, decent.

Night thirteen: Premier Inn, South Warrington
This night was a horror night for hotels. Rushing from Scotland we bypassed Glasgow and made for Wales. Starting in Chester, and dredging all the way to Bangor along the lovely north coast of Wales, we saw carnivals, caravan parks, camp sites, and nothing but full hotels. In Bangor they even phoned local B&Bs from the Premier Inn there, but we ended up in a rout and fled back to East Chester, asked at the Premier in there, again a random find, and the night reception made a few phone calls, and found something in Warrington. Premier Inns are a 2 star chain of corporate hotels aimed at the business traveler. I say they're the best chain in the UK. Stuck? Head to a Premier Inn, if they don't have something, there are a dozen more within an hour's drive and a terminal in the lobby to do some searching. Which I did the following morning and found:

Night fourteen: Premier Inn, Swansea City Centre
Another well run inn. We found the bathroom not to our satisfaction and within five minutes we were moved across the hall by the very accommodating staff. Unbelievable they only charge 60 pounds a night for double.

Night fifteen, sixteen, seventeen: Rudloe Hall Hotel
I love this hotel so very very much.

Night eighteen, nineteen, twenty: Jolly Hotel, St Ermins
I was blown away at how gorgeous this hotel was from the outside and in the lobby. Pity I didn't put my suspicion alarms on full power when they right off the bat gave us a 'complimentary room upgrade'. I should have had a look at the room first, and then refused it even though I'd booked through my travel agent months in advance. The room stank to Hades of cigarette smoke. Now if they had told me what I was looking forward to right there at the desk before I'd signed all the papers, not just snuck it by me, I wouldn't have felt I could not trust the staff. That set the tone for the rest of the stay. The pedantic reception to asking to change rooms was additional insult. The next time I came back I put the little purple book of Premier Inns on the counter where it could be seen. Yup, they'd have a fresh room on a non-smoking floor for the following two days. Oh and Hai! The air conditioning crapped out in the middle of the night in that stinky room. :) The bed was comfy, though. Too bad the bed in the new room the next two days wasn't much better than the one in France. But I'm not all evil, I did inform the desk of the water leaking through the ceiling light in the bathroom over the tub. Some clown must have flooded the floor in the room above us on the second night. Location was fantastic in London, as good as the Eiffel Park was in Paris, but the building, lovely in the common areas, was such a gong show it was insane. Keep in mind I was at my wit's end at the end of the trip, spoiled by the best hotel in all the UK, and tired. But they really should have dealt a straight hand on the first check in. I might go back for a drink in the restaurant, but stay? Er, um, no. Where's the closest Premier again? Oh neat, four within walking distance.