Tag Archives: hotel

Terasa U Prince (rooftop terrace), Prague, Czech Republic

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Restaurants and Bars, Travel News & Tips

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

The bars and restaurants that line the Old Town Square (Staroměstské nám.) are typically for tourists and usually over-priced. You should be able to find a 0.5l of Czech beer in the centre of Prague for 35Kč – on the square you could easily pay over 100Kč.

As a result, I’ve tended to avoid those places, including the Hotel U Prince. However, on Monday this week, I found myself sitting on their rooftop terrace drinking a ‘one for the road’ 115Kč 0.5l beer. And I do it again.

Hotel U Prince has street-level tables outside, opposite the town hall and astronomical clock. It’s easy to miss the hotel entrance that leads to what looked like a good cocktail bar (https://www.blackangelsbar.com/ but didn’t try yet) and then to a rooftop terrace bar and restaurant.

It was around 22.30 when we wandered into the hotel entrance. Disappointingly the elevator was out of order – or perhaps they just told us that on the basis that if we were too drunk to climb the stairs, we wouldn’t be welcome on the terrace!

The hotel reception desk looked like something out of the movie ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’.

Although the elevator would have been easier, we were able to see interesting parts of the hotel.

Several exhausting flights of stairs later and we found ourselves on the roof terrace. The terrace has a glass roof and heaters. The views to Prague Castle and the Old Town Square were amazing. We just had beer but the place also operates as a restaurant.

The terrace was almost empty and we wondered if this hidden gem was so hidden that nobody visited. We asked about weekends and our waitress said they were fully booked.

We vainly tried the elevator down button and then set about walking back down the stairs.

I’m sure I’ll be back and it’s also a great place to take friends who are visiting Prague – but only if the elevator is working.

Hotel U Prince
Staroměstské náměstí 29

Open daily:
11:00 – 23:30

management@hoteluprince.com
+420 737 261 842

https://www.terasauprince.com/terrace

Hilton Molino Stucky Hotel, Venice, Italy

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

For our two-night trip to Venice we chose the Hilton on Giudecca Island – just across the canal from the main city of Venice. The reasons for our choice:

  • Giudecca Island looked like a peaceful haven, away from the busy tourist area and with some good restaurants.
  • The additional benefits offered to HHonors Platinum card holders; upgraded room, lounge access, breakfast.

We landed at Venice Marco Polo airport and had pre-paid for return boat tickets (25 EUR per person) to Giudecca as part of the Venice Unica City Pass: https://www.veneziaunica.it/en/e-commerce/services

The walk from the airport to the quay is short and there are moving walkways.

There was a queue waiting to board our (Alilaguna Blue Line) boat. Boarding completed leaving several people still in front of us. So we had to wait maybe 20 minutes for the next boat. When you board the boat, you need to go down steps into the front or rear compartment – it would be difficult for anyone infirm or disabled to board. The boat left, still with many seats free, but with people left behind on the quayside.

The trip to Giudecca takes 1 hour and 40 minutes, stopping at several places along the way. We started to think about a private taxi for our return.

We were the only passengers left when the boat arrived at Giudecca – as close to the Hilton entrance as you can get.

There was a queue for check in and no priority line for HHonors members. The receptionist was really friendly, spoke to us in English and advised that we’d been upgraded to an Executive Room with view.

Our room was nicely appointed and had a great view.

There wasn’t the usual two complimentary bottles of water – although these were left the next morning. I would have preferred a dedicated shower rather than a bath with shower.

The Executive Lounge ‘Happy Hour’ was 5-7pm – quite an early start and finish compared to other Hiltons. The lounge is on the ground floor of the hotel and is a effectively a narrow corridor, separated from the bar area, with tables squeezed either side.

The food and drink selection was the worst I’ve ever experienced in a Hilton lounge; no strong alcohol like Whisky, Cognac, Vodka, a really poor food selection, the single hot choice was inedible fried mozzarella balls. The red wine was poor quality. The only positive thing was a small table with prosecco, soda water and Aperol where you could make yourself an Aperol Spritz cocktail.

Later, we decided to take a walk along the promenade (turn right as you leave the hotel entrance). The hotel looked majestic and beautifully illuminated.

Giudecca is a lovely peaceful island and we found an excellent restaurant called Majer.

The following day we headed to the Il Molino Restaurant for breakfast. The receptionist advised that breakfast wasn’t included until I explained that I was a Diamond member. We were seated, ordered coffee and went to the buffet. On our return, another couple had taken our table – our coffee was just arriving and there was some confusion until the couple decided to move.

The buffet was very good, although there wasn’t an omelette station.

In a corridor, just outside of the buffet room, I found two lonely mini-buffets; Arabic and Chinese. It was clear that nobody knew these existed.

I was initially excited until I found that there wasn’t anything of interest – the Chinese wasn’t dim sum, just fried rice.

We took the hotel shuttle boat to the main island – the hotel adds 7.50 EUR per person, per stay, for unlimited use of the shuttle. We were lucky to make it on board as there were more passengers waiting than could be accommodated (max. 39). I would have been pretty cross had we not been able to board, with a 40 minute wait for the next boat. The trip to San Marco took 15 minutes.

We had a wonderful day in Venice (review shortly) and returned on the 5pm shuttle – which we lucky to board as it was almost full.

One additional HHonors Diamond benefit was 2 hours access to the Spa. The hotel is huge and it was quite a walk through a labyrinth of corridors and stairs (in hotel slippers and bathrobes!) before we found the Spa. We really shouldn’t have bothered. There was a small Jacuzzi, a mixed wet steam sauna plus men- and women-only saunas. There was also a relaxation room with a few beds with water and tea available. I didn’t check on the gym.

We visited the Skyline Rooftop Bar. The rooftop pool was closed for maintenance work. The bar had two open-air terraces with good views.

On our second breakfast visit, the waitress asked if I would like an omelette or poached eggs – I asked if I could have Eggs Benedict and was delighted to find that I could. What arrived wasn’t a bad attempt, but couldn’t really be described as Eggs Benedict.

Checkout time was 11am – I hadn’t even realised and checked out just before noon. There was a queue for checkout.

We had decided to use our return Alilaguna tickets, rather than pay the 130 EUR private taxi quoted by the hotel concierge. The return trip was still 1 hour and 40 minutes, but the time went quicker than on the outbound.

The airport security was fast and we were soon in the excellent Marco Polo lounge – open to Lounge/Priority Pass holders.

Pros:
I love the Giudecca Island location and the views from the room.
The breakfast was pretty good.
The hotel is spotless and looks great illuminated at night.

Cons:
The Executive Lounge: The biggest improvement the hotel could make would be relocate the executive lounge to a larger area on a higher floor and provide a better selection of food and drinks over a longer ‘Happy Hour’. I’m sure that all Hilton hotels hate to provide free food and drinks, but that is part of the deal – a deal that this hotel is not honouring.
Check-in: Needs more staff and a dedicated HHonors desk.
Spa: Needs at least a hydrotherapy pool, otherwise it’s just a Jacuzzi and a sauna.

I would be happy to stay at this hotel again if the price was right.

HILTON MOLINO STUCKY VENICE
GIUDECCA 810, VENICE, 30133, ITALY

TEL: +39-041-2723311

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/italy/hilton-molino-stucky-venice-VCEHIHI/index.html

How secure is the safe in your hotel room?

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in Hotels, Security

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I’ve seen a number of stories over the years regarding the security of hotel safes. These are the keypad operated safes that you find in most hotel rooms – you press reset, enter your own code, close the safe and press close. Obviously the hotel has a secret code that can also open the safe – otherwise the safe would be unusable if you forgot your code. That means someone in the hotel can open your room safe, although we hope that the secret code is kept secret.

The safes tend to be stand alone and battery operated. That’s probably a good idea as otherwise your valuables would be inaccessible during a power outage. Equally this means they aren’t connected to a centralised system, where each safe can have it’s own secret code. My guess is that the same secret code is used for all the room safes – can you imagine a hotel bothering to keep a log of secret codes, different for every safe?

But imagine if the hotel didn’t bother setting the secret code for every safe that was installed. What if they left the default code set by the manufacturer? The video below is by a YouTube user called ‘LockPickingLawyer’:

I’ve no idea if pressing # twice followed by a series of 0s, 123456 or (Hitler’s Password) 999999 will actually work, although I intend to try next time I’m in a hotel room with a safe. If you decide to experiment with your hotel room safe, don’t store your valuables, nor a bottle of Lagavulin – just in case there is some security lock out and you can’t get back in.

Even if the hotel has changed the default to their own secret code, your room safe is only as secure as the security procedures within the hotel.

Obviously any potential thief also has to gain access to your room, but that includes cleaners, maintenance and turn down service. In the past you could leave ‘do not disturb’ on the door handle, but following the gun attack from a hotel room in Las Vegas, hotels have stated that they can ignore those signs if the room is reported inaccessible for over a day.

The good news is that in all my hotel stays across the world, I’ve never had anyone steal anything from a room safe.

Midtown Grill Restaurant, Christmas Brunch, Prague, Czech Republic

20 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Restaurants and Bars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Midtown Grill is part of the Prague Marriott Hotel. The Marriott is opposite the Hilton on V Celnici street in central Prague. It’s been several years since we had brunch at the Marriott – that experience wasn’t bad, but was nowhere near as good as the Zinc Restaurant brunch in the Hilton. Both run an all-you-eat Sunday brunch with unlimited wine, beer, soft drinks and hot beverages.

A combination of the Hilton being full on Sunday 17th and that we will be at the Hilton brunch soon, meant that we booked the Marriott. It was much better than last time. Here is the entrance to the hotel:

The lobby had a large gingerbread house:

On our last visit, all the tables were in the main restaurant. This time the restaurant had been extended to include tables and some food options in the bar area:

One thing the Marriott does better than the Hilton is large round tables. The Hilton restaurant is not set up for large groups and you end up in on a long table, often broken into 3s and 4s, which makes seating and conversations difficult.

Doors opened just after noon (Hilton is 12:30) and we were ushered to our large (for 8) people in the main restaurant. There isn’t a cloakroom as in the Hilton, but there were plenty of coat stands. The waiter was quick to pour us prosecco and they also had non-alcoholic sparkling wine which the Hilton doesn’t offer. Bottles of still and sparking water were already on our table.

The main buffet was still in a small bleak room and there were only a couple of hot dishes available, plus the carvery – something we didn’t like on our previous visit:

There were plenty of prawns and some oysters – but not half lobsters that grace the Hilton buffet.

In the bar/lobby area was a sushi bar:

There was also a pancake station and a large selection of puddings – being seasoned buffet visitors, we snagged the crème brûlées in advance as they are always the first to go. There wasn’t any traditional English Christmas pudding – that reminded me to ask the Hilton if they could put this on their menu and they said yes!

There was live music, but only in the bar area – so if you would like music, ask for a bar area table.

Santa visited tables, engaging both the adults and children:

All children were given a pack of sweets:

The carvery meat was still hot when I finally visited around 2pm:

I’ve mentioned several times to the Hilton that their carvery meat goes cold, but it’s the same each year – this year they advised that the chef will make different arrangements.

The wine flowed freely. The food was all delicious. Everyone enjoyed their visit.

The price 1390Kč per person (I think children are 590Kč).

This was a much better brunch than our previous visit. I wonder if this was just a Christmas thing and that the standard brunch doesn’t extend into the bar. That would be a pity if all food was forced into the small buffet area.

We’ll be visiting the Hilton for brunch soon and I’ll review that, then create a comparison chart.

Midtown Grill Restaurant
Marriott Hotel
V Celnici 8
Praha 1, 110 00
Czech Republic

https://www.midtowngrill.cz/nedln-brunch-1

Hilton Hotel, Nuremberg, Germany

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

We booked in for one Saturday 7th October night at a pretty good rate EUR 90 for two including breakfast. The hotel looked close to the old rally grounds and what is called ‘The Documentation Centre’, but is 20 minutes by bus from the city centre.

We arrived to the city centre by bus from Prague and soon realised that we may have been better staying in the centre, just to check in and drop our small bags. After wandering around the centre for a few hours, we found the bus that went to the Hilton.

We almost missed the stop as it was a request and we didn’t press the call button, but the driver stopped several metres further which was nice.

The Hilton is one those classic out-of-the-centre, middle-of-nowhere, Hiltons – ideal when you are driving as the car park was large.

Next door was a local football stadium and I could see their pitch from the windows at the rear of the hotel.

The man on the check-in desk was friendly, helpful and spoke English. We also arranged a late check out 13:30.

Our bedroom was fine for one night. Unfortunately, the bathroom was hot, tiny, drains a bit smelly with a noisy extractor fan.

It started to rain and we quickly realised that eating anywhere other than the hotel bar/restaurant would be impractical.

I think we spent about EUR70 in the restaurant, for a large beer, three large glasses of wine and two main courses.

The sous-vide pork belly.

and a rumpsteak:

The food was okay but nothing special.

Breakfast was impressive, with fresh orange juice, sparkling wine, all the usual pastries and hot food, including local sausages. For those whose rate didn’t include breakfast, the price was EUR24 – which is a bit steep and also unavoidable given the hotel location.

There is no direct bus connection from the hotel to the Documentation Centre – you’d need to head back into the centre and then back out again. It’s about 30 minutes walk, but halfway there you can see the old rally grounds and then walk around a nice lake.

If you are on a driving to Nuremberg then this hotel would be fine – otherwise choose something in the city centre.

HILTON NUREMBERG HOTEL
VALZNERWEIHERSTRASSE 200,
90480, NUREMBERG,
GERMANY

TEL: +49-911-4029 0

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/bavaria/hilton-nuremberg-hotel-NUEHIHI/index.html

Hilton Hotel Olympia, London, England

12 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

The Hilton Olympia is only a few minutes walk from Olympia Underground and Main Line station – the station is just opposite the exhibition centre. However, underground trains only run at the weekend and aren’t that frequent. We were staying at the weekend and so that wasn’t so much of an issue.

During our weekend (with links to reviews):

The rooms were good quality. We had two rooms and both were similar.

The bathroom was fine, except that when you stepped into the tub for a shower, your head almost touched the suspended false ceiling.

The view from my window was to the main street, but it wasn’t noisy in the room.

The executive lounge was by room keycard entry, although there was a receptionist. The range of snacks and drinks was pretty good during the 6:30pm – 8.00pm happy hour.

The breakfast spread (main restaurant, not lounge which we didn’t try) was pretty good, although some of the hot items were a bit dried out from being under the lights. The best part was an omelette station and so I had a freshly-made omelette each day.

The bar was typically expensive:
Stella cider £5.50
Guinness £6
Becks £5.50
12.5% service added automatically which was a bit cheeky
Total £19.10

I’d certainly consider staying at this Hilton again. I prefer the Hilton Paddington but would still choose by price.

HILTON LONDON OLYMPIA
380 KENSINGTON HIGH STREET, LONDON, W14 8NL, UNITED KINGDOM
TEL: +44-207-603-3333

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/hilton-london-olympia-LHROLHN/index.html

Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (The Pitter) Hotel, Salzburg, Austria

30 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Looking to spend three nights in Salzburg, I saw a 30% discount offer for the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza on the British Airways site – King Room EUR 358 to arrive Saturday and depart Tuesday. No breakfast included.

We arrived by train from Prague (via Linz) and it was only about 10 minutes walk from the station to the hotel.

I made a fair attempt to check in in German – the friendly lady receptionist told me English was fine and we continued in English. We were upgraded to a King Junior Suite Courtyard View, were able to arrange a 13:30 checkout for our departure day and left the check-in desk happy.

The door to our room opened on to a small corridor, with bathroom entrance on the right and then past a mini bar to a large room with King bed. Everything was spotless and well maintained.

 

The view from the window, although not spectacular, was better than facing the street:

There was a safe, coffee and tea making facilities, two bottles of complimentary water and chocolates. The Wi-Fi worked pretty well.

The hotel front desk staff were always friendly and helpful, provided maps and were also able to sell us the Salzburg card EUR 36 per person for 48-hours of free admission to almost every attraction and free public transportation.

Salzburg is a small city and the hotel is only 10 minutes walk to the centre.

The hotel has a rooftop terrace restaurant. We really meant to visit, at least for breakfast, but with so many cafes and bakeries nearby we never managed that. Breakfast was, I think about EUR 20 per person – so if you like a big breakfast it’s worth comparing rates that include breakfast. In the evenings we found some good local restaurants, all good value:

  • Asia Kitchen – an all you can eat Asian buffet for EUR 13.90 per person – just across the street
  • my indigo – a cool restaurant with a selection of curries – out of the hotel and left, the first left
  • Pasta & Vino – a fantastic little Italian – about 10 minutes walk

The hotel also has Salzburg’s oldest beer cellar, called ‘The PitterKeller’. We did try and visit that, but it was closed on Sunday and Monday evening.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (The Pitter) Hotel and I would definitely choose to stay again if visiting Salzburg.

Crowne Plaza Salzburg – The Pitter
Rainerstrasse 6-8
Salzburg 5020

Hotel Front Desk: 43-662-889780

https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/salzburg/szgcp/hoteldetail

https://imlauer.com/en/hotels/crowne-plaza-salzburg-the_pitter/

Lazaros Hotel Apartments, Tsilivi, Zakynthos, Greece

02 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Zakynthos accommodation is quite expensive, so I was pleased to find a studio apartment at the well-reviewed Lazaros in Tsilivi on Expedia at EUR532 for seven nights.

We flew from Prague to Zakynthos so were outside and in the taxi quite quickly – no passport control between Schengen countries. The taxi to the Lazaros took 20 minutes and cost EUR 20.

The staff were really welcoming and showed us to our room on the first floor – although that’s actually the second floor when viewed from the street. Ground floor rooms open onto the pool.

The bathroom was modern, clean and had a shower with both rainwater and regular shower head.

Some toiletries were provided:

And there wasn’t a sign by the toilet to say ‘don’t put paper in the toilet’ – which is common in Greece.

There was a nice balcony with a view to the Sea.

Although this did also look over the Breeze Bar, which is part of the Lazaros Hotel complex:

The room had a keypad safe which was a nice surprise.

There was a small kitchen area with fridge, mini-hob, kettle, coffee maker and sink.

Free wi-fi – although it was tragically slow.

The aircon was modern, quiet and worked really well. I’m assuming the cooling unit is mounted on the roof somewhere.

The flat-screen TV had BBC World News in English plus multiple channels in Greek.

All in all we were impressed with the quality of the room.

The pool was modern and clean. There were always sunbeds available.

Behind the pool are some more apartments that I think are probably the best choice – although I haven’t seen the interior. The reason for that choice is that they are furthest away from the street and the Breeze Bar. There is quite a lot of street noise; Greeks like to sound their car horns and there are a lot of motorbikes and rental trikes.

At night the Breeze Bar is in full swing with music until 1am.

So if you’re not a night person or have small children I’d avoid rooms close to the street and bar.

I did have the odd early beer in the Breeze Bar and the staff were really friendly and beer was served in a chilled glass.

There was a nearby supermarket where we picked up some items for breakfast and bought bottled water – we never tried the hotel breakfast, although it looked quite good.

Tsilivi town has a Brits abroad feel about it. Plenty of sports bars and restaurants offering a full English breakfast. But there are some great Greek restaurants with excellent fish dishes.

The sandy beach was just a short walk away – about 400m I think, not 200m as shown on the hotel site. The sea was clean, blue and warm and stayed shallow for at least 50 metres. I didn’t see any jellyfish. The beach is lined with sunbeds and plenty of bar/restaurants.

Over the seven days we were there, I didn’t see any bugs in our room; no cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes nor wasps – although there was the occasional wasp on our terrace that was immediately zapped with my Executioner racket.

The room was cleaned well every day.

We didn’t need to pay anything until our penultimate day – they took credit cards.

We really enjoyed our week’s holiday – some friends were staying in a nearby hotel and villa – we were all able to meet up for dinner. I’m not sure I’d rush back to Tsilivi, but if I did then I’d be happy to stay at Lazaros again.

Lazaros Hotel Apartments
Tsilivi Admiral, Zakynthos 291 00, Greece
+30 2695 026218

http://zakynthos-lazaros.com/

Hilton Hotel, Paddington, London, England

12 Friday May 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

We booked two rooms for one (Saturday) night. I chose the Hilton at Paddington, partly on price and the benefits I have from being a Diamond HHonors member and partly because it was ideally situated for our weekend plans; arrive into Kings Cross, tour of hidden tunnels under London Euston, visit to the Churchill War Rooms, Heathrow Connect train to Heathrow T3 for a flight. I’d also had poor experiences in the Hilton Metropole.

The hotel is actually part of Paddington train Station – I think it was formerly the Great Western Railway hotel. Opposite is Paddington London Underground station – although you may also find yourself arriving at another Paddington Underground (other end of the train station), depending on which line you use/direction you arrive from.

We arrived from Kings Cross into the Paddington Underground at the other end of the main line station. There weren’t any signs to the Hilton, but we found it with a bit of help from smartphones. There’s actually an entrance direct from Paddington station. The front entrance looks like this:

It’s quite a grand old London hotel but has obviously been completely refurbished.

Check in (around 2:20pm) was quick and our upgraded rooms were ready. It looks like the rooms are different shapes to suit the existing building. Mine had an entrance hall, with bathroom entrance on one side, wardrobe/safe/tea-making facilities on the other and a lounge bedroom at the end.

The bed was king size with plenty of pillows:

The lounge area was comfortable. The TV only seemed to have a few terrestrial English channels and then a mixture of foreign-language channels. I guess there’s only so many they can provide and have to keep everyone happy.

The view from the window was all railway station:

The wi-fi wasn’t amazing but it was okay.

The Executive Lounge is on the ground floor. The entrance desk was unmanned most of the time – your room card provides access.

We made it back from our tour about 19:45 just in time for the end of the happy hour 18:00-20:30 drinks and food. The snack food options were pretty good and much better than the Hilton Metropole and Hilton Gatwick. The drink options were pretty poor; no sparkling wine, only Stella Artois as a beer, only Jack Daniels as a whisky plus a vodka and a gin. The bathrooms were clean and modern. We didn’t use the lounge for breakfast, but popped in around 13:00 the next day and there were finger sandwiches available.

We left the lounge and walked around the corner to Mughal’s Indian Restaurant. On our return, around 23:30, we visited the hotel bar (146 Paddington) for a drink – the bar had several tables of customers. We were asked if we were guests – I later read that the bar closes at 23:00. Two large beers and a large Amaretto was £23.10. Just before midnight, the manager informed us that the bar was closing and could we finish our drinks in the lobby. Only a few guests moved to the lobby and the rest I imagine left. I find it unusual that a hotel bar closes so early on a Saturday – particularly for guests.

Breakfast in the Brasserie restaurant. There was a wide selection of continental and full English breakfast options. Orange juice was in a large heavy jug that was hard to pick up. The ceilings felt very low, almost claustrophobic, so I don’t think I’d dine there for lunch or dinner.

As we didn’t need to leave until 2pm, I called and asked for a late checkout on just one of our rooms – they were more than happy to arrange that.

Overall I enjoyed my stay and would certainly consider staying again.

Hilton London Paddington
146 Praed Street, London, W2 1EE, United Kingdom

TEL: +44-207-850-0500
FAX: +44-207-850-0600

The Hotel Portmeirion and cottages, Wales

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in Hotels

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Portmeirion is a complete, uninhabited (apart from tourist guests), village and hotel. The entire place was created by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis from 1925 to 1976. He wanted to show how a naturally beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it. The village is probably most famous as the setting for the Prisoner TV series.

I’ve created four reviews; one for Portmeirion Village, one for the Hotel/Cottages, one for the Hotel Restaurant and one for the Prisoner convention attending Portmerion the weekend we visited.

We booked a cottage in advance to stay for one night, Friday 31st March on their dinner, bed & breakfast rate £278. We stayed the previous night in the Jurys Inn, Birmingham to get a head start and could arrive around 3pm – and we made it on time.

There is a fee for visitors to Portmerion – hotel/cottage guests and those dining at the restaurant are free, although only hotel guests can drive and park inside. The man at the gatehouse couldn’t find me on his list, which was disappointing, but was happy to believe that we had a booking and directed me, along a winding drive, to the hotel.

The main village is at the top of the cliff, the hotel down a hill with spectacular views across the Dwyryd Estuary.

We parked outside and went in to reception. Where they had Number 2’s chair from the Prisoner TV series.

A quick check in and dinner reservation and we were escorted by a friendly porter to our cottage – we had booked ‘The Fountain’ a cottage at hotel level, rather than up in the main village. It’s difficult to know what’s the best choice; our cottage with views of the estuary, simple parking and an easy walk to the hotel for dinner, or a cottage in the village where you could re-create the initial scene from the Prisoner, but also have to climb up and down to the hotel.

The Fountain is split into two, we were in the lower part, although that still meant a few ornate steps up to our door as the ground floor is used for storage. You can see our red rental car parked outside:

Here’s a view from the village looking down at our cottage:

The drawing room, bedroom and bathroom were perfectly appointed. There was also a small complimentary carafe of sherry and glasses which was a nice touch.

There was also a small kitchen counter behind some doors off the drawing room, with kettle, homemade shortbread biscuits and a selection tea and coffee.

And this was the view from our room:

Early evening, before dinner, we could hear the guests above walking around and the floors were creaking. We were concerned that they may repeat this on a late return – in the end they were back before us. I think I’d choose the upper part of the cottage next time just in case.

It was great to be able to wander around the village after dark – it closes to visitors at 7:30pm.

Breakfast was a mixture of buffet and hot cooked-to-order. We chose the full Welsh Breakfast, which was delicious, perhaps a little small; the black pudding slice was cut into two and we each had half a piece.

I’d normally be disappointed that check out was 11am – I consider that a little early. As it was, we had to leave before lunch to drive to South Wales for a friend’s wedding anniversary party. Had we stayed longer and in better weather, we would have taken some longer walks and also visited the nearby Ffestiniog Railway.

We really enjoyed our stay and would definitely recommend at least a one night stay rather than just a visit to the village.

The Hotel Portmeirion
Minffordd, Penrhyndeudraeth
Gwynedd
LL48 6ER
Wales

+44 (0) 1766 772311 (Tollgate)
+44 (0) 1766 770000 (Hotel Reception)

http://www.portmeirion-village.com/stay/hotel-portmeirion/