To celebrate its 50-year anniversary in 2017, the Royal Lancaster London underwent a multimillion-pound refurbishment and emerged – several years later – sporting a head-to-toe makeover, a complete rebrand and a new name. Which is exactly how I plan to spend my next big birthday. Turn the clock back half a century and the hotel […]
Food: Olivier’s Restaurant at The Woburn Hotel, Bedfordshire
Olivier’s restaurant at The Woburn Hotel has relaunched with a fresh look and a brand new menu to match. We stayed for a night – minus the kids – to see what all the fuss was about… I’m not normally a tea snob, especially after a long drive to a hotel. As long as there’s […]
Travel: Stapleford Park hotel review – a country house that’s grand, not grandiose
‘Are we really going to stay here?’ asked my little boy, wide-eyed, as we pulled up outside Stapleford Park Hotel. It’s a fair question, given the grandeur of this Grade-I listed country house in Melton Mowbray. The mansion’s pristine exterior is nothing short of magnificent, and the approach – through a 500-acre buffer of neat […]
Travel: The George Inn, Maulden – 7 new bedrooms and a gin bar to boot
I’d never been to Maulden until a couple of weeks ago. The pretty Bedfordshire village sits about half-way between Bedford and Luton on the A6, and ten minutes from Center Parcs Woburn Forest (which we’ve been to a lot), so I must have passed it a million times. But despite having lived down the road […]
Travel: The best bath of my life at Ellenborough Park Hotel, Cheltenham
‘This place is bigger than our front room. And our kitchen. And our upstairs. Put together.’ Those were the first words to come out of my mouth as I walked into our suite at Ellenborough Park hotel in Cheltenham. Apart from an unintelligible combination of ‘woooooah’ and ‘ohmywordwouldyoulookatthisplace’, of course. And it was no understatement, […]
Travel: Mallory Court Hotel review, Leamington Spa (without the kids!)
It’s been more than a year since the husband and I went out for dinner just the two of us. I know you’re meant to do these things a lot as grown-ups – I read the same late-night posts on Scary Mommy as you, and I know ‘date nights’ are what keep toddler-tired marriages ticking along. But two kids, […]
Travel: Heathrow Windsor Marriott Hotel review with kids + GoPro video
Finding a hotel with family rooms – especially interconnecting rooms, where grown-ups can sleep in one room and kids next door – can be tricky. And that’s doubly true when you’re looking for somewhere within close reach of London. So when the Heathrow/Windsor Marriott Hotel asked if we’d like to come and stay to test […]