Le Meridien Piccadilly 5*

December 2008, 2 days.

Well, what can I say? I have always dreamed of staying at this hotel. When I found a fantastic offer at the internet (www.lastminute.com) I couldn't resist booking it.

Checking in went all well and the room was ok. Nothing special, but ok for a London-hotel to be. There were complimentary bottled water and the toiletries were their own brand. It may be good, but I never get the luxurious feeling when a hotel has their own brand of toiletries.






The beds were ok, but NO duvets here either! I can understand the "blanket-thing" in warm countries, but not in UK where the weather can be cold.






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We didn't have breakfast in the room-rate, but there are both Cafe Nero, Starbucks and other places to get food and coffee nearby the hotel. The room also had a nice sitting area where we ate our breakfast.

In the mini-bar we found this thing, a relief-pack..... :-D

The best with this hotel is the location. Unfortunately I never got the feeling of staying at a true 5* at this hotel either. If I had payed the full rack-rate I would have felt extremely disappointed. There were nothing I really disliked with this hotel, but there were nothing extraordinary with it either. It's a pity that hotel-managers never seem to understand that they are selling accommodation AND a "feeling", not only the accommodation.

If I will stay here again? Well, if I could get it for 129 pound a night, like I did when staying there in December, I would. But I would never pay rack-rate at 330 pound. Never, it's not worth it.

Mac Donald Spa Bath Hotel 5*

December 2008, 2 days.

The entrance

From the garden and the sitting-area outside. I can imagine it would be beautiful here in the summertime.

We arrived to the hotel late in the evening. There were no problem with checking in.

The room was nice so was the bathroom. The toiletries were from Molton Brown.

The only complaint about the bed was that there was no duvet. I would believe a 5* hotel should have real duvets, not only blankets.

It was nice to have a sitting-area. We also got complimentary bottled water. Nice touch!

The hotel is situated in the outskirt of Bath, about 15 min. walking distance from the city-center.

We had continental breakfast in our room-rate. We could get cooked, full English breakfast for 6 pound extra, but found the continental breakfast to be enough. There were cerials, milk, juices, water, bread, butter, marmalade, fruits and even some ham.

I tried to get an appointment at the spa, but it was fully booked. However I had an hour in the swimming-pool and the spa-area and really got "my eyes up" for visiting the spa-area. There were a large swimming-pool inside connected to a smaller one outside. The outside had bubbles and it felt very nice to swim in the hot water while there was only 5*c outside! There were also 6 different steam-rooms. Do I need to say that I liked this after a hectic day? :-D

Was this a true 5*? Well, it looked like, but I never got the 5* "feeling". It's difficult to explain that feeling, but I got it at Palacio Estoril in Portugal.