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.

Gmex Oct. 2008

In October I went for a new competition in nails. This was the Professional Beauty North 2008.

I stayed at Radisson Edwardian Manchester, where I stayed last time in Manchester. I then had some bad experiences and wrote a complaint. I was promised an upgrade at my next visit. I got a junior suite!

The junior suite was bigger than a classic room. It also had a terrasse outside! I got complimentary water every day and wine and chocolate at my first evening.

I went to the restaurant for one evening. I went there with a friend and we both agreed it was a mixed feeling. The food was very good and we also got all those small dishes in between, which felt we were at a really nice restaurant. The only disappointment was that it was difficult to get in contact with the people working there. The seamed busy, but there were few people in the restaurant, so how come they were busy?

The breakfast is not extraordinary at this hotel. Not at all 5* breakfast. BUT the most irritating thing was that there were always a queue to get in to the breakfast. There were lots of free tables, but they were not clean. The first rule when working with people is, IF you are busy, never let the client see it. The people working at the breakfast ran around, they really looked stressed. AND it was stressing eating when people were running around.

When I booked this hotel I knew I would never get the feeling of a true 5* here. I only booked it because it's very close to the competition arena. It's a blessing to have the opportunity to walk to the room, have a rest or a nap, and then walk back. I will stay here next year too because of the location.

The best thing with this journey was that I won the competition! This competition was not as big as that in London, in May. It was a national competition in UK. But winning was a victory!

Liverpool

In the summertime I was in Liverpool. I stayed at Radisson SAS Liverpool. As I have another blog from that hotel, I'm not writing a new one now...:)

I haven't been in Liverpool for two years. The city has changed since last time. The docks are the same, but there is a new shopping-center in between the main shopping area and the docks, Liverpool One. It was a real disappointment. For me, it seamed like the shops from the main shopping area just had moved to the shopping-center.

Radisson SAS Hamburg, Germany 4*

1 week
August 2008

The hotel was easy to find, traveling with car. The best way to find it was to follow the direction to the "messe-center".

The hotel itself is like other Radisson SAS hotels. You know what you get. However the breakfast is one of the best I have had. There were something for everybody.

There were a swimming-pool at the second floor (or third?). The weather wasn't nice, so we didn't sit outside, but there were some sun-beds outside. If the weather had been better I am sure I would have liked sitting there. :) The swimming-pool was quite big, for being at a hotel and there were sun-beds alongside the pool.

Don't go to the wax-museum! It was a really disappointing site. We were finished after 5 min...

If you like walking in a nice park, I can recommend the park close to Radisson SAS. I don't remember the name, something with "bloomen". The park is big, have lots of chairs and things to do for children. The flower-arrangements are beautiful! In the evenings there are light-shows with some (crappy :-D) classical music. It lasted for 30 min. and, in my opinion, that was too long. 5 min. would be enough! :)







Hamburg is a place for shoppaholics. However I never came in "shopping-modus". I didn't buy anything there! A pity...:)

Cascais Miragem, Cascais, Portugal, 5*

5 days
April 2008




Not as nice as Palacio. On the other hand, it's the best conference-hotel I have been to. Normally there are always lots of queuing at coffee-breaks and lunch. There were a little bit of queue, but nothing to complain about. At the coffee-break they served sweets, but there were always a choice to get "real food" (bread or bun).

The rooms were very nice, turn-down service with chocolate etc... At this hotel they also gave new toiletries at turn-down. It was an unknown brand for me.











The little dark chocolate given at the turn-down service was mmmmmm.... :)




I never ate breakfast as we didn't have breakfast in our rate and it cost 20 Euro. There was a shopping-mall very close to the hotel and we bought some bread, butter and ham for breakfast. The swimming-pool was nice, but because of unusual bad weather, for May to be, we didn't use the pool.




I liked Cascais better than Estoril. Cascais was more charming and had more nice restaurants.

Hotel Palacio Estoril, Estoril 5*

3 days
April 2008

This hotel gave me the feeling of a TRUE 5*.

The hotel had sent me driving directions and we had no problem with finding the hotel. Outside the hotel they had a private parking place for free! Fantastic!

The hotel was impressive, so was the service and room. The toiletries were Molton Brown. Small chocolates with a note with the weather-forecast at the pillow at the turn-down service was also very nice.













The breakfast was FANTASTIC. Full English, sweets, cakes, champagne, juices etc... I could have sit there forever!

We never tried the swimming-pool as the weather wasn't that nice. BUT it looked very nice, so did the garden.

So far this is one of the best hotels I have been to and I will go back. I can highly recommend it.