Sneaky

I thought we had all that airport hotel stuff sussed out. First we discovered the joys of the family rooms at the Gatwick Hilton, and then we found out there was a Premier Inn within walking distance of the airport. Problem solved. And then we had to go and book flights leaving from Stansted....

There's only one hotel within walking distance of the terminal at  Stansted, and that's the Radisson Blu. We stayed there once before, pre-children. Nice hotel but sadly not Premier Inn prices. Still, we gritted our teeth and went to book, only to find they didn't have any family rooms - or, at least, none available. This left us with a dilemma - book a room for three or book a hotel further away. Now I've said this before but, when you've got an early flight and have to get up at stupid o'clock, the last thing you want to have to do is hang around outside the hotel or in the long-stay car park for a shuttle bus. Every fifteen minutes, my backside. And the hassle of getting four people's luggage on board is only eclipsed by the hassle of finding somewhere to put it - it's like a warped version of Tetris. Given the choice, it's much nicer just to walk across to the airport. A room for three it was, then. Would the hotel actually mind us having four people? We were the ones that would suffer, trying to squeeze an extra person in, and we would have booked a bigger room if we could. But in some hotels, such as the Formule 1 chain in France, they have signs explicitly stating no more than three people in a room - fire regulations or something. Oh well, better safe than sorry - time for Operation Sneak...  

We've snuck a child in at the Gatwick Hilton a few times, but this was a new hotel for us in this regard. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was almost empty. The Hilton is always busy - you could sneak a giraffe in and no one would notice. But there were three empty reception desks at the Radisson and no one milling around. We briefly considered hiding Dylan in Lee's coat and pretending Lee was just really fat. Or maybe putting Dylan on Lee's shoulders with Lee's head hidden under his coat and Dylan's head sticking out, like in all the best slapstick films. Eventually we opted for me going in on my own. I checked us in ('A room for three people?' 'Oh yes!') and then went back outside to tell Lee our room number. Back in and through to our room I went with Dylan and our cases ('My husband's just sorting out the car...') and then Lee and Finn followed suit a few minutes later, walking nonchalantly and hoping no one asked them where they were going. Job done. Of course, every time we left the room and walked through reception, we did it separately and walked as quickly as possible. I'm sure we didn't look at all suspicious...

Unfortunately, as well as all the sneaking around, a room for three brings other problems - namely, the fact that it only sleeps three. After some bad experiences putting one of the boys in with us (how people co-sleep, I don't know - ouch!), we decided to top and tail them in the single bed. You can imagine how long it took them to get to sleep. And when one woke in the middle of the night, the other woke too, then they both spent an hour trying to get back to sleep, moaning that the other was kicking them. When they were asleep, they snored like 70-year-old men. As you can imagine, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Airport hotels may be a whole lot less stressful (and early) in the morning, but yet again I found myself wondering, when I was considering giving up and getting up at 2am, whether we should just save ourselves the bother and have the luxury of half a night's sleep at home in our own beds...!

A boring blog

We spent the summer touring Australia and Hong Kong. Five weeks, ten flights, eleven hotels/apartments and an awful lot of driving. You'd think I'd have a lot to say about all that - and you'd be right. The trouble is, I don't seem to have as much time as I do things to say. What have I managed to do so far, in the nearly-two months since coming back? Post one hotel review and video and add a few photos to some older reviews. Epic fail. What makes it worse is that I'm off again tomorrow to Tenerife, and I haven't even begun to catch up on the last holiday. Oh, and there was a weekend in the Cotswolds in there somewhere that hasn't even made a mention yet. We have a weekend in Bruges planned in December, and I wonder if I'll have even finished my Oz hotel reviews by then. Ironically, when I started the blog, I was worried I wouldn't have enough to write about. I mean, I know I go on holiday a lot, but I'm hardly an expert - what would I fill the pages with? But it's turned out that I can't even keep up with the holidays I do have! The trouble is, there are so many funny stories from each holiday, but by the time I get home, I've forgotten about them. And much as I enjoy writing, I don't want to spend my time on holiday blogging, as I'm missing out on essential holiday time! I also think it's important to post reviews on Trip Advisor (and here), as I use it so much myself when I'm planning a trip - plus I like to balance the unreasonably negative reviews (and there's yet another blog subject). But that's yet another thing I don't seem to be able to manage. Life just always seems so busy - and it feels hard to justify blogging when I should be working or doing jobs around the house. If only I could be paid for this! The obvious answer, of course, is to stop going on holiday so much - just think of all that extra time I could spend updating my blog! And I'd be sure to have caught up before I go away again. It kind of defeats the object of course...

Anyway, apologies for this nothing-y blog - nothing funny, nothing informative. Just a post for the sake of updating my blog really. Sorry - I promise I will be better next time. And in the meantime, just to make it almost worth reading, here's a pretty photo from my recent trip to the Cotswolds...

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Hong Kong

This was the first hotel on this summer's epic tour and a continuation of my recent upgrade luck. We didn't really know what to expect from a hotel in Hong Kong (other than small rooms, according to everything I read), but we were very pleasantly surprised. Hong Kong hotels aren't cheap, especially when trying to find a family-sized room, but the Cosmopolitan Hotel was pretty reasonable (relatively). It was a good place to stay with children, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Hong Kong. The only thing missing, really, is a pool, but you can't have everything...

Anyway, here is my cut-and-paste review from Trip Advisor, along with a couple of photos and a video if you scroll to the bottom.

We stayed at the Cosmopolitan for a total of five nights, either side of a trip to Australia. We booked a family quad room but, on arrival, we were told we had been upgraded to one of the recently refurbished rooms which was, apparently, slightly larger than the room we’d booked. The room was by no means huge (especially in comparison to the rooms in Australia), but it was large by Hong Kong standards and perfectly spacious enough for the four of us plus all our luggage. The room had clearly been newly done-up – everything was clean, new and had a luxurious feel to it. The beds were very comfy and we slept well, despite both children sleeping in the same double bed. There was a large-screen TV with a few English-speaking channels, a mini-bar (not cheap but not astronomically priced), complimentary bottled water, tea- and coffee-making facilities, a hairdryer, a free-to-use safe, an alarm clock with an iPod/iPhone docker and an iron and ironing board. Robes and slippers were provided – both adult and child-sized. Another nice touch for the children was the soft toy and snack box they were given on arrival (the nice lady at reception even gave me one too!). The bathroom was small (especially the bath!) but smart and clean, with a lovely hot shower, plenty of towels, and toiletries and other bathroom goodies provided. The air-con was very efficient, and a blessing after the temperatures outside, although it did get a little cold in the room sometimes. We were on the nineteenth floor (although there are a few floors missing due to cultural reasons – 4, 13 and 14), so the view was amazing. We could see part of Happy Valley racecourse and out over Causeway Bay, which looked beautiful when lit up at night.

The best thing about the room, though, was the handy smart phone, free to use during your stay. You could use this for the internet when you were out and about or to make free international calls to selected countries (including the UK, USA and Australia). You could also use it as a Wi-Fi hub to hook your own phone up to, which negated any issues of chargeable Wi-Fi in the hotel (although this was free anyway in the restaurant and reception area).

Away from the room, the hotel has a few facilities – a small bar area in reception and a tour desk, and there is a gym, apparently, although we didn’t see it, but no pool. It has a restaurant, but we only used this for breakfast. The breakfast itself was very nice – a mix of Chinese and Western dishes, and plenty even for fussy eaters. The reception staff were friendly and helpful, and they were very efficient in arranging a taxi to the airport for us. They remembered us on our return visit, and even put us in the same upgraded room, which was a nice touch. The location of the hotel was very good – it’s a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk to the nearest MTR station, Causeway Bay, although there are plenty of shops and restaurants in the nearby area and a bus stop right outside. The hotel also offers a free shuttle bus to various locations, although we didn’t make use of this. On a side note, with regards to transport, I would highly recommend purchasing Octopus cards, similar to the Oyster cards in London, which can be used to pay for all forms of transport (except taxis!), including the ferries and the peak tram, and make travelling much easier. I would also recommend getting a taxi to and from the airport if you are a family – it probably works out cheaper than the train (around HK$350), and is much more convenient!

All in all, we had a lovely stay in Hong Kong, and the hotel was very much a part of it. We would definitely return – especially if we got upgraded again!

Here's a video of our room in the Cosmopolitan. You can visit my YouTube channel (Holiday obsessive) for more holiday-related videos (with more to be uploaded soon...).