Here comes a rather long review. There will be 'typo's as I struggled with editing this, so please just ignore any as I will get round to them, sorry about this! All the information is completely accurate of my experience and I have left absolutely nothing out - I spend a long time on this one so I hope that will be appreciated. Finally I apologise for the length of this review, but I have purposely broken it down into sections so readers can choose which bits are most relevant to them. Not everyone will have dinner in a hotel or use the gym facilities, for example, so just read which bits you want to. You can also just skip to the conclusion for a sum-up! Big thank you to anyone who manages to read the whole thing!!

Introduction

My distaste for such annoying celebrities as Paris therefore made me quite annoyed when my sister booked this hotel. I held my tongue and went along with it, but I have to admit the deal she got was impressive - £75 for a twin room per night (we booked two rooms for two nights) and free dinner on the first night, which came with a two night booking. Note, I whinge quite a bit about dinner although it's free, but I'm not a complainer just want to be as particular as I can so people thinking of paying to eat there will have an idea of what to expect.

Check in

We were greeted by a posh reception with a large and comfortable lounge area nearby. I thought to head towards the sofas whilst my sister checked us in, but the process was much faster than it has been in other hotels we have stayed in, so I did not get this chance. Often we find check-ins are a headache, but on this occasion, as my defensive mother began detailing the special offers seeking confirmation that we would receive our free meal that evening, the receptionist politely replied that it was all sorted. We relaxed a little after this.

Both of our rooms were located on the fop floor, and from what I have seen pretty much all the rooms come with a sea-view. This would be owing to the unusual architectural design of the building. The building is at an angle to the seafront, with all windows sides zigzagged between walls, so as to face the sea at a slight angle. I think the product picture provided by Ciao gives you a good idea of how this works - my description failing to make sense. The wall in the lower left corner is roughly in parallel with the seafront, if that helps.

The beds were quite comfortable and my sensitive skin and skin conditions were not affected by the sheets used. We had two big pillows, each that were of good quality and gave us a good, relaxed night's sleep.

Two hairdryers were supplied in each room - one in the bathroom hooked onto the wall and one in the bedroom on the dressing table. I didn't notice the one in the room (Braun) which was a normal hairdryer and tried to use the lousy thing in the bathroom that is probably not even meant to be a hairdryer. In fact, maybe it is a nail dryer...hehe

The tea tray included some posh teas and coffees (mainly by Twinings). There was a cheap kettle. For snacks we were given a couple of packets of shortbread biscuits. We were given glasses on the tea tray, but no water bottles. Not willing to assume the tap water was safe, we boiled it first and waited for it to cool.

WiFi Internet access is available but we could not set it up, instead we bought time cards to use the downstairs computers, which for half an hour were at the excessive price of £5. We found the Internet to be fast and easy to use.

Little extras

As in many hotel rooms, there were paintings on the walls. Mostly these were pretty landscapes, which I quite like, rather than paintings of people that seem to stare at you at all angles or nudes. Landscapes are much more tasteful for a bedroom.

I found this to be clean and well-lit as well as reasonably spacious. We had a big mirror, with towels nicely folded on the side.
The shower was easy to use and I had no problems with temperature or power as I normally expect in hotels. The shower curtain was a bit small but if the cleaners don't mind mopping & the floor is not too slippery (it didn't seem to be) I suppose that is not a problem.
There were little bottles of shampoo, shower gel and more unusually, conditioner, which was very nice. The make was Crabtree & Evelyn & I must say they were very good quality - my hair felt lovely & soft after using them on just the first night.
We were given gowns, which were left in packets on our beds - I didn't use mine but it looked good, albeit a bit large for us.
The biggest problems were that the door kept opening by its own free will. This was scary & potentially very, very embarrassing! Another slight niggle is that the drain has to be pushed in the sink or the sink will just fill with dirty water, so we had to use our bare fingers in the water each time to push the drain to get rid of the water.

The cereals available were the usual - Rice Crispies, Coco pops, Corn flakes, the healthier Bran flakes, Muesli packets & Weetabix packets. There were plenty of jugs of milk which I guess was semi skimmed as it tasted normal to me & that's what I usually have. At the very moment I went to get some cereal a lady near me admitted to taking the last two bowls lol. I had to ask a waiter to bring more but it took ages.

There were mini croissants - I tried one, it was very crumbly, although there are jam, honey & marmalade jars available. There were some things that looked like Danish pastries but I didn't try them. Then there were the mini round waffles. They were like pancake batter (you could smell it from the entrance) & they tasted fantastic. There was some maple syrup, or if you prefer the honey was thicker. We had quite a few of these among us. They were extremely popular so all freshly made & warm.
There were also some fruits in syrups that looked nice & had good choice but I didn't try them.

Second morning

I also asked for a hard boiled egg. I cannot eat soft boiled as I seem to have a kind of allergic reaction to raw egg, so I specifically required hard boiled & the waitress repeated me. Ages later, someone brought me a soft boiled egg, which swiftly went to waste as nobody else wanted it.

Dinner in the restaurant

We had to book our dinner in advance when we checked in & it was only available at 8.30pm. We only arrived at the hotel at 7.00pm that day anyway so this was fair. The restaurant closes at 9.00pm but we stayed until about 10.00pm then left when they started putting out breakfast settings like jam etc.!
It was a buffet style dinner, & I'm not sure if this is typical but certainly not a good idea in my opinion for a restaurant of its kind - especially with so many waiters 'looking busy' - the area looked messy & the queues were very long.

Starters were salad or soup (either lentil or vegetable) - my soup portion was much smaller than the others - also the soups were spilt all around sides of the bowl so good thing there was a plate underneath the bowl. Presentation does not really bother me but it does show how enthusiastic the staff are. We had to ask for bread rolls which the waiter reluctantly brought - they looked like they'd been taken off someone else's plate as the people on the next table got a fresh full basket offered without even asking, yet ours had only five small rolls left in it & plenty of crumbs. My sister's bread knife seemed to be covered in rust but the rest of the cutlery was ok so we just took the starter knife to butter bread. I do find it quite off-putting when waiters put out dodgy cutlery & either do not notice or do not care that the cutlery is dirty. Nobody else seemed as bothered as me so I let this one go. The breads tasted ok, mine was wholemeal & I ate it, although I normally hate wholemeal. You get pieces of butter cut up on plate on the table, but they are no less hard to spread lol.

Because we wanted more choice, dad & I went & took salads from the 'cold starters' - I wasn't sure if we were allowed to but since it was late it would probably have been chucked anyway if we didn't. There was a huge variety, including waldorf salad with walnut oil rather than pieces that was quite tasty, a pasta salad, rice salads that I didn't try, lettuces, mixed bean salad with feta cheese that was really nice, cold meats - obviously I did not have, fruits (melon), & I also saw but didn't fancy grated carrot & orange pieces - weird combo but must be nice as I used to make carrot & orange soup & that's nice plus healthy. So basically they had foods from all over, if the main course seemed too English.
There were, of course, also accompaniments like mixed vegetables - sugarsnap peas, turnip sticks, carrot sticks & green beans; there were also some crispy & very oily roast potatoes, cauliflower (no thanks!) & some dodgy looking boiled celery (eww). So there was a fair mix of healthy & indulgent options & as it is a buffet, you are free to choose either but you do need to have a bit of self discipline that can be hard to do when you are there.

When visiting the leisure centre, you must sign in and out - I guess because I it is also used by public and probably for safety reasons. The reception area, where you sign in and pick up towels is smart and overlooks the small swimming pool. There are some tables and chairs for people to relax there. I was not impressed however, to find vending machines filled with unhealthy food that would tempt people who have just been working out to put all those calories back on!

Quite a small changing room, although to be fair the whole leisure centre is very small.
In fact there was only one small cubicle with a curtain. There are plenty of lockers considering the size! You need to use a £1 coin for the locker, which you get back. They are typically tall & thin, which, to me makes them awkward for storage.
There is a swimsuit cooler that takes 5-10 seconds & removes water from your swimming costume & I thought is quite nice to have in leisure centres.
You can only pick up towels in the main reception area, there are none in the changing rooms so make sure you take one in - I forgot this when I went swimming & had to ask someone to get me one

Gym

There was also an abs exercise thing (not electric but no idea what it is called) with instructions that were clear, one water cooler, mirrors all around that made me self-conscious in spite of the lack of people, glass screens so everyone can see in which means there was not really a lack of people but rather an external audience, which made me a bit nervous because I'm a bit on the fat side & also rubbish at exercising any longer than 20 minutes! The gym has its own towels so no need to bring one in, but there were only a few left on the table so you might need to check.

The pool goes to 1.2 m depth on deep end & it was quite small & busy so hard to properly swim lengths so not really for the serious swimmer - more for just messing about. There are lots of signs saying no jumping, diving etc. but clearly they were not enforced as some kids were, even in the shallow end, jumping in despite the presence of staff who just ignored them. There are also signs in changing rooms reminding you to shower before using the pool, but I doubt staff would notice if you did not.

On the second day I tried the steam room. It was not as hot as others I have used, which for me is a good thing because I find it a bit too painful on my eyes, but for some it may not be sufficient. I suppose you can always request that they check it. The steam room fits about 4/5 average sized people quite comfortably. I also gave the sauna a go. It is an old style sauna where you can increase the temperature by pouring water onto the coal. I never really understood how these things work. There is a button to request more water. The sauna seats 3 or 4 people & is a little bit more cramped than the steam room. Personally I would probably not want to go in if there were people I didn't know using it already as it would be awkwardly close!

Checking out

Conclusion