Hilton Hotel, Blackpool

...

Intro

It’s Summer 1999….it’s been quite a summer already (what with 35 of us going to Gran Canaria after our A levels), but now it’s time to do something cultural and a group of us plan to go away to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a couple of days. However, one by one everyone drops out except Stuart and myself. We are friends, but don’t really know each other that well, but we think “what the hell, we’ll still go!”

We stay in the Hilton Hotel in Warwick, and it costs £100 each for 2 night’s bed and breakfast, and dinner on the first night (I only remember because it was such a round amount). Anyway, we have a fantastic time, with lots of memories made, and become good friends.

10 years later

Ok, it’s not quite summer yet, but it’s nearly 10 years later and with hubby going off to Egypt scuba diving with another woman, I was left with a bank holiday to fill. So, Stuart and I decided to have a reunion trip.

I can’t remember why or how we chose Blackpool, but I wasn’t complaining – very convenient for me coming on the train straight from work in Carlisle, not so easy for Stuart driving up from Essex, but hey ho!

When it came to choosing the hotel Stuart came up with a couple of ideas, but then I saw the Hilton, and just knew it had to be that – for old time’s sake! Besides, it looked nice enough on the website (perhaps a bit nicer than it is in real-life!) - http://www.hilton.co.uk/blackpool

Booking

Stuart booked online, at the cost for £220 for the two of us in a twin room (I was just going to have to grin and bear the snoring), for three night’s bed and breakfast with dinner included on the first night. Not bad at all really, when you think that it cost almost that for 2 nights 10 years ago – I know that was Warwick rather than Blackpool, but quite honestly the hotels are pretty similar, just the locations which are not!

Obviously there are places in Blackpool which cost a lot less than this – there were some places that looked like right dives on the sea front! But we wanted something reasonable!

Getting there

Well, as I’ve mentioned I got there by train to Blackpool North. The train station is within walking distance of the hotel (I would have needed directions to find it) or a 5 minutes drive. Stuart picked me up – we needed to find a shop to buy alcohol anyway.

The hotel itself is located on the North Promenade and the postcode is FY1 2JQ (for your Sat Nav if you have it) – the hotel is quite a distinctive looking building, so you shouldn’t miss it!

Parking

The car park is big (free to residents of course), so it wasn’t a problem finding a space (unlike last week in Edinburgh!) – once we’d parked that was that – we’d be drinking so on foot for the rest of the trip!

If you come from the carpark you enter on the lower ground floor. There is a smoking area outside the hotel by this entrance which is undercover.

Check-in

Stuart had checked us in earlier – Check-in is from 3pm. We had a card key each – however did notice that the key doesn’t activate the lights in the bedrooms (they just operate like normal lights) which means that the hotel must waste a lot of electricity if people leave rooms with lights left on.

The Room - Bedroom

The room was slightly on the small side, but adequate for our needs. There were two single beds (comfy enough, but not enough for me to want to stay in bed all day like my bed in Edinburgh the week before) with bedside table in between.

A flat screen 32inch TV which was good – so often hotels seem to have the world’s most rubbishy TVs! The movie channels and adult entertainment needed to be activated in reception (no idea what the cost would be), we stuck with watching TV – for some unknown reason we actually ended up watching Songs Of Praise, I think for the comic value, and because we’d been drinking!

There were the usual tea/coffee making facilities with shortbread biscuits replenished daily (remember to put them in your suitcase to take home/to work as a gift from your travels!). Room also featured alarm clock, trouser press (which nicely put the creases into Stuart’s trousers), hairdryer, desk, chair and plenty of wardrobe/drawer space.

There was a bottle of mineral water on the desk with a price tag of £3.95 on it. We bought our own soft drinks from outside the hotel, but I was happy to drink the tap water which tasted fine.

The view from the window of the sea was nice – most rooms have a sea view due to the design of the hotel (quite clever) – unfortunately the window needed cleaning (I imagine this is quite a problem), and the window didn’t open very far (at a guess so people can’t jump or something), so I couldn’t get a nice picture out of the window. There was also a rather ominous looking stain on the window frame (I just don’t want to know) – otherwise the room was nice and clean.

The Room – En Suite

The en suite was pretty small and basic – toilet, sink and bath with shower head. The shower worked ok, but people who are tall might have problems with it as it’s fixed on the wall and can’t be moved to a higher point.

Shampoo/Conditioner/Shower gel/Soap replenished each day, so put in your suitcase what you don’t use! The hotel clearly saw me coming, and therefore the towels weren’t the huge white fluffy things which I might just have taken one of back 10 years ago. One small gripe really that there was only one main towel each, whereas I really like to have a big one for my hair too.

The big problem – one of our two real problems with the hotel, was the toilet door. Fast-forward to the last night. I remember going to the toilet in the night and struggling a bit with the door when I came out, but didn’t think too much of it. However, when Stuart came to open the toilet door in the morning he found that the door wouldn’t open. We both tried – we tried pushing and banging quite hard, but no matter what, it wouldn’t budge – we figured out that we needed something long and thin to stick in it, but didn’t have any paperclips or anything. In the end we had to phone reception to send someone. A man came pretty quickly, stuck a screwdriver in the handle and it opened. I asked him if it happened a lot and he responded that it was normally kids “mucking around” – I felt reprimanded! However, I don’t really understand where the fun in the game “let’s mess with the door handle on the off chance will lock the door permanently” would be – I would imagine that normally small children get themselves locked in the toilet by accident.

Anyway, I have never known being locked outside the toilet when the door only locks from the inside….but quite honestly I wouldn’t fancy being locked in the toilet either! So, my tip of the day is MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A SCREWDRIVER!

The Lifts

Lifts seem to be becoming a feature of my hotel reviews. One small issue with the hotel is that there are only three lifts, but that one of them only goes down to the Ground Floor rather than the Lower Ground Floor. If you want to get to the leisure centre or the car park you really want the Lower Ground.

At busy times this can become an issue…but also a source of amusement! When we came to leave we wanted the lift to the LG floor, but the first one which came was the one which only went to the Ground – so we pressed again, and then 2 minutes later the same lift came back. Stupidly I then pressed the button too quickly and the doors opened again – the man inside was not impressed.

In retrospect we should’ve just walked the last flight of stairs, we did it enough other times!

Dinner

Dinner is a large buffet selection. It is advisable to book with reception for a particular time. Give your number to them and they’ll tick it off (always useful to remember your room number!), then one of the many waiters will show you to the table which is absolutely the furthest away from the food!

The waiters come to the table to take drinks orders (we had wine which I think was £18 – so this is where they make some of their money back), and offered us soup. This was tomato on the first night which we declined, and leek and potato the second time which we had – it was very nice actually.

Both times (regardless of soup or not) we had a starter buffet selection which consisted of various cold pasta, couscous, potato salad, and various meats etc. I find usually at these things that I end up with something on my plate which I really don’t like much, but I have to say that I ate every bit – a good sign!

For main course there is a chef who dishes up what you choose (like in a canteen) – I went for a Spanish Chicken dish the first night, and Shepherd’s Pie the second time. There was a selection of various different things such as roast meats, fish, and vegetarian options. I would imagine that most people would find something they liked. Then you can help yourself to accompaniments – various types of potatoes, rice and vegetables. There is a children’s selection of food which I didn’t inspect too closely (looked like fish fingers, chicken bits etc), although I sneakily grabbed a few chips from over there!

There was a nice selection of desserts, and obviously if you’re still hungry you can choose as many as you want as it’s self-service. I went for some sort of tart thing which was nice. There are also cheeses – you could have a dessert followed by cheese if you so desire.

It’s not the world’s best food by any means, but I thought the selection was fine, the food was all nice, and I can’t really fault it at all! Personally I quite like self-service buffets, reminds me of all-inclusive holidays!

Now for the best thing – when we booked we thought we only got dinner included on the first night. However, it turns out it was also included for the Sunday night (we are not absolutely sure, but think it was included on the Saturday as well – we had booked to eat out then anyway). So, make sure you check with reception when you get there what is included in your stay. We were chuffed to have an unexpected included meal, especially me as I’d said I’d pay for dinner on the Sunday night!!!

Breakfast

My favourite part of staying in a hotel is undoubtedly having a full English breakfast – self-service – bacon, sausage, beans, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, mushrooms, hash browns, black pudding, and haggis. Yum! Probably not the best idea to trust any of it if you’re vegetarian, but I don’t pay much attention to that sort of thing I’m afraid.

There’s a selection of cereals, and a healthy selection of fruits, and also cold meats and things. I didn’t bother with this as I wanted purely unhealthy stuff. There was a nice selection of pastries (and the worlds smallest croissants I think) and muffins, and breads/bread to toast.

A selection of food to suit everyone – there usually is at large hotels which are a chain, and this doesn’t disappoint. In fact on neither day did we need anything to eat for lunch as we were stuffed (I managed to keep it all down though on the Pleasure beach!)

They bring out tea/coffee and juices – just the once. That was the only downside, normally I like to just go and fill up my orange juice myself. But I went and got some water when I’d finished my glass.

The Bar

Onto the second main gripe about this hotel. Up to the bar to order drinks, and the barman replied “I need ID” – at first we didn’t really understand what he meant, whether he meant ID for the fact that we were staying there. Anyway, there is no way that Stuart and I could possibly be under 18 (being 28 later this month), but I gave him my driving licence. Stuart only has a paper driving licence, so this wasn’t acceptable. He had to go back to the room to find his passport (lucky he had it really, it was only because he’d needed it for hiring the car I think).

It’s not the fact we were ID’d which was the problem really (although I do find it quite offensive being told I look like a child), it was the rude manner in which it was done. But more to the point, if I hadn’t got a photo driving licence or a passport then I wouldn’t have been served. Of course lots of people don’t have these documents, or do have them but wouldn’t be taking them on holiday in Blackpool with them.

Anyway, I named the rude barman on the comments form for the hotel.

Drinks were hotel priced really – a pint about the £3.20 mark, a bottle of wine starting from £15. They did a cocktail called a “Blackpool Zinger” which was £5 – we had one for the novelty value – a rum based fruity drink which was quite nice.

The hotel seemed to be full of foreign staff which was all a bit random. At times there appeared to be a lot of staff milling around not really doing anything.

Evening Entertainment

On the Friday and Saturday nights there was live entertainment in the lounge, which was fairly non-offensive and nice enough to listen to. I do hate it though when it’s late and you see these families with their small kids who really should be in bed – the poor kids are just so tired, and then the parents wonder why they’re so badly behaved all of the time.

The Leisure Centre

We made one trip to the pool. You get towels from the pool reception area. Changing room was fine, although it confused me working out how to get into the pool area from there! The showers in the changing rooms were good, with plenty of shampoo etc. One nice feature was the swimming costume dryer machine which you can dry your swimming costumes in afterwards (well there’s a surprise then!) There are lockers (which cost £1 which is refundable), but I didn’t need one as I only had my clothes with me, which I just left on the bench.

There were about 10 of us in the pool and it’s only a small pool (1.2 metres deep), but it was nice enough for a relaxing dip. We also spent 10 minutes in the steam room, but didn’t get round to the sauna. There’s also a gym, but we didn’t investigate that, it looked ok through he window.

Checkout

Check-out time is 12pm which is good, as often it can be earlier. We left earlier though for me to get my train home. It was a quick process with no hidden charges or anything to pay!

Other

The Hilton is a 2.5 mile walk from the Pleasure Beach. On the Saturday we walked all the way since the day was so lovely, and it was nice to see the area. On the way you pass Blackpool Tower (which is probably about a mile along the way). We got the tram most of the way back, for novelty value, but also as we’d been on our feet all day. In the evening we headed to a restaurant 5 miles the other way along the road in Thornton Cleveleys, called “The Venue”. We chose that place because of a recommendation from Stuart’s friend, and it was nice. However, there are plenty of places to eat on the seafront.

On the Sunday we went to the tower for the day – unfortunately it was closed to go up due to wind. And as far as we were concerned all of the exhibits inside the tower and the circus were terrible (wanted to kill Mooky the clown, he was that irritating), but we had a good day due to the amusement value. The beach at Blackpool is nice I have to say, and the part near the Hilton hotel is good. We bought a bucket and spade and made a few castles on the beach before it started to rain. I imagine it can get very busy in the summer.

Final Remarks

I think I’ve just about said it all - an excellent weekend, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Hilton Hotel as it’s certainly good value for money. However I recommend that you take a screwdriver, and photo ID if you’re under 35 or so.