Merton Hotel, St. Saviour

...spent 5 nights at the Merton Hotel in St Saviour in Jersey, Channel Islands.

We stayed from Sundary 2 September 2007 to Friday 7 September 2007 and we had a great stay.

The Merton Hotel is owned by Seymour Hotels and is a 3 star hotel. Jersey have their own system of rating hotels which is different to the UK, but the ratings are of a very high standard.

We stayed in a double ensuite room and we had free ...
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The Merton Hotel is owned by Seymour Hotels, who own 2 other hotels in Jersey. Their website is www.seymourhotels.com.

The management were very helpful and polite.

Disability access seemed to be very good in the hotel, with a ramp to the front door, ramps at each set of steps and full lift service to each floor. Hopefully they would put wheelchair guest closest to the lifts so that they ... more

My husband and I have just spent 5 nights at the Merton Hotel in St Saviour in Jersey, Channel Islands.

We stayed from Sundary 2 September 2007 to Friday 7 September 2007 and we had a great stay.

The Merton Hotel is owned by Seymour Hotels and is a 3 star hotel. Jersey have their own system of rating hotels which is different to the UK, but the ratings are of a very high standard.

We stayed in a double ensuite room and we had free half board for the price of bed and breakfast.

We booked through Condor Ferries and took our own car and paid a total of £769 for the trip (£79 of which was for the car ferry travel).

OUR BEDROOM
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Our room was plainly and pleasantly decorated, with chrome light fittings everywhere. The furniture was ample, being a built in wardrobe, dressing table and chest of drawers and beside cabinet. We found this ample space to put our clothes away. The furniture was very solid and of a light ash colour. The mirror was very well lit. The television was quite small, but had 6 chanels, the usual 4 plus Sky One and Sky News.

A tea of tea/coffee making supplies was provided.

Our room overlooked the swimming pool which is across the road and it was a pleasant view, the car park was right next door also. There was plenty of parking and the hotel give you a pass for your stay.

The bathroom had a big sink, plenty of surface and a really powerful shower over the bath. There was always plenty of hot water and there was a place to hang your wet swimming costume over the bath.

Our room was a little noisy due to some sort of machinery going all night, but we could not work out what this was, it could have been ventilation, or the swimming pool filter system. This did not stop me going to sleep, but as I usually wake up several times a night, it seemed really noisy when I woke up!

HOTEL FACILITIES - RESTAURANTS AND BARS
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BELVEDERE RESTAURANT - BREAKFAST

Breakfast and dinner are served in the main restaurant which is the Belvedere. This is spacious with plenty of seating, although we were advised to book for dinner each night. We went for the early sitting of 6.30pm each night, after being advised by other guests that the desserts and some other food ran out nearer the end of the evening!

The half board is worth £17.95 per person for an all you can eat buffet, and we had that for free by booking by 31 March to go after 1 September. This meant that we saved £180 over the 5 nights by eating in the hotel.

Breakfast is a huge buffet affair and full fruits, yoghurts, cereals and full english breakfast is available, with plenty of toast and croissants. I tended to just have bacon and sausages each day, but my husband tried everything and assured me it was lovely. Our only complaint was the toast as it was just cooked and left under the heat lamps same as everything else and it was soggy in the middle and rock hard crusts! When we were in Cyprus, the hotel there had this ongoing toaster, whereby you put in the bread and it fed it round the machine and came out toasted and that was a much better idea.

There is plenty of milk available, and fruit juice and water too. Tea and coffee is served directly to your table.

BELVEDERE RESTAURANT - DINNER

We ate at 6.30pm each evening. The first night we walked in at 6.25pm and were politely escorted out again as "they were not open for 5 minutes"!! Not a good start. However, at 6.30 prompt, we were allowed in and escorted to a table for 2. The waiter asks if you want soup of the day. If not then you can help yourself to starters from the buffet, which is mainly cold meat and salad although I did see some mussels one night.

They offer you the wine list and bring other requested drinks directly to the table. My husband tried to buy some at the "bar", but was told that drinks are not for sale, they must be ordered! (When you check in you can open a tab, or you can pay cash each day.)

You can then go to the buffet and help yourself to whatever you want from the servery, although the roast meat is served directly onto your plate by the chef.

I ate roast turkey twice and roast beef three times. There is always a good selection of vegetables and potatoes, although they did not always do roast potatoes, which in my mind is a must with a roast meal. Each night there was Jersey new pototaes and mash available, with roast, parmentier, potato wedges or croquettes available on other nights.

if you did not want roast meat (there was also pork and lamb available on occasion, being beef and one other roast each night), then there was a good selection of chicken, pork or fish dishes available. There was a good selection of at least 4 vegetarian options available each night and there was always plenty of sauces and gravy available. We piled our plates high each night and dined like Kings.

Desserts were usually from a choice of around 8, being jelly and profiteroles available every night and cheesecakes, fudge cakes and lemon meringues and tortes appearing on different nights.

This was followed by a huge selection of cheese and biscuits, with tea and coffee being served to your table.

The food was fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough. The only complaint I have at all, is that the waiters whip the plates away as soon as they spot they are empty. i find this very bad manners if I am still eating and they are taking my husbands plate away before I have finished! They state that you can eat as much as you like in the buffet, but I think that they take the plates away so that you cannot go back for more!

Every day at breakfast you are handed a newspaper about the hotel, and it is obviously handed out every Monday, Tuesday etc, do if you were in the hotel for a fortnight, you would see the same food and entertainment again in the second week no doubt. But to be honest, i dont think anybody would spend 2 weeks on Jersey as there is not enough to do, unless you are the sort of person who just lies by the pool each day and doesnt venture out at all.

The hotel also has a fancy restaurant called Bonetti's. We did not eat there, so could not comment from personal view, but were told by other guests that the food was lovely. The area was very spacious and light. If on half board as we were, you could eat there for a supplement of £8 per person.

Jersey Joes is an american style diner, which serves burgers and milkshakes and it also has pay per minute internet access available there.

There is a sports bar avaiable showing Sky Sports football matches and a lounge bar that has internet access available if you take your laptop down. £5 for 1 hour or £10 for 24 hours.

ENTERTAINMENT
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Some nights there was a quiz from 6.40 to 7.30pm, so you could do that before a 7.30pm dinner. Cabaret entertainment was provided each night at 9pm. Acts included an Abba tribute act. This is all held in the Star Bar.

Drinks were reasonably priced, being £3.90 for a pint of coke and a small bottle of mineral water.

SWIMMING POOL AND LEISURE FACLITIES
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We did not use the gym, but were assured that it was of a high standard. The swimming pool is great. There is a large shallow area for children and various features, like a "current" bit and a "bubbly" bit. You can swim directly outside from inside through a rubber curtain. Outside there is a "mushroom" which spouts out water and there is a sectioned off part for lane swimming. The pool has a couple of jacuzzi's. There is also a steam room and sauna. There are plenty of lockers available and four showers for after your swimming (this was the ladies section, my husband said that the mens section was the same.) There is a big water slide that the kids love and it is always 27 degrees in the dome and there is a poolside snack bar called Cascades serving food and drinks all day.

We loved the pool especially that you could swim from inside to out. The bit with the "current" in was quite fun as well, although it was not switched on all the time. There are at least 2 lifeguards on duty all the time and the pool was generally open from 7.30am to 8pm which is good hours for a hotel. I belive the pool is also open to Jersey residents who pay a membership fee.

The pool was never too crowded to swim in and there were plenty of sunbeds around the pool and on a nearby grassy area. I was advised that there are pool towels available but I would recommend that you take your own.

CHILDREN
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We had no need for this, but there is a childrens club and also children can be taken to an early sitting for tea and then looked after while you eat your meal. Apparantly though, this only ran until the end of August, so we could not comment on these facitities as we did not see them being used.

INFORMATION
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The Merton Hotel is owned by Seymour Hotels, who own 2 other hotels in Jersey. Their website is www.seymourhotels.com.

The management were very helpful and polite.

Disability access seemed to be very good in the hotel, with a ramp to the front door, ramps at each set of steps and full lift service to each floor. Hopefully they would put wheelchair guest closest to the lifts so that they do not need to go up and down the few other steps that are around upstairs to get to the rooms.

Children seem well looked after, with bottles being heated upon request and high chairs provided when necessary.

The hotel is across the road from Howard Davis Park and is apparantly a 15 minute walk into the main streets of St Helier. It is a 5 minute drive from the harbour. We stayed there so that we could walk in to town each night, however, once we were there and saw the food, we decided to make use of the free half board and stay in the hotel each evening. The Park is lovely however to walk around.

There is a small shop directly across from the hotel, which sells postcards, stamps, parking cards, newspapers, gifts, sweets and drinks. We found it extremely useful each morning, especially for the parking cards. (Jersey has a very strange parking system, which I will go into in my review of the island).

Any hotel is ideally situated for sight seeing as the island is so small. There are fantastic beaches within a 15 minute drive and another 15 minutes and you are into the countryside. Basically it seemed that we were never further than 20 minutes from the hotel, wherever we were on the island.

MY RECOMMENDATION
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I would recommend this hotel to anybody for a holiday. There were a lot of older people there, some young families and a few young couples. We would not hesitate to return to the Merton Hotel and definitely on a half board basis. The accomodation was pleasant, the swimming pool was great and I would highly recommend it. 

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