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

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 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 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.

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.

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!

BELVEDERE RESTAURANT - BREAKFAST

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.