When booking our wedding/honneymoon on the Caribean island of Tobago my wife and I decided that to break up the journey a little we would fly to London the day before our onward flight rather than stressing ourselves out more than we needed to with a flight from Glasgow to London and then on to Tobago in the same day. We reckoned that the nine hour flight from London to Tobago would be more than enough travelling for one day.
At this point we made a booking for the Travel Lodge at Gatwick airport which we reckoned would be cheap and cheerful but suitable for our needs. We were happy with this as we knew we had a fortnight of luxury to follow when we got to Tobago but shortly after booking this hotel, Virgin holidays announced that our flight to Tobago had been brought forward a few hours and that they would be putting us up for the night in the Ramada Plaza hotel at Gatwick. This meant that we were getting to stay the night in London for nothing as we arranged to get a refund from the travel agents for our original hotel meaning the flight being moved worked in our favour this time.
*****LOCATION*****
The Ramada Plaza hotel, Gatwick is located four miles away from Gatwick airport. When
we arrived at the airport we were at the North terminal at which point we took the free train service to the South terminal to take advantage of Virgin's twilight check-in services and get rid of our suitcases. At this point with just our hand luggage to haul about we made our way outside the South terminal building and used one of the phones provided to phone the Ramada Plaza hotel. The hotel then sent a minibus to collect us from the airport which took about quarter of an hour or so to arrive. According to the hotel's website this bus service costs £2.50 per adult although we were not charged this, instead we put a tip in the drivers collection box.
On arriving at the hotel we made a booking to get the bus back to the airport the following morning, a service which was again included.
*****PRICE*****
As I mentioned earlier, it did not cost us anything for our night at the Ramada Plaza hotel but on checking out the hotel it appears to cost £100 for the night in a standard double room on a room only basis. This was the kind of room that we were meant to be staying in, although we were given a free upgrade on arrival to an executive room which would have cost us another £50.
*****RECEPTION/CHECK-IN*****
The check-in process was very straight forward when we arrived at the hotel. There were two members of staff working on the reception desk at that particular time and we were attended to straight away. We handed the receptionist our Virgin travel voucher which she used to check up our details on her computer. Virgin must have told the Ramada Plaza hotel that we were going away to get married, as it was at this point that the receptionist smiled, congratulated us and told us that she was going to give us a complimentary upgrade to the executive room. It may not have been much of a difference, but it is small touches like this that make you feel that you are more than just another guest passing through the hotel to them.
*****ROOMS*****
The Ramada Plaza hotel, Gatwick has a total of 151 bedrooms which are made up with a mixture of double rooms and twin rooms. The bedrooms all have an ensuite bathroom attached, remote control satellite TV which includes the usual pay per view film channels if you require them, a hairdryer and a trouser press. There is also tea and coffee making facilities in each room which we made use of as we were checking out of the hotel too early in the morning to get breakfast. The extras that you receive if you upgrade to an executive room are a large leather chair, a vanity unit and an unsteamupable mirror. These extras do not really seem worth the additional cost in my opinion.
I was very impressed with the en-suite bathroom which was mainly made out of marble. This bathroom included the bath as well as a shower which was very good for wakeing you up in the morning as it was very powerful and also easy to control the temperature, something that you would take for granted at home but don't get in a lot of hotel rooms. There were plenty of towels in the bathroom as well as soap, shampoo, conditioner etc.
The room and bathroom were both very clean and tastefull decorated making it a pleasant room to stay in.
*****EATING & DRINKING*****
At the Ramada Plaza hotel you have a choice if you are looking for something to eat. You can either have something to eat in the bar or make a booking and go to the restaurant which is situated within the hotel. By the time we arrived in the hotel and got settled in we decided to just have a snack in the bar where there is a choice of meals including the usual burgers, carbonara and sandwichs amongs other things. Most of the meals on this menu cost about £10 each. There is also some childrens choices on the bar menu which included things like sausage, mash and beans. The childrens choices cost about £5 each. I would say that the food that we had here was quite standard and nothing special.
The menu for the restaurant was a bit more fancy and had a selection which included steak, duck and sea bass amongst other things with most of the dishes costing about £15 each on that menu.
One thing which I found quite unusual was the fact that breakfast was not included at the hotel and costs about an extra £9 each although we were leaving too early for this anyway.
I found the drinks in the bar to be quite expensive, we only had one each with a glass of wine and a Jack Daniels and coke costing a total of £8.95. Im not sure if this is the normal price down south but it is definately a lot more than I am used to paying in Scotland.
*****OTHER FACILITIES*****
The Ramada Plaza hotel has various other facilities included which we didn't have the time to take advantage of. These include a Sebastian Coe health club on-site which has a gym and an indoor swimming pool as well as a sauna, a spa bath and a steam room. If you were to book in advance you can also pay to get a back massage, a facial and other treatments at the hotel.
The hotel also has a couple of computers where you can insert a pound coin to get about ten minutes of internet access which was handy for me as I was waiting to hear about a couple of job applications that I had made at the time.
*****CONCLUSION*****
Overall we were more than happy with the Ramada Plaza hotel at Gatwick. The fact that we got to stay in this hotel for free was a huge bonus especially with the upgrade as well. The staff that we came into contact with were nice and pleasant and seemed as if they were happy enough at their work. The food was decent enough for what it cost without being anything special although the drinks were a bit on the expensive side. The rooms were very nice, clean and with a comfy bed. This hotel is pleasant enough for an overnight stay when you are using the airport and I would recommend it for this.
Pictures of Ramada Plaza Gatwick, London
Rmada Plaza Bedroom
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