Hi guys, I'm 30 & live with my hubby and fat cat in Coventry, although I'm from Sunny (?) Wolverhamp...
Hi guys, I'm 30 & live with my hubby and fat cat in Coventry, although I'm from Sunny (?) Wolverhampton originally. My fave topics for reviews are holidays, hotels and travel - my all time favourite pastime, although I do diversify ocassionally! Enjoy!
Member since:02.04.2004
Reviews:33
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My boyfriend and I were at a loss as to how to spend our August Bank Holiday weekend and, after much deliberation, eventually came up with the idea of an extended booze-cruise to Calais with a 2 night stop over. We chose to take the car (valuable wine-carriage space) and go by ferry and managed to book quite a good deal, so that all that was left to complete the weekend was a hotel ….
We've travelled on the continent a fair bit, so had not only heard horror stories, but had experienced them too, so were keen to ensure that this time, our hotel was clean, modern and easily accessible! And I'm glad to say that this hotel was a real find, and one that I would not hesitate to recommend.
The Hotel
Part of the Accor group, this is one of presently 18 Suitehotels in mainland Europe. As yet, there are, unfortunately no Suitehotels in England and they are located principally in and around France, although there are branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Calais, this hotel sat amongst two sister hotels - an Ibis and an Etap. Although I believe this to be the
most expensive of the three, it was still very competitively priced. We paid 196 euros for a two-night stay, but look out for special offers, especially internet rates (www.suite-hotel.com) which are often as low as 132 euros for 3 nights at the weekend. Based on the cars in the car-park, it appears that most guests staying in this particular branch are from the UK.
Location
The hotel was incredibly easy to find, just off junction 43 of the main A16 road which runs from Calais to Boulogne. It's is located less than 5 minutes drive from the Calais Eurostar terminal (and less than 15 minutes from the Ferry ports) - we couldn't have wished for more. It's also within walking distance of Cité Europe, a huge shopping mall which features restaurants, cafes and an impressive Carrefour hypermarket. If you're more interested in getting out and about you can be in Lille in just over an hour, Le Touqet (with fantastic beaches) in slightly less than that and in Boulogne in around half an hour.
Room
As the name suggests, Suitehotel rooms are all actually mini-suites, so are a good size - 30 square metres in fact. The rooms appear to be standard throughout the chain, and each have a double bed and a settee which folds out into a second double bed. Between the two is a sliding bamboo partition, which is ideal if one of you wants to watch TV or read while the other sleeps. I imagine this is particularly beneficial if you're travelling as a family or as two couples, as it allows for more privacy than standard hotel rooms!
Our room was light and airy with three huge windows, and although it had individual climate control/air-con, the windows opened to allow you to let fresh air in if you prefer this. There were blackout blinds at the windows too, to provide complete darkness in the room when we wanted to sleep.
Our bed was large and, although I find beds on the continent to be much harder than in most hotels in the UK, it was comfy. The TV in the room was on casters, so could be moved around depending on where you wanted to sit/lie. It could even be moved into the doorway of the bathroom to allow you to relax in the bath and watch TV - luxury!! The TV even picked up UK channels BBC 1, 2, ITV and Channel 4, as well as Eurosport, Sky News and MTV. Although we didn't watch much TV it was nice to be able to catch up on UK news as we were getting ready in the mornings.
The bathroom contained a separate bath and shower cubicle, which is ideal when there's two of you rushing to get ready in the mornings! The shower was impressive and powerful and the water in both the bath and shower was always hot (even when running both at the same time!). The toilet was in a separate room off the main bed/living area which, again, meant that the two of u could get ready quickly without being under each others feet. The bathrooms and toilet each had complimentary body/hair/shower gel, which was pleasant, and we had plenty of clean towels every day of our stay.
There was plenty of cupboard space in the room, and there was also a mini-safe.
The room seems to have been deliberately designed to accommodate both business and leisure travellers, the large table and chairs is ideal for eating, drinking, relaxing or working and the room even offers internet access to those with a laptop. Perhaps most impressively, however, the room has a small, but decent sized fridge and a microwave too, as well as the standard tea and coffee making facilities.
Hotel Amenities
The hotel had a small gym-room with a step machine, bike and weights. This room also had a TV and, I understand, the hotel offers free massages on Thursdays!
Although the rooms didn't have an individual iron, the hotel does have an 'ironing room', which is open 24 hours.
The hotel bar was open until around 11, and the small lobby area included fridges stacked with goodies which were either ready to eat or could be heated up in the microwave in your room - you simply paid for these on reception. The hotel offered a continental breakfast for around 6 euros, but the price of your room included a free coffee and croissant, so we didn't bother with the breakfast.
Finally, the hotel offered free internet access in the lobby's 'business corner' which was ideal for quickly checking emails. I understand that the business corner also offers a free faxing/printing/copying service to residents too.
Staff
All of the staff we encountered spoke perfect English and were incredibly polite and helpful. I discovered this even before we stayed as I'd had to email the hotel before we arrived to get directions etc. During our stay they were more than happy to give us further directions and recommendations of restaurants, tourist spots etc.
Conclusions
Based on our stay I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this hotel to friends and family, and would certainly stay there again. For a quick, cheap stay-over like ours, all you can ask for is a clean, reasonably priced, friendly hotel in a convenient location, and this hotel did more than just check those boxes. My only final recommendation would be that if the internet site says there's no availability, try calling/emailing the hotel directly - this happened to us and they managed to find room for us!!
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