The Maynard Hotel, Scarborough, North Yorkshire

...went up to Scarborough for the weekend too.

Due to her rather poor organisation, she did wait until about 2 weeks before we were going to bother booking a Hotel, we tried a variety of them, some to expensive, many fully booked, until she found one called “The Maynard Hotel”, located close to the south bay in Scarborough. I think it cost £230 in total, and that was for two nights, and two rooms – so very decent price indeed for the four ...
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The Maynard Hotel is located down near the South Bay, which means all the amusements and sea front bits are just a short walk away. It is down a one way street called “Esplanade Gardens” which did take us a while to find, but that was mainly because we looked the wrong way and drove past it. The Hotel is right at the top of the road, and when you do find the area you can notice the Hotel easily.

Being so close to the ... more

Last weekend, my Mum and Step-Dad had to attend a wedding up in Scarborough. For some reason, they didn’t really want to leave me and my younger brother at home, possibly for fear of wild parties or something, so we went up to Scarborough for the weekend too.

Due to her rather poor organisation, she did wait until about 2 weeks before we were going to bother booking a Hotel, we tried a variety of them, some to expensive, many fully booked, until she found one called “The Maynard Hotel”, located close to the south bay in Scarborough. I think it cost £230 in total, and that was for two nights, and two rooms – so very decent price indeed for the four of us – and it included breakfast!

Location

The Maynard Hotel is located down near the South Bay, which means all the amusements and sea front bits are just a short walk away. It is down a one way street called “Esplanade Gardens” which did take us a while to find, but that was mainly because we looked the wrong way and drove past it. The Hotel is right at the top of the road, and when you do find the area you can notice the Hotel easily.

Being so close to the beach, all the amenities you need are really close, obviously there is all the amusements and bits down the sea front, but a short walk away is a nice little pub that often has live music, and there is also Costcutter, Sainsbury and Local right nearby too for any last minute things you might need.

The actual town centre is also only a little walk away. We went there a couple of times, and it was just about 15 or 20 minutes away, offering all the shop you get in a normal town centre, from Topman, Waterstones, WH Smith, Debenhams and such.

In the Hotel

We arrive at the hotel, bags in arms ready to dump our stuff and take a walk along the beach. We had to wait at the front door, which is kept locked, and the friendly owner, Stuart was soon there, he told mum to fill in a form, gave her a pass for parking by the hotel, and then gave us all our keys. First time I have been in a Hotel that doesn’t have those swipe card things. One key was for our room, one for the front door and one, I assume for the outside door.

Being set in a six story building, the rooms are on different levels, mine and my brothers room was room 16, right at the top of the Hotel, up 7 flights of stairs, which was good preparation for the walk later, since Scarborough has plenty of angled areas, which coming from the flat fens, I’m not really used to!

When we finally reached the top, we opened the door to be greeted by our small little room. I say small, purely because there wasn’t much floor space, but it was of sufficient size really. In the room were two single beds, a TV, a Sink, chest of drawers, Wardrobe and two bed side cabinets.

The shower room was at the end of the room, which just had a toilet and shower in, the sink being across the room. The room was decorated nicely, bit old fashioned in parts, but generally pretty decent, and included a small television. The one thing I loved though, was the window. Being the top of the hotel, with an old fashioned window that you lift up, meant I could sit on the window, my feet resting on the lead lined roof below me, and look out across Scarborough, although every time Mum came in she told me off…

The beds were both soft, and comfortable. Clean fresh smelling sheets, and the room in general seemed very nice and clean. There were a good number of plug sockets, which was useful for charging my camera and phone. There was also an Alarm Clock, and of course, the usual Tea and Coffee supplies. For the first time in a Hotel, the tap water actually tasted fine when drank straight from the tap.

Mum and Howard’s room was a double room, only up 4 flights of stairs. It had in it a nice double bed, which was much harder than the mattresses in my room, they had a shower room too, this time with the sink in it. They also had two wardrobes, bedside cabinets and a dressing table- which had the TV on it. The TV they had was nicer that ours, for starters they got a remote control.

Also in the rooms was a booklet about the hotel. A welcome from Angela and Stewart, the fire procedures, diner and breakfast menu, bar tariff and such. I was a bit annoyed to see no decent cider’s on the tariff, they only had the fowl tramp-piss of Strongbow, which I sincerely despise. Other than that, it looked pretty decent, with a couple of beers and wines, and a good spirit selection. Oh, there was a Bible too.

All the hotel had pieces of art around them, some of them were pretty decent, and it gave a very nice homely touch, my brother said “it’s like being at Nans”, which was true, it was a very relaxed place, homely place, not like staying in a Travelodge. The dining area was located down stairs from the main floor, and on the main level was a lounge. In the front door, was a collection of leaflets about the various Scarborough attractions, which would have been great for people not knowing what they were doing.

Breakfast

Breakfast was included in the price of our stay, and there was a great choice. We went down on the Saturday morning, to an array of breakfast cereals, and fresh fruit, or, as Mum liked, prunes. There was apple juice and orange juice in jugs too. We sat down on the table with our room numbers on, and before long, Stewart came over and asked if we would like any Tea or Coffee. The tea was Tetley’s I think, and Mum didn’t complain about the coffee!

Not long after, he asked us what we wanted for breakfast, the standard being a Full English, though we could have poached eggs, scrambled eggs, or just bits of a full English if we wanted. We all went for the full English.

The breakfast arrived, freshly cooked not long after, consisting of one sausage, a hash brown, some bacon, a fried egg, baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. Not one thing was missed. The sausage was really nice, I am not a fan normally, but it was great. The hashbrown was probably fried, and they are nicer grilled or oven cooked- but it was still nice. The bacon, eggs and mushrooms were also really good. The tomatoes, however, were the plum ones from a tin, and I much prefer fresh cut ones fried, but I still like them so no complaints there.

We did have to a bit of swapping between us, since Liam doesn’t eat Mushroom, I don’t eat Baked Beans and Howard doesn’t eat Tomatoes. So, after the trading we all ate it up. I’m sure that had we asked, he would have served the meals without what we liked, but we didn’t want to hassle him. Toast was brought out a minute or so later, and there was a selection of those little packet jams and marmalade on the bar.

The best Full English I have had in a long time!

The Bar

The Hotel has it’s own bar area, which is actually the dining room… On the first night it was closed when we wanted to go, so we went to a local pub, but night 2 it was open. The tables had been moved, and a new table brought in, as well as a sofa and coffee table. It wasn’t the best looking bar area, since it still felt like a dining room – with a bar, but did have 2 TV’s, Music playing and a Dart Board.

The bar tariff was different to what was mentioned in the booklet, since it actually had much more. Magners was available after all, but they only had 2 bottles left, which my brother had, the best thing with that though – was it was £2.50 a bottle – the cheapest I have ever seen it other than a supermarket. I myself had a house double vodka and red bull, which was £4.00. Mum and Howard had there usual Rum and Coke (Howard) and Bacardi and Coke (Mum). For all four drinks it was just £11.

The bar area was good, since it meant we got to talk to a few other people who were there too, we stayed for an hour or so, before Mum and Howard went to bed. Liam and I, then ventured to…

The Lounge

We thought it was for everyone, but weren’t sure, so didn’t go in on the Friday Night. But Saturday night, Stewart said we could go in, to sit on the sofas to watch TV. We watched some programmes, then noticed the DVD player, and went to ask if he had any DVD’s we could pinch – he gave us two cd holders full of DVD’s. Loads of them, so awesome choice, that meant that we got to pass a few hours watching a film, in perfect comfort of the sofas. The Lounge was a large area, and suitable for a family or two. There was also a Play Station II with games in.

We only went in the once, but had we been staying longer, ie a Week or something, I imagine we would have used it a lot more.

Any bad Points?

Just the one really. The TV. It was terrestrial, which meant there was next to nothing to watch, most hotels I have stayed in have had a selection of digital channels to watch, but this didn’t. However, come the digital switchover, I expect there will be Freeview in all the rooms. It wasn’t a huge issue, I mean we weren’t there to watch TV, but on the few instances we wanted to, it would have been nice if there was something decent on.

The lounge also only had Terrestrial, but Stewart did say that he would put whatever we want on Sky on for us.

I suppose all the stairs could be a problem for some people. Since all the rooms, and the dining area all require the travel up and downstairs, and there isn’t any lifts or bits. So would not suit a disabled person. But it was awesome sliding down all the banisters…

In Summary

If you are planning a trip away in Scarborough, I sincerely recommend this place. It was a very comfortable place to stay, and felt so much like home, due to the décor, the general comfyness of the place and the pleasant and friendly hospitality. The facilities were great, and the location excellent.

If you want to visit, see their website: www.maynardscarborough.com
 

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