Thistle Haydock, Haydock

...impressive and commercially alluring, the Thistle Hotels sparkle, on first sight with all the Georgian style of traditional English excellence. One could almost imagine Kevin McCloud striding through the grounds decorating it's themes with sheer grandness in his usual, colourful prose.

Perhaps one could be slightly misled as to the very actual whereabouts of each magnificent structure. The hotel which I will embark on in this particular ...
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The 137 roomed Thistle Hotel in Haydock stands proudly at Junction 23 of the North/ South corridor that we lovingly know as the M6; the very point where the A580 from Liverpool to Manchester crosses it. The picture from it's home website (featured below) gives the impression of solitude, peace and tranquillity, far away from the fast lane which carries the dense amounts of traffic from one great Northern city to another. Although boasting ... more

Grand, impressive and commercially alluring, the Thistle Hotels sparkle, on first sight with all the Georgian style of traditional English excellence. One could almost imagine Kevin McCloud striding through the grounds decorating it's themes with sheer grandness in his usual, colourful prose.

Perhaps one could be slightly misled as to the very actual whereabouts of each magnificent structure. The hotel which I will embark on in this particular review is a classic example of such misleading quantities. However, what we found, apart from the little annoying things one always can't wait to find, we found our half way halt exactly what we had had in mind of a pleasant stay at a good price…and this included free parking of which there is ample and all of 170 spaces!

Relaxation on the Hard Shoulder…

The 137 roomed Thistle Hotel in Haydock stands proudly at Junction 23 of the North/ South corridor that we lovingly know as the M6; the very point where the A580 from Liverpool to Manchester crosses it. The picture from it's home website (featured below) gives the impression of solitude, peace and tranquillity, far away from the fast lane which carries the dense amounts of traffic from one great Northern city to another. Although boasting it's 'attractively landscaped gardens' it is a large bank, like an inverted moat running around the outside of the Hotel to dull down the noise, it would appear, from the motorway. What actually appears, to the arriving guest is that this Hotel, in all it's glory, sits, snugly just off the roundabout of the Junction. The one great advantage to this is that if one was to overshoot the slip road on arrival, then don't be discouraged. You're place of peaceful relaxation is will quite happily stand out, giving a wide view of all passing at great speeds along the motorway…

…and for those who are wheelchair users…

One thing that is important and should be mentioned here is their lack of disabled arrangements. According to this year's Thistle Hotel brochure (which can be found free in any Thistle Hotel reception), this particular Hotel comes under a category 2, which means that the public areas are accessible for wheelchairs but the rooms may be a bit of a problem. There were no, it seemed, to be any rooms designed especially for wheelchair users. One should look out for a category 1 Hotel, but these seem few and far between.

Two people and their child….

Tired, drained and secretly wanting to never see another motorway again, our long drive from the Western Highlands of Scotland to the South Coast where we call home screamed out for an over night stop. Having nearly come to the end of our honeymoon, we left a burning desire to seek pampering, peaceful rest before embarking on that depressing last trek home back to dull normality.

We wanted something luxurious, yet cheap, or at least, damn good value for money so after stumbling across the Thistle Hotels main website, we were surprised to see that they could offer a reasonably priced two night break. What concerned us the most was our five year old. After having been turned away from dozens of B+B's like Joseph and Mary on Christmas Eve simply because owners cringed at the sound of the words, 'small child,' we welcomed that warmth from the operators voice at the Thistle Hotel booking line when she said, 'oh yes, a small child is no problem at all, I shall book you straight away into the family room!' I could have cried with joy…. It has to be mentioned that it was this very tiny fact that swung the whole idea of a Thistle Hotel break for me. What they gave us was the family room; which appears as 'accommodation' on the bill we paid on the last day at the very impressive £79 per night (per night; NOT per person, per night) with our young ankle biter eating breakfast every morning at £5 only. What we did notice, on arriving home, a couple of days later, is that they had failed to charge us for our son at all! (Some breaks can start from as little as £39.50 per person per night, although when these are, appears to be a mystery!)

Either way, it's a day at the Races…

Boasting it's loose connection with the famous Haydock racecourse (not one that I had actually heard of before, being brought up in Epsom, you would think I would have heard of every flippin' racecourse!) The Hotel's many suits are named after racecourses or actual races themselves - every apt! It seems, that the only thing that the Hotel does have in relation to the near by course is that they can offer you a 'special deal' named 'A Day At The Races,' which, at a snip of only £145 per person, per night, will get you your two nights stay at the Hotel, transport to and from the racecourse after you've drunk enough Champagne with Canapés, actual enclosure tickets, dinner, the Racing Post paper and breakfast (as you know, that last one would be included per Hotel guest anyway!) The booking facilities can be found on the website (see below) but this 'stunning' offer ends on the 31st of March 07. No doubt, they will think up another offer by then…

…Yes, it's along the mile long corridor and on the fifth floor…

We had arrived on a Saturday afternoon and went straight up to the room. Being a two floor Hotel, we are surprised not to see a lift of some sort. Our luggage from a week self catering plus a five year olds enormous toy collection was not a welcomed thought of having to lug the whole lot up the two flights of stairs ourselves. Still, no matter, we saw our room to be fairly fit with an already made up double sofa bed for young'un and a good sized bathroom, although the shower was somewhat powerful. Perhaps the idea had come from jet washing fire engines, everything had to be covered up before switching on, and I do mean, everything. Luckily, the maids were generous with the towels, perhaps they knew…

Another thing I noticed, and perhaps it is just me but it was nice to see a separate alcove for the tea and coffee making facilities. There is nothing worse that waking up the next day to splashes of coffee grains, slightly moist in tea stains scattered all over the table. It was a wonderful concept to splash your tea and coffee over a wall next to the bathroom instead…

We were also told that we had Sky TV in the room. We later found that this meant only Sky news, Sky sports one to three and any film had to be paid extra for, up to £10 extra in fact. After getting a little tired of asking for remote control batteries and getting offered ones that were completely the wrong size, we gave into the dullness of ITV…..I imagine that this is also a ploy to get you down to the bar to spend some money instead…

Feeling obliged to step out of the room that evening and after being refreshed in a car 'wash n' wax' sort of way courtesy of the power shower, we headed down to the bar for a quiet drink. We glided gracefully along the long corridor to the stairs, our son, skipping happily along, all full of excitement at his first stay in a proper hotel (Travelodge's, not counted). I had smiled fondly at him that evening and perhaps in the back of my mind I thought that it wouldn't really matter what us adults thought of the place, to a child, such a place it magical and magnificent. All We wanted to do was find fault in it, because that's what us great British public do on holiday! We spotted the leisure facilities on the way down, but that was for the morning to follow…

Would mad' am like the Duck…?

We engage in the evening meal that Saturday night in the Hotel. Sitting somewhere between one large blue sign outside and another, we felt that it was to be a toss up between the 'all expensive, and unpronounceable' restaurant or Burger King at the local motorway services. Fed up with greasy burgers, we craved for something of a little celebration and considering it was the last bit of the infamous honeymoon, we plunked for the Hotel

All dressed as could be expected after a mountain trekking holiday two hundred and fifty miles further North, we drifted into the every so swanky restaurant and felt immediately intimidated by the array of Silver Service, I almost asked the waiter for a crash course. Not a Hotel, officially stated as being 'child friendly,' they did their very best in the kitchen to accommodate a small person with a fussy appetite. Whilst his parents played apprehensively with foreign lumps swimming in something looking like lemon curd, our child eager romped through fish fingers, beans and chips. Us adults felt hard done by….With ponsy ice cream on square ash trays to follow and no starters, the meal for all three of us came to a very cheap £29. See, it can be done….

Dinner at The Haydock;

Monday to Saturday 7pm to 10pm
Sunday 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

Lunch, if you're interested is served in the restaurant as follows;
Monday to Friday 12.30pm to 2pm
Saturday closed (Burger King then…)
Sunday 1pm to 3pm.

The 'Co. Motion Brewshop Café' (which is basically the bar where you can order and pay for snacks) is open daily from 8am to 5pm for tea/coffee and other refreshments. You could literally eat all day if you really wanted to…..

Take your partners please for the 'two bride two step!'…..

After swanking into the bar confidently at the thought of not having to count up all our spare pennies for a drink and three straws after the expense of dinner, we discovered to our amazement two wedding receptions being held at the same time. In a large Hotel, one can understand that to keep both parties separate, it wouldn't be at all difficult. For heavens, one can practically loose your bearings in such a large venue, but these receptions really did seem to be side by side. As one bride walked in, another walked out and that was how the evening went. Quite farcical and comical, it became the evenings entertainment by guessing who was with what reception party. This was followed by two simulations disco's which, we were relieved to not be too disturbed by whilst in the spotlessly clean restaurant. Unfortunately, this was not the case when we arrived back in the room for that night. Trying to get a small child down to sleep when there is bass pounding through one wall and the delights of some drippy duo similar to the one at one reception in 'Four Weddings And A Funeral,' it was no wonder that I was beginning to feel like it should be someone's funeral….

Apparently, according to the bar man that evening, this was quite the norm on a Saturday night, stating that 'two' receptions was fairly quiet as they normally housed more. The Hotel actually can host all sorts of gathering all at the same time and offers '17 air conditioned rooms' for such events, as well as eight more smaller meeting rooms with their own bathrooms. These can be catered for all individually, which, you have to hand it to them, it quite an accomplishment! They certainly pulled it off that evening, with, what it seemed, no hiccups what so ever….

I'll have scrambled eggs followed by marmite and what's that over there Mum…?

After passing out at around one in the morning from the joy of silence and ending reception parties from downstairs, we awoke with a more than simply lack of zest on Sunday morning wishing we had ordered breakfast in bed. This could have been done up until two in the morning at a £3 extra charge on top per room. Anyway, that 'eat as much as you can' idea of the typical Hotel breakfast if enough to get down stairs and make as much crumbs as possible for! This was a sheer delight to our five year old who found it a complete novelty to try a mouthful and anything and everything. One has learn over the years to eat as much as you can possibly stuff into your face so that you don't have to fork out on eating pricey bar food for the rest of the day. The serving times where as follows;

Monday to Friday; 7am to 10am
Saturday; 7am to 11am
Sunday ; 8am to 11am. All these times are very suitable and with breakfast being dished out until 11, then you don't have an excuse to miss out on the only freebie meal that you're going to get!

Book yourself in to the receptionist in the restaurant and give her your room number, then dive in!

Fancy a dip…?

Not all of the Thistle Hotels are equipped with leisure facilities such as the Hotel at Haydock which houses a fairly well organised 'Otium Health And Leisure Club.' This actually means, in this Hotel, a 14 foot large swimming pool, a children's pool and Jacuzzi. Free of charge to the Hotel's 'residents,' which means anyone staying for more than one night or £5 for anyone else. With their opening times changing from Hotel to Hotel, you can quite literally soak into a prune state for an entire day, which is the feat that we all tried to accomplish in the Jacuzzi. This was to be one of our son's favourite things apart from the small, but friendly playground outside, (just enough for a small child to race around for half an hour.) The changing rooms are separate and come well equipped with free usage of towels, showers including shower gel dispensers and hair dryers. I also spotted a spin dryer to dry out your swimming things in and a build in sauna in the changing rooms too. I was told by my husband that the gents also supplied these things too. Also, for both ladies and gents, you will need a pound coin for your locker! This was something we didn't know about until we had actually got changed into swim wear. Thankfully, we had some change on us!

If that wasn't enough for any guest, they can then enjoy the run of all the weight training kit in the gym next door, although we found that a letter from your GP is required before you are allowed to run riot in there! Trainers are on hand to give you a quick run through of any type of kit you're not sure about. Also on offer were facials, make up lessons (!) waxes, mud packs, massages and goodness knows what else for the ladies. Price guides and offers where only to be found in the guest welcome packs in the rooms.

And finally….

Due to another long drive home in front of us on the Monday, we felt the need to not leave the Hotel all day on the Sunday. I have to admit, it was pretty difficult to kill a day in the Hotel, although, the brochure informs us that we would find it hard to leave. Having a small child to entertain at the best of times is pretty hard going, but in a Hotel that is not designed for children, it can be even worse.
What did amuse our son was being allowed by his parents to charge around and around the corridors, stopping every one in a while at the bar for a refreshing orange juice. An event that even I didn't mind doing whilst the drive of the family clan, lay re charging his batteries in the room.

In total, it had been a fairly depressing time at Haydock, only because it was the last leg of a wonderful holiday. Had it been another time, I would have enjoyed our stay even more. What I will mention is that as the usual idea goes, Hotel staff are young, over worked and incredibly underpaid. I know, that was me in my youth, struggling to get to the Hotelier top, but throughout our stay, we found everyone single member helpful, polite, friendly and charming, right from the chambermaids to the heads of staff. There was indeed a warm atmosphere although the receptionist managed to accidentally charge a vast amount to my husbands credit card then promptly put it back again. It is these little things that can be overlooked very quickly. I had always had a good impression of the Thistle Hotels, simply as it had been a chain that my Hotel had kept aspiring to.

The very essentials of a good Hotel where all there; cleanliness and friendliness. Once you have that, then the finer details don't seem to matter.

All information can be found on;
www.thistlehotels.com/haydock
Manchester Airport ; 18 miles
Wigan rail station; 7 miles
0870 333 9100 booking line
www.thistleleisurebreaks.com

Thistle Haydock
Penny Lane
Haydock
Merseyside
WA11 9SG
Tel; 0870 333 9136

©sam1942 2006

 

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