I travelled to Belfast last week for a short break, and, being a poor student, Belfast Central Travelodge seemed ideal! Here's the lowdown:
BOOKING INFORMATION: Rooms can be easily booked through the website (www.travelodge.co.uk), you just pick the dates you want when prompted and it books the rooms for you. You don't pay when you book the rooms, instead you pay at check-in, but you do have to enter a card number for guarantee purposes.
PRICES: Excellent, really. In our case we had a double room, which was £79 a night. What's great is that you pay for the room, not per person, so if you're travelling with a friend or partner as in my case, you end up paying £39.50 per night, which is the cheapest I've heard of save maybe youth hostels. The price doesn't include breakfast, however, which is another £7.50 per person per meal, more below.
THE ROOM: Really basic, you get what you pay for, but it was pleasant enough and nicely furnished with a comfy king sized bed, bedside cabinets, a desk (but without lighting so I don't know how anyone could work there!) a large wardrobe with hangers, a TV with all the main UK terrestrial channels (didn't go to Belfast
to watch TV so lack of digital/pay-per-view wasn't an issue for me, though might be for some I suppose). You also get two mugs with a supply of coffee and tea (no teapot but you don't need it) and milk. Lighting in the room was unfortunately virtually non-existent, only two lamps either side of the bed which was too dark really. Am glad we visited in the summer when it was still light in the evenings as in the winter it'd really be a problem when it's dark.
En-suite bathroom was a good size and contained everything you need - bath, shower, toilet, sink with room to put toiletries and a big mirror. No bath mat, though, and floor did get a bit slippery but I suppose these are minor points.Towels are provided (and can be changed every day if you want) but no little bottles of shampoo or other toiletries so pack your own!
Our room was on the second floor, accessible by both stairs and lifts.
The only real complaint we had was noise from a nearby nightclub (and to be fair this is highlighted before you book on the travelodge website, and this was not intolerable). The view from the window was also not inspiring - next doors' rubbish bins and barbed wire fencing! (but then you don't expect awe-inspiring views for the price, I guess)
There's Wi-Fi in the rooms, and an internet kiosk downstairs for 7p per minute. Phones in the rooms can only be used for internal calls, but if you need to phone out, then there is a payphone at reception.
FOOD: Breakfast costs extra on top of the room price, and there are two kinds available. The 'Continental' (a bit of a misnomer) is £6.00 per person, and includes toast (white or wholemeal) with a choice of butter or flora, jam or marmalade, grapefruit or mandarin segments, orange juice, tea or coffee and cereals (special k, cornflakes, crunchy nut cornflakes or bran flakes).
We went for the 'Cooked' option (£7.50), though were disappointed there weren't vegetarian alternatives for the bacon and sausage, and we weren't offered extra portions of the other items to compensate (potato farls, fried soda bread, baked beans, 2 fried eggs). The eggs were supposed to be a choice between fried and scrambled, but scrambled seemed to be off the menu when we were there, which is a shame as the fried eggs were underdone and tasted a bit, well, vile.) The cooked choice also includes everything in the continental breakfast, so we were able to fill up with toast, but really it could have been better especially given the price was so high. There was a good side to breakfast though, as we were entertained by one of the lovely hotel staff who was friendly and came to chat (Northern Irish people seem really lovely as a whole, actually!).
Due to the uninspiring breakfast, we didn't eat an evening meal in the bar-cafe (available from 6-8pm) so I can't comment. There is however a gorgeous restaurant just next door from the hotel where we got a reasonably priced and delicious meal for a reasonable price. Another deterrent was that there was only one veggie choice on the bar-cafe menu, pasta with roasted vegetables, which didn't sound great, especially given breakfast quality. Needless to say, we didn't eat breakfast in the hotel after the first morning either. My tip would be one of the nearby juice bars in the Great Northern Shopping Mall near Europa bus station (yummy filled bagels for about £2.50), or breakfast in the cafe at the bus-station side of the mall (better breakfast than the travelodge at half the price).
There's also a vending machine in the reception area which sells snacks and cold drinks.
BAR: Open from 8, very basic selection of drinks but was alright when we didn't feel like venturing too far afield - cost us £5.60 for 2 bottles of Magners which wasn't cheap but not too expensive either by city standards.
SERVICE: This was impeccable. Friendly and helpful receptionists to help you find your way around Belfast with the help of a free map, and who provided hairdriers/irons from reception promptly. Cleaning was second-to-none, so the room was really hygienic and the bathroom was always clean. Staff at the bar-cafe were also eager to help, and we felt really welcomed at the hotel, even if it was no-frills.
LOCATION: The Travelodge is really central to Belfast, about a 5 minute walk from the main shops and very close to City Hall and the Europa bus station, from which you can get buses to many places in Northern Ireland. It's also really close to lots of pubs and restaurants which is handy if you don't want to stay in the hotel for meals and drinks.
VERDICT: Overall, a good experience for the price, I'd recommend it to friends and would like to visit again.
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