Confessions of a Business Traveller in the UK

Doing a bit of traveling in the course of your job is in the main a bit of a privalege. You must make the most of the good days when they come along, and use the iffy ones for the learning and mind-broadening experience they are. Generally speaking, my accommodation and dining journals are at the budget end of the scale--only good manners and courtesy when your customer is picking up the tab. But it gets you out and about and maybe the things I learn (for example NEVER AGAIN IN THIS PLACE!!!) may also be useful to others. You never know. I'd be happy to hear from anyone who finds any of these random ramblings useful.

Quick Tips:

When you are stuck you always can always resort to the budger chains. The most widespread and consistent being the following:

Travel Inn. Rooms £45-£65, Travel Inn

Premier Lodge. Rooms £50-ish, Premier Lodge

Campanile. Rooms £45-ish, Campanile

Travel Lodge. Rooms £50-ish, Travel Lodge

These establishments tend to be in on out of town retail parks and on motorways, but they are very widespread, generally consistent, and clean with reasonable eating establishments adjoining (Campanile and Travel Inn are probably the better for menu choices).

The potential down-side of each are that they are out of town, meaning most hotel locations are only feasible if you have a car. They are also very well used and sometimes this is betrayed by the wear/tear in room carpets and the bathroom fittings. They are also not brimming with character, individuality or charm (although the Premier Lodge in Leeds has an attitude to service that is all its own).

Best Way To Get Around:

This depends on where you are. If you are staying within a city - any city - like most places in the world you need a car like a hole in the head. Taking the stress of traffic, one-way systems, and parking charges into account public transport is your best option. If you are travelling between cities, go by train or maybe budget airline. Try Easyjet or BMI Baby to see if there is a low-cost aerial route.

If you are touring, unless you have all the time in the world, you need a car.

These standard budget hotels are everywhere. They are usually within retail parks or on motorways, but there are some city centre locations (e.g Edinburgh, London). These city centre locations tend to be £10-£20 a night dearer than the regular £45 a night elsewhere. Supply and demand.

Accomodation is basic but clean. The TV in your room will have four, sometimes five channels and the establishment will feel fairly safe and secure. The hotel usually has its own on-site free cark park with camera surveillance. Your room will not have a telephone in it, nor will there be toiletries in your bathroom. You must also take care of your own valuables.

Breakfast (Full English £6-ish, Continental £4-ish) is optional and is taken in an adjoining Brewster or Brewers Fayre establishment. If you choose "full english", you actually get the continental plus a plate of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fried bread, if you want it all. Continental means croissants, cereal, toast, fruit juice and yoghurt. The quality of the food at breakfast will be good. The quality of the coffee will not. The service will generally be quick and friendly. The adjoining pub-restaurants also serve good quality and filling pub-type meals from £6-£12 on an evening.

The web-site is here. You will not be pointed at Travel Inn by Expedia or Travelocity.

It is virtually pointless reviewing each one individually as they are literally all the same - only the location changes. Generally speaking the Hotel will be staffed by a single receptionist managing check-ins. As they are used by business travellers you can check in at a very late hour, maybe 24 hours, but don't quote me on that. I don't think the advertised price is ever negotiable, I've not heard of anyone trying and succeeding. You generally pay for your room and breakfast at check in and other food when you eat it. This means there is no check out process - you just leave.

So, to summarise, a nice clean place to get your head down for the night when you are traveling, but not a holiday focal point by any stretch of the imagination.

A ubiquitous budget hotel, like Travel Inn. Generally situated on retail parks, within easy reach of main arterial routes, but very seldom slap bang ON them.

A ubiquitous budget hotel, like Travel Inn. Generally situated on retail parks, within easy reach of main arterial routes, but very seldom slap bang ON them.

A few minor differences from Travel Inn. First, the rooms tend to be slightly better equipped. You may, for instance, receive 10 TV channels instead of four or five, and the room may be a bit larger and slightly better upholstered. Breakfast will be on a par with Travel Inn - similar price, choice, generally buffet style in PL though. Evening meal however could be similar or worse than TI - standard here can very considerably site to site, or even day to day. Catch them on a bad day and you could get any of the following:

1. Being served by new and barely trained staff who may forget you and your order, get it wrong several times etc.

2. A long wait for your meal and/or your drink. Your drink may arrive after you have finished your meal.

3. Bizarre miscellaneous incidents such as limited menu choice because they can't open the fridge or freezer.

For the full range, try the one in Leeds, near Elland Road football ground.

Generally speaking, I'd say they try to deliver a slightly higher specification to Travel Inn, but only sometimes do they manage to deliver it. Its generally acceptable, but more prone to variability than Travel Inn.

My tip - take a book or a newspaper to the restaurant, and adopt a philosophical outlook to the eccentric service you may receive. Faulty Towers anyone?

Web site Premier Lodge

This hotel really was an odd mixture. Character it had by the bucket, but it tended to be on the eccentric rather than charming or comfortable side. I will try to be objective.

1. Rooms. The establishment is old victorian, so my hotel room was narrow with a high ceiling. Acually it may have been taller than it was long. The bathroom was small, a bit dated in style but okay. Doors, fittings, etc were old and the TV was a small portable. The single bed in my room was weird. The mattress sloped alarmingly towards the centre of the room. I rotated my mattress to slope into the wall to prevent any night time tumbles. The sheets were old nylon and bobbly. I try not to think about them too much.

2. The staff. These were genuinely nice people trying to make a go of things. Downstairs in the bar and restaurant, or at breakfast they could not do enough for you.

3. The bar. A big old smoky affair crammed with locals. At the time I stayed there, the hotel was engaged in a bar price-war with a pub along the road and beer was down to 65p a pint!!! This equates more or less to prices 15 years ago. So no surprises the bar was full I suppose.

4. The restaurant. Now I could not work this one out and forgot to ask. There was mention of an a la carte menu (suggesting a bit of a choice), but for the 2 nights I stayed, all I got was the blackboard options. These were either Chicken & Mushroom Pie and Chips or Steak Pie & Chips. So I had one each night. Nice and filling and at £4.50 you could not complain. Maybe they only do the full menu at weekends.

Overall I'm not sure what I think about this place. I'm loathed to criticise it too much because they were such nice people, but I'm not sure I'd wany to stay there again. Maybe I will say eat and drink there, stay somewhere else. (Actually "stay somewhere else" may be reasonable advice for Loughborough as a whole).

Check out the web site Great Central Hotel

I lived here for 3 months, then I lived in the Hotel de France (see its own journal) for 3 months, because they gave my client a better rate.

The Grand is a big old impressive establishment on the sea front on the way into St Helier from the airport. An airport taxi will cost you about £10.

At about £100 a night, room rates are not cheap, and I think perhaps it charges more on location and past reputation than current performance.

1. Rooms. I stayed in a few and they were all spacious, comfortable, clean, well maintained. The beds were comfortable and there were several TV channel choices, including Sky Sports, I think.

2. Meals. There is a very elegant restaurant with a decent fixed price option for about £25. Food here is high quality and dress requirements are smart or casual-smart. They don't throw you out or anything if you dress down, but you may feel out of place. There are also bar choices (curry, lasagne etc). These are filling enough, but a bit overpriced at about £12. Breakfast was an extremely well stocked hot and cold buffet affair and you get a complimentary newspaper. Nice views of the St Helier bay from the breakfast room.

3. Staff. Some good, some not so good. Jersey has a high turnover of service staff as a rule. A lot of young people of many nationalities work a few months here then go home, so variability comes with the turf. Generally speaking, however, I'd say the poorest and most unco-operative service was to be had at the front desk where the most experienced staff were, rather than the bar.

4. Leisure Facilities. There is a well equipped Gym on site, a small swimming pool and Jaccuzzi, Steam Room and excellent Sauna. No complaints here.

Overall would I recommend? Maybe only if someone else was picking up the tab. The standards are reasonably high, but there is better value to be had elsewhere in St Helier.

I lived here for 3 months after 3 months in the Grand. Room rates were a bit cheaper, so my client moved me here.

The HdF compares quite favourably to the Grand, actually. It occupies a very different location, towards the back of St Helier in an elevated position with nice views over the town. It's a 10 minute walk into the town centre.

1. Rooms. Rooms are clean, reasonably spacious with a decent choice of TV channels. The front facing rooms are best for the views.

2. Restaurant. The quality of food in the restaurant is very good and they change the menu weekly. Service is not always rapid, but always very friendly. Starter + main course is about £20. Breakfast is a well stocked hot & cold buffet.

3. Staff. No complaints here. Actually I'd say it is one of the hotel's better attributes. Maybe it pays better than the Grand, or recruits better, or trains better but the service is better and friendlier.

4. Leisure Facities. Guests have the use of a well-equipped leisure complex adjoining the hotel. A good way to spend an hour when you are away from home. There is also a small sauna in the hotel itself.

I think you can get a room here for about £75 if you ask nicely. If I ever go back to Jersey I think I'd try the HdF before the Grand.

The Regency hotel and Penta are sister hotel, the Penta being cheaper (see its own journal).

I stayed in the Regency twice. It's a grand old seafront structure with dim interior lighting and a lot of hardwood inside, so you get that big, old smell. Its owner has an attention-to-detail obsession, so the strength of the Regency (and the Penta) are the specifications within the rooms. You get a free drink on arrival

1. The rooms. Large, spacious, incredibly comfy mattrasses, clean, good choice of TV channels, VHS, free soft drinks and free in-room internet access. The internet connection is slow, however.

2. The restaurant. Great choice of dishes of excellent quality, good service and reasonable prices. Restaurant overlooks the beach.

3. Staff. Helpful, friendly, co-operative.

Check out the hotel website here.

I spoke to the German owner of the two hotels on one visit and he explained that when he acquired the hotel he wanted to edit out all of the things that irritated him as a business traveller, e.g, horrible mattresses, stupid mini bar prices for soft drinks, nothing to do on a night etc. He has done a decent job, I think.

The Penta is the Regency Hotel's "budget" alternative. Its rates may be a bit cheaper but its hard to identify where the specifications drop. I think my room at the Penta had only a shower as opposed to bath/shower. Oh, yes, breakfast was continental self service only--there was no full English option.

The operating philosophy of the Penta is quite obviously the same as the Regency. Rooms are ridiculously well-specified, functional, modern, well lit, very clean, about 10 TV channels, absurdly comfy mattresses, and free (but pitifully slow)internet connection in your room.

The Penta has an excellent restaurant that serves adventurous modern dishes at resonable prices with a nice ambience to proceedings. Breakfast choice is limited to self-service cereal and toast, which you make yourself.

The hotel itself is about 150 meters along the prom from its sister hotel. A taxi from the airport will cost about £20. For a so-called "budget" hotel this may be the best I've stayed in.

Here's the website: click here.

Its location on the Queens Promenade is a pleasant one, with a direct view across onto the Douglas Beach. The only thing is that you can't help feeling that the Queens Prom as an attraction in its own right has had headier days. Many of the neighbouring buildings are in a sad state. In the winter the place can feel like the most wind-swept, desolate, last-place-on-earth you could imagine. Maybe that's all part of the residual charm of the island, and it does have charm, but you certainly don't go for the weather. I hear the League of Gentlemen feature film will be made there (seriously). Good choice boys ...

This hotel/motel was really handy for me as I was working in a building right opposite. It is not really in a handy location for Nottingham City Centre, as it is about 3 or 4 miles outside. Saying that, it is right on the A58 Derby Road out of Nottingham, so public transport in and out will be plentiful.

The rooms are fairly standard, functional, comfortable and clean motel standard with TV, bath, shower, smoking and non-smoking. Like a Travel Inn but maybe a bit cosier. There are photos of old film stars on the wall in and around the restaurant.

Breakfasts are self service. There is no "full english" option, but you do get a very good selection of fruit juice, yoghurt, pastries, toast, cereal etc. There are also newspapers lying around to read. The coffee is good too, so one-up on the Travel Inn there.

"Toby" means it is attached to a "Toby" Inn. These are pub-restaurants that serve "carvery" meals every night of the week. Nothing else. For those unfamiliar with the term "carvery" that means you approach a serving counter with a big empty plate and a chef cuts some nice pieces of beef, pork or turkey (your choice of) and puts it on your plate. You then move along and pile your plate as high as you dare with potatoes (all types), vegetables, yorkshire pudding etc. Before you sit down and demolish it. This will set you back about £7. The bar choice is good and decently priced.

A couple of things to watch. Although the free car park is covered by camera surveillance, there is a not-too-good estate nearby, and I've noticed broken glass in the car park quite often - so watch your vehicle. Secondly, how many consecutive days can you handle a carvery? I've done 3 before I had to go and find a takeaway. Thirdly, the road right outside gets really busy between 8 and 9 in the morning. Getting out of the hotel and on to this road (A58) in the morning is an adventure in itself.

The things I remember most about my short stay here were thanks to my fellow guests. During the summer, this hotel is used regularly as a stop over by foreign visitors on coach tours of the UK. On the occasion of my visit we had a sizeable contingent of US teenagers and German visitors of retirement age.

Now I do know that we British have our own customs and ways of doing things, and it may take a while for foreign visitors to adapt. In the case of the German visitors it was our custom of queueing that was proving problematic, especially at the breakfast bar where anarchy seemed to reign for a period. The American teenagers, on the other hand, were very polite in the dining room. They struggled with the quirky old British custom of refraining from activating the fire alarms in the dead of night. The little scamps.

Anyway, finally I get round to an objective assessment of the establishment.

Rooms:Medium sized, clean, comfortable, well upholstered. Very much standard for the Quality chain. Nice open reception and bar areas.
Location:Right on the edge of a busy motorway junction. Convenient stopover some 4 or 5 miles outside of Cardiff, but right next to some lovely South Wales scenery. Castel Koch, for instance, is just around the corner. Motorway noise was not an issue.
Food: Very nice actually. Restaurant quality at a reasonable price. As I remember I got a very nice two-course meal, hot salmon starter, followed by a nice lamb dish and half a bottle of wine for about £20. No complaints there. A good bar choice too. Its a good idea to reserve a table when you check in - the restaurant quite rightly gets busy.

In summary, this hotel is very good as a touring base or stopover, but its location means that you must have your own transport. It is not handy at all for central Cardiff. It had some leisure facilities, but I did not use them. A taxi from Cardiff airport will cost you about £25 on a clear road.

This pub is attached to the adjacent Premier Lodge. I stayed there for a week while I was doing some work in the area. I ate in the Wheatstone all four nights I was there. The first night was out of laziness, while the remaining three were out of choice.

Premier Lodge and Travel Inn have just merged (summer 2004), and Travel Inn users especially will be used to the pub-type attachments where guests can eat and charge to their rooms. You also get your breakfast there. In the case of Travel Inn, you get a "Brewers Fayre" or "Brewster" pub. The menus in each are identical - they try to put across a traditional pub-type experience, and they do it OK, but it’s a manufactured atmosphere. I say all this so I can contrast with the Wheatstone.

What a nice surprise I got! A pleasantly dark and traditional atmosphere, good bar choices (Theakstones XB particularly recommended), reasonable prices, and the food...

Save for the sandwiches and lunchtime snacks, there is no printed menu; you need to check the blackboard that changes daily. It contains some standards like Fish, Chips, and Peas (£6.25) that don't seem to change, but then there dishes that make an appearance for a day or two and then disappear again.

First night, I had a spectacular seafood mixed grill (£11.25). This consisted of a small pile of octopus rings, two langoustines, two big mussels, a piece of grilled white fish, a piece of grilled salmon, and a piece of grilled tuna with a small pot of salt and vinegar sauce. This was accompanied by a side plate of chips, courgettes, carrots, and red cabbage. Next night, I had it again in case it didn't last the rest of the week on the blackboard. Other dishes sampled were the Moules Mariniere (£8.50) - a big plate of mussels in their shells with chips and garlic bread, and also Salmon en Croute (£9.50), served with a mustard sauce, new potatoes, and vegetables.

Service was always rapid and cheerful. It gets busy, but the management always seems to maintain staffing levels to cope. What can I say? This was definitely a case of restaurant quality at pub prices.

Luckily I got some more work down there so I'll be back. Its just off the dual carriageway on the way out of Barnwood towards the M5, on the opposite side of the roundabout to the big Cheltenham and Gloucester Building.

Top marks.

What can I say that hasn't been said already? Nothing probably, but maybe this journal will be of some use to overseas travellers who may not be aware of this widespread and popular budget airline. With the notable exception of OpenJet, the travel search engines will not make you aware of your Easyjet options.

Easyjet and Ryanair really have raised the bar for low cost air travel within the UK and Ireland and to many destinations on continental Europe. The low cost/no frills service of each means that you don't get any of the following:

1. A ticket
2. A seat number allocated
3. A free in flight meal or drink

What you do get, on the other hand, is the occasional cannot-be-beaten bargain. To give an example, last new years day I was bored and priced up a few Easyjet routes, for flights in September 2004. I priced up an itinery that flew from Newcastle in the UK, to Barcelona, to Nice, to Geneva, to Berlin, to Copenhagen, then home to Newcastle (ie, 5 flights, all Easyjet, all booked via their web site), for a grand total of about £150 taxes included.

The routes Easyjet operates around Europe are growing and such bargains are common, with one huge proviso - BOOK EARLY. The prices only go up. Book close to the day of departure the price will not be such a bargain.

The good points about Easyjet are the bargain prices and the standard of the aircraft. The drawbacks, and they can be real draw backs, are the following:

1. The airport may not be the closest airport servicing your detination city, and your taxi fare may be hefty. A good example here is Belfast International, which is miles from Belfast. Saying that, they are not as notorious in this respect as Ryanair. The web site will give details of airport locations and other useful details.
2. In order to make money, their flight schedules are ambitious, meaning delays are quite common, especially nearer the end of the day. This means you wouldn't gamble on an on-time Easyjet flight if you had a tight connection to make.
3. They can be quite strict on hand baggage weight restrictions and also on late arrivals for check ins, and refusal to board is also quite common.

That said they are a breath of fresh air and have brought many top European destinations within easy reach of many UK travellers. Long may they continue.

I travel quite a bit, and often the worst part of it is finding the place you want to be and then finding the best route there. The route that looks the best on the map is not always the quickest or the best. I imagine others find themselves faced with similar problems from time to time.

Fear not! Here are my two best finder friends in the whole world: www.streetmap.co.uk and www.theAA.com. With the help of these two websites, you should be able to locate just about anywhere in the UK, print a detailed map from the screen for nothing, and map out the best route from points A to B, again for nothing.

www.streetmap.co.uk will give you a location map for virtually anywhere in the UK. It zooms in and out, so you can get a near and far perspective, and it lets you take free screen prints. You can search by place/street names, but as there is so much potential for duplication and misspellings, it’s best to search by postal code, which is near foolproof in my experience.

www.theAA.com is the official web site for the Automobile Association, a British institution whose main job is roadside vehicle recovery. Visitors will have noticed their yellow vans patrolling the motorways. Anyway, their website offers a free journey planner for road journeys. Again, it works best by postal code. It'll give you the option of taking the quickest route or the cheapest route, avoiding tolls and the like, and will also tell you the precise mileage of your journey.

Happy motoring...