Lucie Loves... Travel // We Love Accor Hotels UK Blogger Event
I have a weird thing about staying in hotels. preferable luxury hotels… I get really really excited!
I don’t know what it is? But, for me, it starts at check in. Waiting for the room number, being given a key and holding your breath as you open the door to your little bolt hole.
Maybe it’s how anonymous you feel as you step over the threshold, coupled with the pristine uniformity of the rooms. Everything down to the squidginess of the pillows on the bed, plumpness of the duvet, feel of the mattress and thread count of the sheets. The fancy toiletries lining the bathroom shelves, fluffy towels and oversized bathrobes. It’s my kind of heaven.
I was invited by AccorHotels to join a group of travel and lifestyle bloggers from across the UK on a whistle-stop tour of several hotels from their group.
First stop, on our pretty-packed itinerary, was the ibis London Euston hotel – one of AccorHotels more economical, budget-friendly options, for drinks and canapés. From there we had a bit of time to network amongst ourselves, meet the AccorHotels team and find out what the rest of the evening had to offer.
I’m not really a beer drinker, but I was surprised at the selection of local pale ales on offer at ibis London. I know that a few of my real ale fan friends would be pretty impressed too, I’m looking at you Mat and Nik (bucket and spades blog).
From here we hopped on our coach and high-tailed it across to hotel number two: The Pullman London St Pancras - a 4-star hotel in a very convenient location.
This place! Oh my! From the moment I stepped off the coach and over the threshold I knew this was my kind of hotel. It was the smell that hit me first. Every Pullman Hotel has its own signature scent – white patchouli. What a way to ensure a great first impression. Utterly luxurious!
We made our way through the reception area, past the fancy cabinet – home to over 200 whiskies from around the world – to the Golden Arrow restaurant at the back. A number of cocktails and tapas-style dishes were laid out for our delectation.
I spoke to the very proud Sous Chef, Jan, who waxed lyrical about the British Wagu rib eye and beef fillet that they had on the menu. My mouth watered as I remembered the last time I’d eaten Wagu at POLLEN in Singapore. YUM!
Bellies full of delicious starters, and feeling a bit merry from the cocktails – we giggled our way back onto the coach in pursuit of hotel number three and our main course.
As the clock neared 9pm, we arrived at the 4-star Novotel in Brentford, located just off the M4 and a 10 minute bus ride to the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew – my old stomping ground.
We were seated in the private dining room – a very pleasant place to enjoy our dinner, whilst sipping on mojitos, made from two very special varieties of rum. Before long, we were tucking into delicious chicken with a creamy sauce, and washing it down with a glass of Pinot Grigio.
Bloggers armed with iPhones and DSLRs, documented the meal and posted pics of their tasty morsels to Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. Mouths around the UK would most definitely be watering!
Just 45 minutes later we were packed back onto our chariot and whisked off to hotel number four. The mystery hotel.
Where would we be sleeping tonight? Hmmm…
After the hotel we’d seen so far, expectations were high! We were all hoping that they’d saved the best to last.
As our coach pulled up outside of The Castle Hotel – a 4-star establishment in Windsor. If you haven’t visited this pretty place before, you must! I visited a year or so ago with two of my best friends. We did the audio tour of Windsor Castle and really enjoyed ourselves, but we’d actually travelled there and back in a day on the train from London.
I was looking forward to seeing what The Castle Hotel had to offer. It didn’t go unnoticed that it’s also home to a Marco Pierre White steakhouse bar & grill. Dessert was guaranteed to be exquisite!
As we polished off puddings and sipped on our night cap cocktails, we were each given prizes for the competition that had been running throughout the evening. I won a handsfree bluetooth-activated shutter release for my iPhone, which actually even works with Snapchat! How handy is that!?
My room was really comfortable, and the free scented candle didn’t go unnoticed either! I’m such a candle fiend…
I literally didn’t want to get out of the bed in the morning. The shower was very good, and I was impressed with The White Company toiletries and fluffy robe… but I did miss the fact that my bathroom didn’t have a bathtub.
As one last treat for us all, AccorHotels then gave each of us an envelope. Inside the envelope was the name of the UK destination and hotel that we would be spending a couple of nights in and reviewing next as part of a follow-up trip.
So where am I off to next?
I’m be heading up north and staying at the ibis Styles hotel in Liverpool, this weekend. It’s been YEARS since I last visited this maritime city and I can’t wait to go back. Watch this space for my review and photos of my Liverpudlian city break.
Say hello to my #WeLoveAccorHotels blogger friends…
Looking for a few new travel and lifestyle blogs to add to your reading list? Check out these lovely bloggers:
- Katy English - littlemisskaty.co.uk
- Suze - luxurycolumnist.com
- Danielle Whiteman-Stone - fashionistabarbieuk.com
- Lucy Flight - www.lucyflight1.blogspot.co.uk
- Lucia Thomas-Howard - styleconfessional.com
- Sabina Trojanova - girlvsglobe.com
- Jen Lowthrop - shegetsaround.co.uk
- Sabrina Babo -alittleobsessed.co.uk
- Keeley Watts - phatcupcake.com
- Rachel Pedreschi - globalroamingblog.com
Photography © Lucie Kerley