Originally Posted by
salut0
Thank you to all for your tremendously helpful hotel advice. The Thistle was as
PUCCI GALORE had warned — flophouse was a good description. The low-rise architecture reminded me of a sort of down-at-heel summer camp in Colindale (or somewhere nearby) I once stayed at with a youth group I belonged to at age 12 for a weekend away. That by contrast had mice running around to complement the brown carpets and rickety feeling corridors… luckily no rodents or vermin (visible) at the Thistle.
The vaunted parking pods are in fact quite annoying to find at LHR T5 (only a couple of the lifts actually go there). The system feels surface-futuristic but the suspension is so bad the ride feels like a rickety bus with bad suspension. The seven year old enjoyed it, but I don’t think we’ll be going back (although the price is about 1/3 of Sofitel).
The Thistle Lobby has a corner shop type display of junk food with eye-watering prices (£5.95 for a bag of crisps? £3.50 for a minute can of Pringles?). Luckily they neglected to charge us for the inbound pod fee and only charged us for one person on the outbound. I’m not even sure the pod was that quick including navigating the car park and gate, it took about 25mins door to door to T5.
My next project is that we’re staying at the Sofitel for another early flight with elderly relatives next week (much easier for them to be on site before the flight than deal with buses or pods or trains). Any suggestions for a nice place to bring a self-catered picnic to eat in the Sofitel or in the vicinity close enough to walk to? Bonus points for tables and or good views of the LHR apron…
I stayed at the Sofitel earlier this year. My other half had to work from the hotel room the day before we travelled. I decided to accept the Sofitel's relentless upgrade offer and so we ate in the lounge (in fact it was in one of the bars due to the number of lounge users). There was sufficient food at tea time, in the evening and for breakfast to make it almost worth the cost of the upgrade - and it was certainly worth it in terms of convenience for my OH. I won't be staying with them again due to poor customer service, which they're aware of (and in fact refunded the upgrade) but the service from all the catering and lounge staff was superb and the food was pretty decent.
eta, apologies, I misread your post. You're just looking for a place to eat your own food. Sorry, I can't help with that.