We've spent a couple of Saturday nights recently at Holiday Inn's in the UK home counties, doing a weekend of sightseeing without having to drive back into London on the Saturday. It is also a decent way of using up PC points given that UK HI's are not so cheap.

So far we've done very well - the Holiday Inn Colchester has had a surprisingly effective renovation (see review http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...x_England.html ) and the Holiday Inn Maidenhead / Windsor also had very impressive executive rooms.

I'd be keen to know of any other (probably ex-Posthouse) HI's in South East England which FT'ers would recommend. Location is not really important as it would be 'drive in Sat PM, drive out Sunday AM' stay, but quality IS important - anything that has not been refurbished recently is unlikely to cut the mustard with Ms Raffles! When we get the right property its always relatively easy to find a few historic houses or gardens within an hour or so drive.