The _Banking_Scot

The only way I think to go from Jersey to London and backin a day is to fly. Try British European ( www.flybe.com) (to London City or London Gatwick) or British Airways (www.british-airways.com) (London Gatwick) There are no Hiltons on Jersey, the nearest being Southampton.


Regards
TBS

Snoopy

If you do decide to stay there, I can recommend the Atlantic Hotel in St. Brelade.
Here is the website: www.slh.com/atlantic

I know it's not a Hilton (I don't think there is one on the island), but it is really nice, warm and is located superbly. My wife and I spent our wedding anniversary there a couple of years ago and really liked it.

raincityrd

Thanks Snoopy. Now I need to figure out if its worth staying for more than a day . . .

World20

No Hilton on Jersey. The Altantic is a very nice hotel on the coast, but taxi or bus to town. DeVerre Grand is walking distance to almost anywhere in town (St. Hellier), ok hotel but not grand.

------------------
Have passport, will travel...
CLD, LAX, LHR, CDG, et.al.

greatwhitenorth

I am planning on travelling around the UK this summer and would like to know if anyone out there has stayed in the Hiltons in Leeds, Nottingham, Brighton, Tewkesbury or Keswick. If so, would you also please comment on the liklihood of upgrades or lounge access. Thanks, GWN.

Tim_T

Keswick – lovely lakeside hotel in the middle of the Lake District National park. Unlikely to get much of an upgrade. Restaurant has a evening dress code and no under 6yr kids policy. No lounge.

Leeds City Centre – Good chance of an upgrade to perhaps a suite. Short walk into Leeds main shopping area. Parking at hotel is difficult and the one way system in Leeds is a nightmare. No lounge.

Leeds Garforth – Outside of Leeds, but well placed next to the M1/A1 motorway makes for easy access to the countryside and other cities e.g. York. All rooms are pretty much the same, so upgrade fairly pointless. No lounge.

Others Hiltons you might want to consider include St Helens (cheap and close to Liverpool - Beatles etc), Moorside (close to Manchester but located in the peak district national park), Blackpool (rather like the Canadian side of Niagara falls but without the falls !? i.e loads of tacky gift shops, bars, strip clubs etc but on a nice sunny day the beach is great and the pleasure park fun)


[This message has been edited by Tim_T (edited 06-07-2002).]

Nickl

Nottingham - Property redeveloped last year. My experience has been of great staff with a good recognition of Gold status and upgrade to larger than normal room. No lounge.

Brighton - If you have a choice, opt for the Metropole rather than the West Pier. Both are on the sea front but the Metropole is better sited and has Club rooms to be upgraded to. You also have an on-site health club at the Metropole which West Pier guests have access to, but only by them travelling the half mile between the two hotels. No lounge at either but I'd recommend that with the pubs, clubs, restaurants etc of my home town to enjoy, you wouldn't want to be stuck in a hotel lounge anyway!

greatwhitenorth

Thanks Tim and Nick for the answers. Just one more question. I've never stayed at a Hilton outside of North America. Here, I always make a reservation for 1 adult as
my wife stays free with me since I'm gold. Will I have any problem doing this in the UK, booking for 1 adult and then getting a room for my wife and I? Should I book for 1 adult and let the hotel know before I get there that I will actually need a room for 2 adults? Thanks again. GWN

svpii

I personally would not take the chance in the UK - you are likely to get a bed that two folks won't fit in at some of the older hotels..

Nickl

svpii, your reply made me smile! It's certainly true that the UK hotels won't normally have two double/queen/king size beds in the same room for two people but in my experience one is big enough for two friendly people to get by on. When in the States my wife and I tend to end up with two massive beds in what seems to us to be a very large room but we only use one bed!

greatwhitenorth, I wouldn't worry. Just make sure that you specify a room with a queen or (if you want more room) king size bed. That way you can sleep comfortably together. Of course, you might want two twin beds, in which case specify that but be aware that UK single beds can be very small by US standards.

Hope you enjoy your stay

RichardMannion

Leeds Hilton - Okay property, not the best Uk Hilton but def not the worst (Wembley Plaza wins that one!). Had to fight for room upgrade and Gold gift.

Brighton Hilton - Staying there in July, hopefully we should get good service as we have the entire hotel.

Thanks,
Richard

steveda

I've just got back from two nights in the Leeds City Hilton...

My room (629) was more like a box cupboard (with no desk). I mentioned this to the reception staff before unpacking, and was told that they had nothing else available

The bar staff are very attentive, and are more than happy to bring you a fresh drink when you have less than two mouthfuls of your current one left (maybe this is a tactic to ensure that you're not capable of leaving the hotel to eat somewhere else).

Both nights while I was in the bar, a Maitre D' type person came over and asked if I'd like to make a dinner reservation (I tend to avoid hotel restaurants as they're all much of a muchness to me)

The Breakfast buffet was fairly good, and was frequently replenished, the only negative comment I have (it seems to apply to most of the UK hiltons I've stayed in) is that there was no water out with the drinks, and it seems to take the waiting staff 5 minutes to get a (very small) glass of water.

When checking out this morning, charges for breakfast were on my bill for both mornings, but they were more than happy to take them off for me.

Overall, probably 5/10 - The crappy room spoiled it for me

Flybynite

Well, here is my promised trip report. For anyone deciding to pay a business trip to the UK and have to stay over the weekend, hope this helps.

First, My company put me up in a Starwood hotel "Skyline Sheraton" - not bad and they will upgrade platinums to the executive king room. The room is much more spacious than Sheraton Heathrow but don't have the free continental breakfast lounge that the other Sheraton has. However, the rooms and facilities are much nicer. Now, I came in from Tuesday and will be staying in UK until Thursday of next week. So I had a whole weekend to myself. The last time I was here, I did the doubledecker tour bus in London for a day. I highly recommend that if you want to see everything worthwhile in a day. But I wanted to go to see the countryside of UK for the weekend.

Day1: I rented a Fiat Stilo which was manual and of course steering wheeel was on the wrong side of the car. Now I haven't drove a "stick"(which you shouldn't say in UK b/c of the bad connotation), I mean "manual" for about 15 years. So this bloke(you'll hear this alot and hopefully not intended towards you) was going to drive on the left side and steer a manual car. Besides, the roads are not only small here in UK but the traffic signals and directions are quite confusing. To throw more confusion, they say the wrong proper words for street signs. I thought "Mind your way" sign to me was a direct personal attack to me but then I realized it was just a sign for "Yield." So after a day of manual jolts to my body and having honked at for being on the wrong side, I managed to get used to the UK style. In fact, I got quite good on the roads and especially the more effecient "roundabouts." I think the US should just adopt this approach to a 4-way stop sign. So, I left Friday night after a long day w/ the client. I was originally thinking of taking a road trip to Scotland Turnberry which was quoted from 5-10 hrs. Depending on who u asked. The client of course told me why not since we should be done on Friday at 3pm so u can bugger out. I know how clients get so i only assumed the worst and cancelled that brainless thought to leave early on friday and drive 10hrs. Good thing I did since I didn't finish work until 7:30pm Friday. So my impromptu adventure started after work on that day. My first interest peaked when i heard a bunch of people will be at the "Stonehenge" for the summer solstace. I thought that would be interesting - seeing a bunch of hippies smoking, dancing and indecent exposuring themselves. But then again, I might be filmed on the news there as an innocent bystander and my wife would wake up in the US to see me prouncing around naked next to these big blocks which one looked very similar to a "p...." So I scrapped that thought and just decided I would visit during the day like all the other tourists. So I took the M4 down to a town called "Bath." This would be convenient for me to see the "Cheddar Gorge" on one side and the "Stonehenge" at the other direction. I picked these 2 attractions to begin w/ out of the "Eye Witness" travel guide of Great Britain which I highly recommend. This travel book was convenient in that it grouped the sites into regions of UK and had a small graphic map before each region that is very helpful to gauge the distance of each attraction. So I decided to visit the Southwest and Southeast corners of UK. When I arrived in Bath after about 1 1/2 hour drive, the town was small but cozy. To get to the Hilton was quite confusing but managed after going around around 4 times. The hotel absolutely looks appalling from the outside. Those pictures you see on the hilton hotels do it justice. So I'm tired and it's about 9:30pm. I booked a double bed rm w/ free BB on the internet for 99pounds. The front desk acknowledged my diamond status and upgraded me to a better room(supposely). I got to my room and found a single double bed and the rm was about 10 feet by 10 feet. My view was of the roof of the bottom of the hotel and another building. I called down and asked if there were any better rooms and that i would pay the difference. They said no rooms and that the next room would be their royal suite. So I decided to stick it out since I would be here for only 1 night. The bed looked a little dingy, actually the whole room looked dingy and from the 13 century. the toilet took 3 flushings in which you have to wait about 30 minutes before the next flushing for the water pressure to be normal. After being in the room for only 30 minutes, I had to go get a drink. I went to this bar/club called O'Neils. It was a good bar w/ many locals. They had a nightclub upstairs but it was more of just another bar w/ a dance floor and dj. Then I went to a club called Cadillacs that was more of an underground nightclub. I had a few drinks and just went back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 2: I decided to watch the world cup in the morning and had my free breakfast which was nothing to brag about. Just toast, croissant and coffee. I was happy to check out and decided that Bath was just a little too boring for my taste and decided to make my journey to the coast. But I would stop and see the "stonehenge" on the way. I would recommend anyone coming from London to see the stonehenge to go the route of Bath since you go through a nice countryside and miss all that traffic coming from the highway on the other side. I spent a total time of 15 minutes at the stones. Just a bunch of blocks. I headed down to SouthHampton thinking of the "Hamptons" back home. Not even close. Just a boring Port city w/ ships. Nothing to do or see and I'm so glad I was convinced to change my hotel stay for one night there to the city of Brighton. So I just drove through the city and headed towards Brighton about 60 miles from Southhampton. I arrived in Brighton around 4pm and the city was bustling w/ great sunny weather. The town looked very touristy but it had a lot of character. I decided to stay at a hotel closer to the beach - "Hilton Metrople" I'm glad I picked this hotel. They upgraded me immediately to the highest floor facing the ocean. Upon my arrival, there was a nice fruit plate and bottle of still water and letter. The room was modern looking and very spacious. The sounds of the ocean and sun flowing in made this room just that more pleasant. The bathroom had a separate bath and shower which makes it convenient. In addition, a nice 3 person couch and table was also in the rm. There are many things to do and especially walking on the boardwalk w/ all the cafes/clubs was entertaining. The pier w/ all the games/rides and family activities was one of the best piers i've ever seen. I really wished my family was w/ me. The Brighton town is an excellent town for families b/c of the day activities and even night activities like clubbing for adults. The food is I'm sure good but i had a bad experience at a popular place called JT's "Jim Tompsons" an asian restaurant. It's funny how they call everything "Oriental" I tried to tell them that it's actually a "rug." But the "oriental" restaurant was mediocre at best. I ordered a starter of Tom Yong Gung thai soup w/ prawns. After waiting about 45 minutes w/ my pina colada that didn't taste like pina colada, my soup arrived. I started eating it and realized the spicy kick and taste of lemongrass was not there. the soup tasted flat and not fresh and to top it off, no prawns but small shrimp. I told the waitress about the shrimps and she just apologized that they were out of prawns. I wish she would've told me before i ordered it. From my experience in UK, almost every restaurant will not come back to you to tell you that something else completely different would replace your order. We went to a restaurant ordering fish as apetizer - it said "place" as the fish but "mackeral" came out instead. It was quite humorous. So my dinner experience wasn't quite good at JT's and wouldn't recommend it. I decided to walk around and stood in front of the gay bar "Pool" accross from JT's for about 10 minutes watching the drag queens out front. This was the highlight of my evening. Didn't have the courage or adventourism to go in but found interesting the conversation i had w/ the gay bouncer. This would have to be on another thread.

Day 3: I woke up to a beautiful sunny day w/ the sounds of the ocean crashing in and sun hitting my face. Again, the room was fantastic. I called down to see when the late checkout was. It was quite funny to hear the front desk gentlemen actually say "well Mr.soandso I guess since your diamond it's up to you. when do you want to checkout?" I was thinking maybe i should test it...hmm. how about 6pm. He said fine. I couldn't believe it. But i actually checked out after a nice breakfast at Mosaic next door. I left to drive back to London via Newhaven and through Kent. The drive to the next town of Newhaven was quite nice. there's a park as you leave brighton off the coast that is really great to stroll down to the beach and the meadows w/ all the sheep are present. I went through Newhaven and drove up the A21 to Kent. I veered off on the Kent sign to see a little more countryside. I came upon a tea restaurant next to a canal. I stopped and had some coffee(american of cours) and paid the 7pounds for a boat trip to the Bodium castle. This was really pleasant and would recommend this to anyone who wants to vist the castle this way. The castle was so pleasant to see. It was surrounded by water and all these koi and carp fish. My son would've had a blast. Took the boat back and just headed back to Heathrow. Recommend stopping for dinner and waiting out the traffic back into London on Sunday.

Hope this was informative.

amanuensis

So while you were in Bath, did you actually find the time to go see the ancient Roman baths and the Victorian era Pump House? I thought they were fabulous, even though the famous "free glass of water" that the pump house serves is mineral water, which is not my cup of tea. I thought Bath was a fabulous town. I guess I must be a more boring person than you.

Flybynite

aman,

Don't get me wrong. Bath was quite lovely. I should of re-stated that part. What I meant was that I was bored that night. Not much of a night life in that town but the rest was lovely. Unfortunately, I didn't take the Roman bath. Would you recommend that hotel?