Sisters Dine Out

Mid July we headed ‘up North’ to visit friends and family for the weekend. As we have a 3-month-old baby, we decided to break up the journey by stopping off at The Baraset Barn, Alveston. We picked The Baraset Barn because it was quick and easy to access from the M40 and meant we could be on the M6 nice and early ahead of the morning rush. There are just 16 rooms This was our first hotel stay with a baby so we were feeling a little nervous. From the website, the rooms looked large enough to accommodate a travel cot or a pram. The room did not disappoint, we had ample space for setting up little man.  Sometimes hotels can make rooms look large on their website then you turn up to something tiny; this was not the case. If anything, it was actually the opposite as the room was much larger than I had anticipated. There is a small mini-fridge in the room that had bottled water and fresh milk for the coffee machine. The room also comes with two dressing gowns, an iron and ironing board....

 This week’s update and proposed timeline from Boris has bought about a lot of excitement for everyone in the UK. It feels like we are finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and we can start thinking about how to enjoy summer...if all goes to plan. As you know, back in October we were lucky enough to squeeze in a visit to the Salcombe Harbour Hotel & Spa for my 30 th birthday and we’ve had so many people private messaging us to ask about our stay and if we would recommend the hotel. So with a new lease of life after the announcement on Monday and the hope that summer getaways will go ahead, here it is, our review of the Salcombe Harbour Hotel & Spa. This was only my second visit to Salcombe and it had been well over a decade since my last visit. I had really fond memories of the town and was so excited to be able to get away from home for a few nights. When booking, we opted for the flexible room rate with breakfast and dinner, meaning that our breakfast ...

Last weekend we had the most amazing night away at The Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge, Hampshire. For the sake of transparency, I won the night away through a competition. The views in this blog are my own and have not been affected or influenced by the hotel staff.  The Grosvenor Hotel is prominently situated in the centre of the Stockbridge high street and has the most beautiful entrance, which can be seen below. At the moment, they have playfully placed two deck chairs and sand just outside the front door. The room we stayed in was 'The Cannon', named after Tom Cannon, a local horse jockey turned trainer who also lived at the Grosvenor until he died in 1917.  The room is decorated in a relaxing pale pink with pops of colour here and there. I can honestly say that the photos do not do this room justice. I feel like it looks really girly in the photos, but it didn't feel that girly in person.  Opposite the bed, a TV hides behind a mirror/frame. I thought this was a ...

Yes, you did read that title right, a Frozen Afternoon Tea at Disneyland! At the end of November 2019, we were at Disneyland in Hong Kong for a wedding and were lucky enough to spend the night in the Frozen Suite. As you entered the suite, you had a guest toilet and storage and then walked through into the main living space. The decor was incredible, I was blown away by it as an adult so I can only imagine how it would feel to stay in that room as a child. The TV was on playing Frozen music and flipping between images from the film and the sofa was actually a slay! Check it out below. There was also a little play area which had a life-sized Olaf  stuffed toy (well, life-sized if you are round 5 or 6 years old!) and a load of other Frozen toys and books. They were all for sale if you wanted to purchase them, but holy moly they were crazy expensive.  On to the bedroom, and there are two double beds, one with Anna at the head and one with Elsa at the head. Th...

At the end of January, I headed over to Dubai on a work trip and was lucky enough to stay at the Crowne Plaza Festival City for the second time. The Festival City complex has shops, restaurants and hotels and is a short taxi ride from Dubai International Airport. The hotel looks over Dubai Creek and has beautiful views of downtown Dubai, including the Burj Khalifa. We flew in on an overnight flight which meant arriving early on a Sunday morning. Even though check in wasn't due to be for a few hours, the staff were more than happy to see if we could access our rooms early, which luckily, we were able to. If this hadn't been possible, we would have been welcome to use the gym / swimming pool showers to freshen up. It's small things like this which make a big difference, especially if you are travelling for work and need to get to an early meeting. The rooms are very spacious with good wardrobe space, a must when you are staying away for more than 2 or 3 nights. They...

During the second week of January, the Soton Bloggers were invited to the launch of the brand new Moxy Hotel in Southampton. Moxy is one of the many brands under the Marriott umbrella, with this particular hotel located on Harbour Parade, which means it’s right next to West Quay shopping centre. On their website , Marriott separate their hotels into subgroups and Moxy falls into their 'distinctive select' category, whatever that means! They state that the hotels offers 'cozy rooms' with social spaces and a 'fun experience at the right price'. To me, when I picture Marriott, I see their high end brands in my head so I find it very interesting that they are looking to compete in this space. They feel like they are trying to take on Premier Inns, Hoilday Inns etc, but with a fun twist. When you head over to the Moxy website, you are given a taste of the relaxed, fun vibe they are trying to create with this brand. They are clearly aiming at a younger client gr...

If you read our most recent blog about our visit to the Sibling Gin Distillery, you’ll know that we were in Cheltenham mid-October. (If you haven’t why not click here to read it now?) Being the responsible people that we are, we decided to book a hotel local to the distillery so we could both enjoy the gin experience and not have to worry about travelling too far. The Frogmill Hotel ticked the box as the perfect location. Just a short taxi ride away, the hotel offered a convenient location within the beautiful Cotswolds countryside. The hotel has a range of rooms and given that we were staying for just one night and planned to be slightly intoxicated for the duration of the stay, we opted for their ‘Cosy’ room. As you may expect from the name, this room is the smallest room that is offered, but does come with a Nespresso coffee machine, which means coffee in bed in the morning, perfect! We were in room number 10 and as you can see, the room has a double bed and offers no ...