Saturday, 3 June 2006
My Hotel of the Year
Winner: Holiday Inn, Gatwick Airport
Spotlessly clean and excellent, attentive staff - simple as that.
Impressive attention to detail - bus link to airport with each keycard, excellent ground floor rooms, good parking - and "Penny", one of their oldest serving members of staff, is a delight.
I had two stays here in 2005.
Runner Up: Holiday Inn Express, Walthamstow, London
I stayed here for 3 nights just as they opened - perhaps not the best time to review a hotel, but everything was great - most impressed.
Worth A Mention:
Crowne Plaza, Petra, Jordan
I spent a few days here just before Xmas.
The staff were as excellent as you'd expect Jordanians to be - and they get an honourable mention for the "Nativity Scene" in the lobby - made out of gingerbread.
Chef had spent hours on it.
Brilliant.
Not Impressed:
Sunborn Yacht Hotel, Docklands London.
My second stay, but with the same problems repeated.
Slow to answer the phone, noises overnight from tables being constantly moved in the upper restaurants (I moved rooms at 3am the first visit).
The beds move as people walk along the corridors - most unsettling!
If you must stay here, get a room on the riverside, lower decks.
If anything else is offered, refuse.
Sunborn - at these high rates, you can and should do better.
My Airline of the Year
An unusual choice for 2005, as many of you will not have heard of this airline.
My award goes to Astraeus, with whom I had 6 flights in the year.
In each case, the staff aboard were polite, pleasant and genuinely helpful - and the pilots keep you up to date with progress, which city you are flying over, what's happening on the ground etc - which I always appreciate.
Runner Up: Ryanair
Great fares, great destinations, what more could you ask?
Well, if only they would sort boarding out - I usually travel alone, but the "rush" at the gates is really horrid.
Why can't they introduce the "first come, first seated" system that EasyJet use (usually)?
My Travel Company of the Year
Easy for 2005!
VJV of London were always professional, no matter how hard I pressed each memeber of staff - I spoke to many travellers over the year, all of whom had only praise for the company.
It is noteworthy that their holidays are only available direct from them, not via the High St, and you get the feeling that the staff really know each destination.
www.VJV.co.uk
