When booking our holiday we were faced with something of a travel dilemma. We booked fairly last minute and the only flights we could get meant flying out of Gatwick, and back into Heathrow. This meant that driving to the airport was pointless, because I would mean my car was at the wrong airport when we came to leave. Add that to the fact our flight out left first thing on Saturday morning, meaning the tubes wouldn't be running to get us there. Basically, a nightmare.
In the end, instead of shelling out a small fortune in taxi fees, we decided to check into the London Gatwick Hilton Hotel the day before our flight. That way we could get the tube & Gatwick Express down the night before, have dinner and a good nights sleep, and be right next to the terminal for our 6am check in.
Since we were paying for the room anyway, we decided to head down to the hotel early on the Friday, and make the most of it! We checked in just after four and after a few issues with our room (broken air conditioning and a complete lack of phone signal, + a £15 internet charge), we decided to pay the £15 upgrade fee to a bigger, newer room, which came with free wifi and drinks.
The room was super spacious, clean and well equipped, if a teeny bit dated. I'm pleased to report that this room had fully functioning A/C, a welcome reprieve after the hot humid train journey. The bathroom was huge, with a bath and separate shower, toiletry goodies from Peter Thomas Roth (I did an excited squeal when I spotted those!) and even a set of scales!
The hotel had plenty of options for dining (including a Costa Coffee) but they were all pretty expensive, and the menus weren't quite tickling our fancy, so we crossed the walkway into Gatwick South Terminal, and had dinner!
I'm something of a Giraffe regular these days, but I just freaking love it. There really is something for everyone on their menu, and I've never had anything less than tasty! We shared a bowl of edamame to start (if you're an edamame fan, you need to try Giraffe's take, it's my favourite!), then Con had the Chicken, Prawn & Chorizo Jambalaya, whilst I had the naughty nachos. The staff at Giraffe were totally faultless, there was a mix up with Con's dish and not only did they fix it, they bought me a fresh meal too so that it wouldn't get cold (even though I'd already eaten a bit!) and bought Con a free Corona too to apologise. You don't mind when things go wrong, when the staff are so good about fixing it!
We returned to the hotel room, showered (good powerful showers, I appreciate that, and I loved the hotel toiletries!), and snuggled up in bed with a few treats from M&S and some trashy TV, before having an early night before our early flight!
We checked out at 5.30am (surprisingly Costa was already open!) after a beautiful night's sleep. Despite being practically in the airport we couldn't hear a thing, the rooms are so well soundproofed!
If you're ever in need of a bed near the airport, I'd totally recommend the Hilton at Gatwick! It's stumbling distance from the terminal, and the rooms are spacious, clean and comfy!
Next up, holiday snaps!
Post a Comment