The Avon Gorge hotel - Clifton Village, Bristol (Hotels in Bristol in general)

Member Name: whatanoldbag

Product:	Hotels in Bristol in general
Date:	26/01/08 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful views of the Bridge and the Avon Gorge; free wifi; great terrace

Disadvantages: Beautiful views of the Bridge and the Avon Gorge; free wifi; great terrace

The Avon Gorge Hotel is in a great position ,as it sounds, overlooking the Avon gorge! It is in Clifton, the posh bit of Bristol and definitely the bit you'd want to stay in you were only in bristol for Touristy things, and didn't need, say to be right in the centre for business or something.

So you can see the famous Clifton suspension bridge - some rooms look directly onto it and you pay a bit more for those I think. The others face onto the street, but it's a nice street!

Rooms are not huge, but comfortable and adequately sized with that "nice hotel" furniture you get - light wood, stripes, dark blue and deep reds in the fabric, plush blue carpets. Standard but nice.

Expect to pay about £120 for a double room B&B - they do have some weekend deals that work out cheaper. They have cots and highchairs and are OK about babies. The staff cooed over mine, anyway!
Breakfast was nice - usual fruit/pastries/full English but all fresh and nicely done - sausages and bacon were good quality - not cheap frozen rubbish.

There is a tea room thing and a cool bar/restaurant that is really like a proper wine bar/pub not a naff hotel one (if you see what I mean), except even before the smoking ban it wasn't smoky - and it has a brilliant ENORMOUS terrace overlooking the gorge, so you can always find a table outside if the weather is nice. Prices are a bit on the high side, but not outrageous - £8.95 for a burger (homemade) and chips is one of the cheapest things on the main course menu, and a large glass of wine could set you back 4 quid. The worst thing about the bar though is the service - you have to wait ages when they are busy. The staff are not idle - they are either understaffed all the time or their system is at fault - the central bar means they are kind of tripping over themselves in there.

There is sport on in the bar but the tellies are not so enormous they dominate if you don't want to watch and free wifi - good for them.

Parking is a problem, or can be. There seemed to be more cars than spaces! Free on street parking around the hotel - i.e. free as in not metered, rather than free as in available! Easier in the week when local residents are not at home perhaps.

Bristol has a balloon fiesta in the summer and this would be a brilliant place to stay when that is on, as you'd see everything from there, and could walk to Ashton park to the fair bit of the fiesta if you wanted to. It is a long walk into the centre of town from here, but you are right in the heart of Clifton Village with nice bars pubs and places to walk, and the suspension bridge is worth seeing.

The hotel has function rooms for meetings and business and offers wedding and other function packages as they nearly all do these days, but I've not experienced any of that so can't comment.

In summary, a nice good quality hotel, reasonable value for money and good for the odd weekend. The views are the absolute best thing about it, so I'd pay a bit extra for a bridge view room if you can afford it. Service is more than adequate; a lot of the staff come from places where English is not their first language; at least that was my impression when I was there, although all spoke English well enough to do their job.

Summary: Good place to visit