A relaxing experience (St. David's Hotel)

Member Name: r_welfare

Product:	St. David's Hotel
Date:	25/08/03 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plush accomodation, excellent service, very reasonably priced

Disadvantages: Not a lot

It's a hectic modern world we live in. Obviously noticing that I was having trouble coping with this (by turning into some kind of mid-twenties Victor Meldrew), my girlfriend decided I was evidently ripe for some pampering, so booked us both on a two-night break at St David's Hotel & Spa in Cardiff.

A bit of preamble about the hotel itself, which the spa is attached to. Completed in 1999 at the edge of Cardiff Bay, opposite Penarth, the hotel boasts 184 bedrooms on seven floors and is one of only two 5-star hotels in Cardiff (the other being the Hilton, in the city centre). It's one of Rocco Forte's hotels (he of Trusthouse Forte fame), with similar hotels also found in Manchester, Frankfurt, Rome, Edinburgh and St Petersburg.

It's seriously impressive as it appears in your view as you drive in. It's a tall, glassy building, with a curved structure on the top to resemble a sail (never did find out what it does though, I thought it might be some kind of solar panel). You can drive up to the door and get your car valet parked, but as my girlfriend drives an old wreck we opted to save face and park it ourselves in the adjacent car park. This costs £4.20 a day and is not included in the room or package cost, but more on that later.

As you walk in, you notice that the foyer has no ceiling, and looking up (and up) shows seven semi-circular balconies, one for each floor where the lifts exit. The rooms themselves are then down corridors leading from these landings. A very impressive sight, but not one to enjoy if you get a room on the 7th floor (like we did) and suffer from vertigo (like I do). There's a concierge to take your luggage in top hat and tails, which is something I'm not used to and he's a most impressive sight. I wasn't sure whether to tip him or not, but he left before I could offer, so that solved that problem. It must be said that all the way through the stay we received impeccable service. <
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The room we had was a standard one - with a large (12ft x 25ft) main area containing a super kingsize bed, writing desk, and a large cylindrical wooden cabinet containing the TV/radio, glasses and cutlery and a minibar. I haven't seen a minibar in a hotel room for ages. There was also a large wardrobe (with automatic lighting - swanky), a trouser-press, and a very comfortable leather reclining armchair that looked like it had come out of a Jaguar XJ6. Through the patio doors out the back there was a small wooden balcony, with a wonderful view over the Bay (but a big drop, so I didn't go out there often). Oh, and one very important feature - cool, unobtrusive air conditioning. As our holiday was in the middle of the early-August heatwave, I was very thankful for this. The bathroom was also fully-featured, and being a new hotel everything was in perfect order.

Where, of course, St David's differs from yer average 5-star hotel is with the spa. We had actually taken a Spa Break package, where you get accommodation in the hotel, breakfast and dinner in the Marco Pierre White 'Tides' restaurant, lunch in the Spa Lounge, and a complimentary spa treatment for a set price - for us this was the 'Spa Detox' break, with two nights accommodation for £230 per person (you can also get the same thing for £115 per person for a single night). On top of this you have free use of the swimming pool, Jacuzzi, steam room and gym, but must pay extra for further spa treatments. Each package gives you a 'themed' choice of treatments to select from.

The spa staff were fantastic - courteous, polite and friendly. I kicked up a bit of a stink with one of my treatments (not deliberately, mind - it was a 'Hot Linen Wrap' that was just a little bit too hot for me to stand) which opened up all the customer service stops - the manager came to see me, hugely apologetic, and offered an alternative treatment scheduled to my liking. It
was totally my fault, not theirs, but their attention to detail was superb. I felt terrible because it was not their fault at all!

You can also go to the Spa independently of staying at the hotel, but I would say that, given that it's a long drive from London and when you take into account the cost of the facilities you get in the package (i.e. rooms are normally £150 per night, dinner would be £25 per person, breakfast an astonishing £16.50 per person!) it makes more sense to take one of their packages. There is a separate lift for hotel residents to take to the spa, so you don't have to walk around in front of visiting businesspeople and local dignitaries wearing your (compulsory for spa use) white towelling bathrobe and matching slippers. I felt a bit like Hugh Hefner in Broadmoor (given that everyone else was milling around wearing the same thing).

The restaurant was very good, too. For dinner, any Spa package includes a fixed Spa menu (with a choice of four different starters, main courses and desserts each), but you could, if you preferred, take the A La Carte menu with a £25 allowance, and make up the difference yourself. Incidentally, you can check on your bill by using the TV in your room at any time. The service was as I suppose one expects from a five-star hotel restaurant, i.e. very slick (I've never been anywhere near as nice as this before, so I was in awe of it all for the duration of our stay). You also get a complimentary pre-appetizer which was a nice touch. Plenty of wine to choose from too, but no Welsh wine when we were there (shame). Another reviewer found their waiter condescending, but ours were very efficient and polite; however, I do agree with her that £3.75 for a bottle of mineral water is a bit rich. Still, when in Rome...

For breakfast, I would recommend asking to sit on the terrace, as it's a wonderful view. For a bloke who, five years ago, was still a university student living on £1.99 Woolw
orth's breakfasts, £16.50 for a fry-up (with toast and tea) is a bit hard to swallow - although not literally - but again in the package it's all included, and it is excellent.

If you want to leave the hotel and see the sights, the open-top bus tour stops right outside every 30 minutes (the concierge knows the exact times) and you can hop on. Recommended. It's also worth walking around Mermaid Bay, as this has been extensively redeveloped in recent years, with the new Welsh Assembly building and Millenium Centre (to be home of the Welsh National Opera) under construction. There's also a number of trendy bars (including Salt, from which Charlotte Church got turned away for underage drinking recently!) and what-not. You can take a half-hour boat trip round the Bay which is also recommended.

All good things come to an end and we left after our three days feeling revitalised and refreshed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Hot Linen Wrap had not been charged, but we were more surprised when we got home later that day to note that our final day's treatments hadn't been charged, we had only been charged for one day's car parking, and that our room service lunch on the first day had also been omitted. Maybe the hotel was being overly generous, but I got the impression that the staff hadn't quite got the hang of all the integrated computer systems.

I can't guarantee that they will be that generous if you stay there, but I will guarantee you'll enjoy your stay.

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