Thistle Hotels in general

I recently spent 2 nights at a graduate job assessment centre in the ultra exotic location of Middlesbrough. Our venue for our stay way their local Thistle hotel which, though national, is a chain I had not experienced before. The directions on the website were reasonable and though a short detour meant it took me twice as long as planned to get there from the station, the fact that it was located just moments away meant I was still there within 10 minutes of stepping off the train. Checking in took a few minutes as a group of us seemed to have arrived at once, so I had chance to look around the lobby. This was small as they go, with only 8 seats available - ...  Read the complete review

Well here I am , back from the hot weather of Tenerife, seems like the UK has a good spell of it too. When I book a holiday, one of the first things afterwards is always how do we get to the airport. We usually use a Taxi service who charge £60 return for about a 50 minute drive. This time though, the owner of the company was trying to dictate to me what time he wanted to pick us up, when in fact, I wanted to tell him, afterall I am the customer, right? I lost my patience and told him to forget it, then hurriedly went on the internet to find an alternative. Not knowing what I was really looking for, I typed into Google, airport parking. The first site I came ...  Read the complete review

Well I have already done an opinion on Crete in general, the hotel I stayed in on the island, and now to continue the series another hotel opinion. This time the Thistle Hotel at Gatwick airport was the first place of stop for the holiday. General ******* Well it may not be the most stylish place to begin a great holiday, but it was sort of essential. We had a flight from London Gatwick airport to Crete’s capital Heraklion for 7:35 in the morning. Coming from the Westcounty it would be a long 3-hour drive to Gatwick to make that sort of time in the morning flight, and not liking early mornings anyway a hotel for the previous night looked ...  Read the complete review

Grand, impressive and commercially alluring, the Thistle Hotels sparkle, on first sight with all the Georgian style of traditional English excellence. One could almost imagine Kevin McCloud striding through the grounds decorating it’s themes with sheer grandness in his usual, colourful prose. Perhaps one could be slightly misled as to the very actual whereabouts of each magnificent structure. The hotel which I will embark on in this particular review is a classic example of such misleading quantities. However, what we found, apart from the little annoying things one always can’t wait to find, we found our half way halt exactly what we had had in mind of a pleasant ...  Read the complete review

I have stayed at several hotels in the Thistle chain throughout the country and I must say that standards vary depending on where you stay. I found the Thistle in Newcastle to be somewhat dated and because of it's location on a very busy road, very noisy. The Atlantic Tower Thistle in Liverpool however proved modern, clean and had excellent views over the river Mersey. The staff I found exceptionally friendly and helpful. One draw back however - it was quite a walk to park your car and with two heavy suitcases to carry in pouring rain, it wasn't quite the start I had in mind for our short break. Recently I stayed in London's Tower Thistle. This for me has ...  Read the complete review