Norwegian Magic and a Night in a Palace for £9 (Travelodge London Kings Cross Royal Scot)

Member Name: Machair1

Product:	Travelodge London Kings Cross Royal Scot
Date:	24/04/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and well decorated with an immaculate bathroom.

Disadvantages: None although some rooms could be noisy due to nightclubs and traffic.

Just recently our house was buzzing with great excitement. Hubby and I are intense followers of a prog rock band from Norway called Gazpacho-nothing to do with the tasty chilled soup of the same name, but a highly talented group of musicians who were playing their own gig for the first time ever on UK soil.

Having purchased tickets we sought eagerly to book an overnight stay in London, because although it is perfectly possible to get home to Chelmsford, where we live, it is always a mad rush to Liverpool Street after the show, and a really late mid week night which renders us shattered, now we are not quite as youthful as we were!

So it was with great delight that for the silly price of £9 I secured a Travelodge offer and booked one night at the Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge. Now I have stayed in most of the London lodges and have had mixed feelings so I was approaching this stay with an open mind.

The lodge is conveniently situated a few minutes walk form Kings Cross Station, and all you do to get there is to walk up Pentonville Road and turn right into Kings Cross Road where the lodge is on the left hand side. It really was only a few minutes.

On arrival at the entrance I was aware of many groups with luggage in parties, but a special group bookings desk was efficiently handling these, as many were Italian and certainly a lot to organise. We sauntered up and were quickly given our keys to room 112 on the first floor.

Access to the lifts beyond the foyer is by key card so security is excellent here, and we were soon in our room and were impressed. Number 112 may not be typical of all the rooms as it seemed to be at the junction of a turning point in the design of the building so was spaced out more from the others. The entrance had a hallway, and beyond it a calm room decorated in serene mango shades was inviting and certainly of a good standard. The bathroom was clean and recently upgraded by the look of the fittings, and the shower was powerful and the tiling immaculate.

The room had a desk where you could work, and a television, as well as some complimentary tea and coffee sachets. Not a great deal here to pick from as is usual in lodges, it is always a good idea to bring more supplies, if like me, you have a love affair going on with the kettle.

The room had two high windows with limited view but they were securely locked so the temperature was fully controlled by a heater and air conditioning unit, the controller for which was on the wall outside the bathroom.

The pillows were fresh and smelt lovely and the bedding was white and fresh too.

The overall ambience in this room was excellent, and I was really impressed, and for £9 I have to say it was as good as a palace.

If you are thinking of booking this hotel it may be good to be aware that they do advise you that due to the location of the hotel it may be noisy, due to the proximity of several nightclubs and also of course traffic. The Kings Cross area is really busy and noisy, and some of the rooms may be subject to this problem, but ours was not.

You can check in from 3 pm, and if you are prepared to pay more you can have earlier check in, and a later departure time the next day is also possible as normal check out is 12- so lovely if you want to lie in beyond then.

The hotel is within walking distance of Euston and Farringdon stations and if you are looking for entertainment and ideas of things to do it's about ½ mile from the British Library, a mile from The British Museum, about 11/2 miles from Covent Garden, and Madame Tussards and London Zoo are both within 3 miles.

I guess most people arriving here would be on public transport, but if you have a car you will need to pay for parking at Britannia Car Parks and this will be £15 per day.

I noticed from the tour I did of the hotel that breakfast and snack meals are served in the Bar Café there, and the prices were certainly reasonable for London, but we usually bring our own food, or source things externally when we stay in these as we are not really big eaters especially at breakfast.

Our gig was in Islington-also a short walk away and I couldn't help but think of the Monopoly board, as in my childhood the little dog I loved to play with would always sit by the iron on those light blue squares, which were in those days only just better than the brown hopeless places which occupied space just after collect £200. Things have changed since then and the area is very nice with a lovely atmosphere and a stylish shopping area.
We felt safe there but of course I wouldn't loiter around the Kings Cross area at night at all.

After the gig we returned to our room and after a cup of tea sampled the delights of the bed. If you like soft beds it would be heaven, personally we are the orthopaedic types preferring a harder mattress, but the bed was good quality and you can't really comment on something which is purely personal preference.
We slept well and heard no noise from the street or from the corridors, but we were as I mentioned slightly set back from the main thoroughfare where room 112 was positioned.
Overall I thought the hotel was excellent as I would stay there again in a moment.
Better than many other London lodges and amazing value for money.

Also posted on Ciao by myself under the user name Violet1278

Summary: Great value and worth looking at.