Miffy - any news on Le Meridien at Gatwick?

[kristieuk]

Did you stay there before you travelled? Was it any different / better / worse than before??

 

[Miffy2003]

Oh no Kristie, I wish I could help but I did not stay there!

It looked really grim from the outside if I'm honest but the photos I have seen of the inside look amazing. And the location, as you know is fabulous if flying from the North Terminal.

We saved £80 by staying a 10 minute taxi ride away but to be honest next time I would pay the extra - as by the time we'd paid for the taxi twice and probably extra for the meal at the hotel than we would have done at the airport, it would not have been that much more.

Sorry to be no more help than that (ie not very much!)

 

[eyoreaud]

Hi Kristie,

We stayed there in July and it was very nice, Dh and i both preferred it to Hilton, rooms were clean and bright and staff were nice and helpful, Dd's both loved the pool as well.
We thought it was a bit pricey to eat there so we just went into the airport, easy peasy

Hope this helps,
Audrey

 

[kristieuk]

Thanks!

Sorry Miffy - for some reason I thought you were staying there, from back when there was a thread about it being taken over by Sofitel.

We have stayed there several times, and agree it does look grim from the outside, but it is really lovely inside, the rooms are always clean and comfortable and it just has a really nice feel about it. Don't want that to change!

Eyoreaud - was it still Le Meridien when you stayed there? I can't remember when the changeover was going to happen.

Thanks again!

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

We stayed there in August and too preferred it to the Hilton. As a paranoid about other people's noise type of person, I thought Le Meridien was so much quieter, but maybe we just struck lucky.

We spent an hour or so down in the pool area - pool (not huge, but big enough for us to splash around in), sauna and steam room.

It was also fun taking the monorail over to South Terminal, felt like the Florida holiday really was starting

I recall that it changes from Le Meridien to Aurora (or whatever) in October. I mentioned it to one of the check-in clerks and they looked horrified; I had a bad feeling they didn't know

If it doesn't change for the worse, then we will definitely be staying there again. At Easter we fly from Heathrow T3, so don't quite know what to do or stay there

 

[gbrchill]

We stayed at the Hilton when we last went to WDW and found the experience awful. Our room was small and box like, especially with a roll away bed for DS. The hotel was typical of those at airports where rates are sky high and all you get is a naff box to sleep in for a night before you move on.

We've booked Le-Meridien for our night before we go to WDW in October. It looks much better than the Hilton, from the pictures. Time will tell.

The best airport hotel I've stayed at was the Fairmont at Vancouver BC. Right on the end of the international terminal and a really good hotel - enormous rooms, wonderful facilities, and very cheap (on the corporate rate I had).

As a cautious note - we stayed at the Travel Inn at the south terminal a few years ago, to attend a family function in the area. We ate in the terminal and I filled up with Petrol locally. Somewhere along the line my credit card got cloned. Fortunately when it was being used I was using it 5000 miles away and the issuers picked it up really quickly. I don't think it happened at the Travel Inn - so it was either the petrol station or the airport resteraunt.

 

[kristieuk]

If it doesn't change for the worse, then we will definitely be staying there again. At Easter we fly from Heathrow T3, so don't quite know what to do or stay there

You could try the Park Inn. It is really close to Terminals 1,2,3 and we found it a lot cheaper than the other close by 4* hotels. It wasn't as nice as the Le Meridien, but for the money, it's the best we have found at Heathrow. There was some noise from the road outside, but nothing too bad, and inside the hotel, it was generally really quiet.

 

[Miffy2003]

Kristie - you have a great memory! I think my plans were to stay there then but I changed my mind (every woman's prerogative, right )