The Swan Hotel - Newby Bridge, Cumbria

Advantages: Very tranquil, pretty setting and beautiful hotel
Disadvantages: Car park is about 500 yards from entrance - when it rains you get very wet!

...things to do in the area - the main thing is obviously walking. We didnt really get to explore fully the things on offer as it did rain the whole time we were there and that put a slight damper on things.... All in all i think it is a fantastic place to go and relax and the hotel certianly allows this. The staff that we dealt with were all very polite and more than willing to help, and overall we couldnt fault our stay at all. We had maid service twice a day (morning and late afternoon) and these was always chocolates on the pillow when they had been in! For any more information the website is also very good and gives very accurate information/pictures. www.swanhotel.com Sorry forgot to mention prices..... The hotel encourages guests to stay more than one night so generally you get a better price if you stay 2 or more nights. We...

Natalie0302 29.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Swan Hotel, Newby Bridge

Nent Hall Hotel Alston Cumbria

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Poor staffing, Restaurant not always open

...I have recently returned from a 3 day stay at the Nent Hotel. The room was lacking a cup and had no towels but was generally in good order. There was no information pack regarding meal times and hotel arrangements etc. The restaurant was pleasant, apart from piped music (6 awful crooner tracks repeated) and the menu was short and rather over priced. Returning from a Sunday's touring at 11.10 p.m. I was amazed to find the place locked up and all staff gone home! After ten minutes hammering on doors I was let in by a fellow guest. This is quite un-acceptable. A neighbour across the road with in structions to 'keep an eye on the place' came across and found my room key. Incidentally, the restaurant was closed for the next two days, residents having to eat in the bar.The place is badly in need of more staff and in my opinion should not be...

Teep5138 04.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Nent Hall Country House Hotel, Alston

The UK's '4th coolest boutique hotel'

Advantages: Cental location, friendly service, individualistic
Disadvantages: A little cramped, grubby carpets, a little inflexible on breakfast times

...I travel a lot with work and it's a trifle sad but I have become blasé regarding the same luxury hotel chains-Renaissance, Holiday Inn, Hilton etc It was nice to stay at a boutique hotel for once-and one right slap bang in the middle of Newcastle city centre. Prestige Events Magazine voted it the 4th coolest boutique hotel in the UK last year. The Lowry in Manchester (I love it) was number 10. It's a cute little hotel with a mere 49 bedrooms. I'm not sure why we stay here rather than one of the hotel chains but I am not complaining! Apparently it used to be a bank. It's also Newcastle's first pet friendly hotel. I travelled with my dear deceased little dog in the past and we both enjoyed dog friendly hotels. First impressions: You could almost miss the hotel, as it's very discreet. And small! As soon as you walk through the door...

Katieshaz 26.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of Grey Street Hotel, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The worst hotel in the UK? Possibly.

Advantages: A bed and a roof.
Disadvantages: Where do I start?

...degrees sun, carrying our heavy bags, so walked straight up to the next place with a vacancy sign. This was the private Tyrella hotel, a three storey Georgian white house, 5 minutes from the beach. The basement was an Indian restaurant which looked quite trendy. After ringing the bell several times, we were greeted by an unenthusiastic man with no shoes on who carried a distinctive whiff of curry and sweat about him. Several small children scurried at his feet. He appeared to have a very poor grasp of the English language and the displayed prices mysteriously increased. Any normal person would have major alarm bells ringing by now and would have politely declined, but who said we were normal, and besides, we were desperate. So up we went to view our room, which he told us was "family room. Very nice. See sea". On going up the stairs...

MissDirect 19.08.2002 (30.10.2007) · Read review
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Review of Tyrella Hotel, Margate

Brilliant reviews for Boutique hotels

Advantages: Lots of honest reviews on interesting hotels
Disadvantages: Hotels can be quite expensive to stay at

...** Please note that this review is on volume 2, which is not the book in the picture** Mr and Mrs Smith is essentially a travel guide, but not in the same way the AA is a travel guide. This book only looks at a handful of hotels and they must be 4 or 5 * or boutique hotels. It is a very stylish book and can be picked up at most book shops for about £20 ? £25. You may think this is quite expensive, but an added benefit is that in every book you receive a Mr and Mrs Smith card. All you have to do is register the card on the website and it allows you to receive free gifts and discounts at the hotels they feature, both in the book and on their website www.mrandmrssmith.com. The book starts with an introduction from the people at Mr and Mr Smith and explain that is has been going for nearly 5 years now. On the second page is where...

wolfey59 20.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Mr. and Mrs. Smith - UK & Ireland Hotel Collection - Juliet Kinsman

Arts based courses in deepest darkest Cumbria

Advantages: Small, friendly, relatively inexpensive.
Disadvantages: Does not offer a stereotypical "student lifestyle"

...Upon arriving at the main campus (the Fine Art department has a seperate, small campus) you will be struck by it's small size, but suprisingly modern design. A modern building, surrounded by trees and set above and just outside the city centre. The Institute offers a variety of Arts based degree courses, from Fine Art and Media Production to Journalism (full course details can be found at http://www.cumbria.ac.uk) and it also teaches a variety of post-16 educational courses such as ND's and A Levels, all in subjects related to the arts. All the course tutors and professionals in their own subject, but I will not go into too much detail about the courses as they are all so different, however I will say that most of them are practical in nature and all have specialist facilities within the campus. The campus has good facilities, all...

Missnaomi 16.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Cumbria Institute of the Arts

GAME.UK.COM a gaming website

Advantages: Good fast easy game ordering
Disadvantages: Reward Card is hard to access via the internet

..., which is a very clever way of getting customer trust. In my view they could have changed the domain name to something snazzier than game.uk.com but I feel that they chose this because it was a web address that would stick in peoples mind down to the fact that it is an unusual set-up. The site lets you make a conclusion on each game before you decide to buy by giving you ratings and detailed reviews. There is also some background information that will appear when you wish to buy that game which will just tell you about the game and its best features. It may also give you website link to a website that is associated with the game in question that you wish to purchase. All games are numbers from newest to oldest from the time that they are released and if you cant find what you wanted to see then you also have the option of looking...

enterpriseonline 03.01.2003 · Read review
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Review of game.uk.com

The Strand Palace Hotel

Advantages: Central location, clean
Disadvantages: Food, rooms

...We stayed at this hotel in London a little over a month ago now for two nights, we chose this hotel mainly because of the central location and because it was only a ten minuite walk from the show we had booked to go too. Check in was very quick - About ten minuites and the staff at the reception seemed very friendly. My first thoughts on the hotel was that it looked really clean and that it was nicely decorated and it looked modern. I was a little dissapointed with our room as it was very small and basic, our room had a double bed, tea and coffee making facilities, a tv with satellite and a small, basic en suite bathroom with a shower. The views from our room very very poor - A block of offices which made our room dark as they were so close. The hotel has two bars and two resturaunts, the bars were again nicely decorated...

kate44 03.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Strand Palace Hotel, London

Booking.com helps hotels cheat customers.

Advantages: extensive database of hotels, many quite inexpensive
Disadvantages: if a hotel cheats you, they will apologize, but do nothing.

...Booking.com: Colluding with Corrupt Hotel Owners to Cheat Customers? I am sorry to have to write this review, but I have tried for months to get Booking.com to address my complaint. I have reserved rooms using this service in the past, and have been very pleased. This, however, came to an end this summer. I booked a room at the Travel Inn in Reykjavik, only to find, upon arrival, that my wife, son, and myself were escorted to a car with no explanation. Eventually the clerk told us that we would be driven to the "other" location. The Travel Inn has, it seems, bought space in the Pavi Guesthouse (over a mile away). I would have refused on principle, but I know the situation in Reykjavik is such that I might have had no options. We were driven there, the driver stopped along the way to encourage me to withdraw money from...

seth66 23.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Booking.com

Hotel International

Advantages: Location, breakfasts
Disadvantages: Poor rooms

...including breakfast. Breakfast is not automatically included, it is an extra Euro7.50 per day per person. THE EXPERIENCE: We arrived at the hotel at about 8pm. The reception area is small. We assumed that they would speak English but tried out our limited French anyway, along with our hilarious 'Allo 'Allo style accents. Thankfully our French was not tested too greatly - although some of the reception staff at other times were less proficient in English so a vague idea of hotel French may be beneficial. We were given the enormous key after paying the remainder of the balance (I had paid one night's deposit before we left the UK) and directed to the lift. It was absolutely tiny, although I know we were lucky to have one at all in Paris! It would just about fit the two of us in and we're both fairly slim. Its claim to hold a maximum...

tartlette83 17.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel International, Paris