Staying at the Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel, Camberley, Surrey

{This is a review post, but I paid for the night stay myself, so I haven't been requested to write this}

My Mum and I have a tradition of staying in London together to celebrate Mothers Day each year, sadly we had to cancel for 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. We really missed our girlie time and were desperate to spend some time together without the kids constantly wanting our attention, but with my Mum having COPD we were a bit cautious to travel into London yet and thus we opted for a night away together, but not that far from my parents home and we enjoyed a day at Kew Gardens together. 

I've stayed at Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel a couple of times before, once with my husband and once with my daughter as a Christmas treat, both have been lovely stays, so I was happy to book again for a night for my mum and me.

I'm on the Macdonald Hotels mailing list and before Christmas, I had a mailing that allowed me to buy a gift certificate and receive a 20% top-up. So I paid £40 and got a £50 voucher. Then once lockdown eased and they released rooms for sale again I was able to book a standard twin room for £114 for one night for us both to stay and enjoy breakfast and a three-course meal too. I think this is a great price and it is the kind of price I have secured before too, so always look for the deals. Also, make sure you go via Quidco and earn some cashback too, it is 5% currently. 

We could have chosen to use the leisure club too, within the cost of our room, it has a fully equipped gym, 17-metre swimming pool, sauna and steam room. You can book spa treatments and I had a massage when I stayed back in 2014 and it was very good and there is a nice chill-out area for afterwards where I enjoyed herbal tea. Of course, we went whilst it was still in the time of Covid regulations, so you had to make bookings for using the areas. We didn't make use of these facilities on this occasion as we already had a full itinerary planned.

Completing the One4all Challenge - What will we Do?

Recently I wrote about how the people at One4all Gift Card had challenged me to treat one of my kids to a truly memorable Christmas activity.

After checking out the One4all website I discovered that we had hundreds upon hundreds of options open to us for great things to buy or do. I didn't want to use the money on the card to just buy things that might be used once and then forgotten so I decided that the bulk of the money would be spent on a night away for the two of us. When I had asked Miss E what she wanted for Christmas this year she had said 'time with you mummy' and this seems the perfect way to fulfil that wish.

Hotel Stay over
I discovered that I could book hotels via the Superbreak site using my One4all card, so after a good look round the site, I decided to book the Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel and Spa in Surrey. My husband and I have stayed at this 4* hotel before and had a wonderful time and it is only about 30 minutes drive from my parents. This is perfect as Miss E had said she'd love her Nanny to be involved in her treat too, so this will be an extra nice surprise for her. The one night stay for the both of us booked via Superbreak is £110.

Images thanks to Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel

Will You Be Watching the New Years Fireworks in London?

Photo Credit: Novotel

This year my husband and I will be doing separate things on New Years Eve. He'll be taking a group of our volunteers to Night Church in Hastings to ensure that anyone there on the streets has somewhere safe to drop in for a cuppa and a listening ear throughout the night and I'll be with our children at a community party.

We'll all have the day together, maybe taking a trip to one of our favourite National Trust sites for a frosty walk and then sharing an international dinner with around 80 other people in our community. Then once my husband has left it is party time (not because he has left you understand, just because that will be the start) with mocktails, games, dancing and lots of fun. I'm not sure if all the kids will stay up for the clock to chime twelve, we will see but whatever way it goes I know we will have fun.

I do miss our old tradition for New Years Eve though. When we lived in Hertfordshire my husband would work most New Years and we would all go up to London together and stay over in a central hotel. He'd then go to work late in the evening and watch the fireworks at midnight from the top of his building in Euston and the kids would fall off to sleep in the hotel room and I'd watch the magnificent London fireworks out of the hotel window with a glass of wine and some choice snacks.

6 Reasons to Choose the Novotel Blackfriars for your Family London Stay

If you are anything like me you may get flighty ideas of taking the kids for a nice weekend away in London and then you start to think practical and have a look only to find that everything is prohibitively expensive or that you have to book two rooms to be able to accommodate your kids and frankly that just isn't practical.

Well, worry not.  I have the solution for you, book to stay at the Novotel Blackfriars and two children (up to the age of 16) can share your room free of charge and they can also join you for a delicious buffet breakfast without cost. In fact book to stay at any Novotel anywhere and you will be offered these two free places, as this is their regular family offer and I think that is pretty fabulous. Not perfect for my family if we are being honest, as we have three children but they do offer a 'Family Extra Room' promotion and this gives a second room for 50% of the cost. Which means your break can still be affordable and as my kids are older it is also workable.

I've been very impressed with all the family friendly offerings that Novotel have in general and I wrote a post about it recently, take a read over here. But what I want to share today is why the Novotel, Blackfriars has captured my attention and become a hotel that I'd happily recommend to friends.

Stuck in the Snow with a Newborn - Why I Love Novotel

I have a bit of a soft spot for Novotel. It is not that I have stayed in lots of their hotels or even in just one of them but many times, it was the circumstance I found myself in when I stayed at the Novotel, Stevenage back in early 2004 that means the brand still tugs at my heart strings.

I had my first child JJ in October 2003 and he was a good little baby, he fitted straight into our lives and we continued to do all the things we loved. So one day when dh was off from work I asked if he fancied going to the Harvester in Stevenage for lunch. We love the salad and spit roast chicken so it is a fairly healthy meal out we can enjoy. As it was a weekday daytime we knew there should be room for our 3 month old JJ to sleep in his car seat whilst we ate.

Fancy a family break in London this Easter?

If you had asked me two months ago if I fancied a stay at a gorgeous 5 star London hotel with my kids, I might have been weary. I don't have those kind of kids you see, you know the ones - they sit quietly, they eat with no mess and they talk in a low voice. No my kids are the full works and there are three of them, so you get a full on experience. Life is interesting and excitable and they will milk it for all they can, running instead of walking, shouting instead of talking and laughing exuberantly instead of a smile.

Well I need not have worried, we stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington a couple of weekends ago and no-one blinked an eyelid at us. Really, we didn't even get one agitated stare or hear a tut of annoyance and we saw plenty of people, it wasn't as if we were the only ones in the hotel. The staff were gracious and chatty towards my lively children as they asked excitable questions or went around the rotating door one time too many.

Visiting Surrey with the family - 6 great days out

Until the age of 18 I lived in Surrey and 23 years later my parents still live there so I'm a frequent visitor. It is probably the county I feel fondest about, all my firsts happened there - steps, words, tooth, school, kiss and I even bought my first house with dh there.

Nowadays when I go back to see my family I am a visitor because we do not have a base there and my parents home is not big enough to house us all so I am always on the look out for a good quality hotel that does not cost the earth and can accommodate three or four of us in the same room, within a short travelling distance of Woking.

We tend to leave one or two of the children with my parents (and they think this is a wonderful treat) and the other comes with us to the hotel. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that we could get a room at the Holiday Inn, Farnborough for four of us to stay after Christmas for just £78 for the night. That kind of price is comparable to what we would pay for a budget hotel but this is no budget hotel, you only need to look at the photos on the site to see how luxurious the hotel it. I was highly impressed with the indoor pool, air conditioning in every bedroom and the kids stay and eat for free promise, we will definitely be checking in to the Holiday Inn, Farnborough in the near future,  it is only about a 15 minute drive from my parents front door.

A family trip to Belfast?

Image Credit

I love to get away with the family and to experience somewhere new. I'm ashamed to say that I've never been to Northern Ireland and only a couple of times to Southern Ireland, so surely it must be high time for this to be rectified.

Belfast seems the perfect place to travel to for a first visit, it is the capital city after all. So what can Belfast offer to a family like mine with primary school-aged kids who like variety, fun and somewhere new to explore?

Loads is the answer I found when I started to investigate.  There is everything you would expect of a big city, like fabulous and varied shops, nice gardens and grounds to walk around and superb quality hotels, like the Fitzwilliam Hotel from Hotel Direct. There are also loads of places to explore -

Belfast Zoo
Like most kids, mine love to see the animals and enjoy a zoo experience and I'm sure this 55-acre zoo won't disappoint. I was super glad to see that there are giraffes, elephants, bears and other large animals there. Of course, there are lots of small ones too with over 150 species and 1000 animals. The newest of which are baby twin pygmy marmosets.

Image Credit

Botanic Gardens
I love looking around gardens and seeing all the different flower species and of course, the beauty of gardens is that they have loads of space and the kids can run free and enjoy exploring and just being young. Also during June they can enjoy some children's entertainment sessions including face painting, balloon modelling, music performances and a bouncy castle.

Titantic Belfast
You can visit the worlds largest Titantic state-of-the-art visitor experience and discover the story of Belfast's most famous creation. This iconic six-story building is easily assessable and not to be missed, it has won various industry awards in the last couple of years.

T13 Urban Sports Park
My 10-year-old son JJ might think I'm the coolest parent ever if I take him to T13. Here he can discover a world of BMX, Skateboarding, Kick Scooter, Break Dancing, Urban Art & DJing. You can get involved by grabbing a BMX or Skateboard and having a go, joining in with a Break Dance or Free Running class, or just popping in to check out the live DJ's and the amazing space and art galleries.

Image credit

Peace Walls
I think it is really important for our children to learn about their countries history and at the moment over 60 peace walls still stand in parts of Belfast. Many were built to be temporary protection between the catholic and protestant fighting of years gone by but they still stand over 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement which ended the troubles.

This just gives you a taster of the kind of things you can find in Belfast, there is so much more and it is worth checking out the Discover Northern Ireland and the Visit Belfast websites.

I hope you have a great visit if you decide to travel to Belfast.

Six great places to visit for a free family day out in London

A day out in London with your children can be so much fun and does not have to cost the earth. Before our move south last summer our family had always lived in Hertfordshire and this meant just a 20 minute train ride into London. We therefore took a lot of trips into the capital for family days out and I thought I’d share with you some of our favourite places to visit for free.  Yes, that’s right, all the ones I am sharing 

here do not have any entrance cost associated with them.

There are lots of super places in London that are completely free and you will have a great time, especially if the weather is good. Now we live a couple of hours away from London it is even more important that we have thrifty days out in London as it means we can spend our money on staying the night in a hotel and making the most of our time in London.

Coram Fields –

This hidden park close to Kings Cross is loads of fun for primary school aged children, there is loads of play equipment including an aerial slide, a grass area, a paddling pool and sandpit and for the adults a super café. Toilets are on site too for your convenience. This seven acre haven can get busy in the very hot months but it is a fabulous few hours fun.

The Science Museum –

This museum appeals to children of all ages from toddlers to teens as there are so many areas to explore and the hands on exhibits are particularly good. In the basement you have garden for the younger kids and upstairs is the Launchpad where you can educate and laugh all in one go. Don't forget that if you get bored the National History museum is just next door and entry is free there too.

St James Park & Buckingham Palace –

If you want fun on a bigger scale then head to St James Park and let the kids play ball and run around all the green grassland. or why not scoot through the park and follow the Princess Diana memorial walk. We also like to see the Pelicans and go in the children’s play area, it is a lot of fun with play equipment and sand. We then like to take a walk past Buckingham Palace from here too and the kids wave to the queen. If you have a smart phone just use the maps app to plan out your walking routes, no need to spend money on the tube or buses unnecessarily.

New Year’s Day Parade –

Now obviously you can only visit this one on New Year’s Day but I cannot recommend it more highly.  This parade is a wonderful sight and a full day’s entertainment. The American marching bands and super large balloons are a spectacular sight.

Walk along the South Bank –

There are lots of attractions that you can spend money on along here but our family rarely feel the need. The kids like to take their cameras and cross the bridges and see what they can capture. You can view the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye, St Pauls Catherdral and so much more. There are always street performers which are fun to watch the many market stalls and street food traders selling fab trinkets and delicious treats. Check out the Royal Festival Hall too as there are often free small concerts and exhibitions.

Somerset House -

This is great in the summer when there are 55 dancing fountains in the front courtyard.  The kids love this on a warm day and it is good to explore the free exhibitions/ family workshops and of course you can take the 45 minute free guided tour if your children are older.

I hope you enjoy.....

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