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.