The Ace Hotel, Shoreditch ~ Review!

I mentioned last week in our Smashbox Fireball Matte review that we'd taken a little Press sojourn to London town with the brand for its reveal. Well since Corrina is still on cloud 9 after our Ballina trip this weekend, I thought I'd take this Travel Tuesday as an opportunity to tell you about our seriously cool digs in the English capital. The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. 

Visiting Wales ~ The Blaenavon Ironworks

Last week I told you about our visit to the Big Pit in Wales, this week I’ll tell you about another attraction just up the road from the Big Pit. Blaenavon Ironworks is a World Heritage Site, dating back to 1789, it has the best preserved blast furnace in the world. 

In the early nineteenth century at the height of the industrial revolution Blaenavon Ironworks was the most important producer of Iron in the world.

We really loved the hands on history of the Ironworks. The reconstructed company shop & workers dwellings are fantastic, it’s like they haven’t been touched by the hands of time. Our children had a great time on our free self guided tour of the Ironworks. 

Some of the workers cottages were refurbished for the award-winning BBC series Coal House which was set in the 1920’s. More of the cottages were refurbished for a spin off show Coal House at War, this time they were decorated as 1940’s houses.

It’s very surreal & feels like your snooping as the cottages are set up like the families are just out at work for the day. Meanwhile we’re in having a look at their kitchens & bedrooms complete with family photos of that era on the walls. Highly educational and fascinating! Opening hours are generally 10am – 5pm Entry and parking are free, there are picnic tables should you wish to bring a picnic. 

Tell us, have you been to the Ironworks in Blaenavon? Would you consider it on a furture trip? 

Our Travelling Family Have Gone to the Pits!

And now for something a little bit different of a Travel Tuesday...

If you find yourself in Wales looking for something to do, I highly recommend a trip to the Big Pit in Blaenavon and Pontypool, not to be confused with Pontypandy! We usually travel by boat so we can take our car, large family & kitchen sink. This time we travelled with Irish Ferries from Rosslare to Pembroke.

The Big Pit is the UK’s National Coal Museum, an award-winning interactive museum which includes an underground tour. I can honestly say that this is one of the most impressive museums I’ve been to anywhere in the world. Do you want to know the best bit? It’s free entry, however there is a nominal charge for the car park.

There are numerous out buildings to explore, our little ones soaked up all the information like sponges, they loved it. I wasn’t sure if they'd all want to go underground to see the coal mines but they did and there were no nerves or apprehension at all. The underground part of the tour is an hour long & only for those over one meter tall so we had to split up so one of us could stay on the surface with our baby. 

You're kitted out with a hard hat & a torch with battery pack weighing 5kg, sensible footwear is advised as the ground is uneven.  I went in first with 3 of our children, the tour is led by an actual coal miner that worked in the pit so he can give you first hand information & regale you with stories of his time working there. They were a really great bunch of lads, so friendly & funny, they ensured to include the children in their story telling.

They have state of the art facilities including baby change facilities and fully wheelchair accessible toilets on all three levels. It’s also a breastfeeding friendly venue. While my husband went down the Big Pit, I took a stroll up the hill to the old canteen that’s still in use today for tourists. The same building as the canteen houses the showers & the doctor’s office. Everything has been left as if the miners were still at work today, just like stepping back in time. 

There are picnic tables outside to take in the stunning view from this vantage point. I enjoyed a chilled class of wine, while the children munched on crisps & a cold drink, all sold at great prices in the canteen.

Luckily we spotted an old steam engine as we approached the road to the Big Pit, we pulled in as our little lads are train mad. We soon found out that you can park there free of charge & take the steam train one stop to the Big Pit. Our boys were thrilled as there was a first class carriage that’s exactly like the train from Harry Potter. 

We paid £21 for a family return ticket, they are pay once & ride all day tickets. Unfortunately we didn't have time but you could take the train to the Whistle Inn for a cold refreshment. In all of our family adventures, this little pit stop truly was one of the most memorable, the kids talk about it to this day. We can't recommend it enough!

 Next week I’ll bring you more from our Welsh trip.

City Centre Luxury in the Dylan Hotel

If you are heading to Dublin & really want to push the boat out, I’d recommend a night in the 5 star boutique Dylan Hotel, Eastmoreland Place, Dublin 4. The hotel is located a stone’s throw from Baggot Street, so everywhere is within walking distance for a night on the tiles. We had the pleasure of a stay last year & we paid €211 for a twin room for one night B&B.

 

If it’s style & sophistication you are after the Dylan Hotel is the one for you. From the moment I set foot in reception I was taken with the understated elegance & pure luxury of the Hotel. On the way to our room there is an almost burlesque feel with colours of the decor topped off with sparkling chandeliers.

We stayed in room 301, which is a Dylan Style room. Our room came complete with a balcony so we had a bird’s eye view over the rooftops of Dublin. Oh yeah & one of the walls is floor to ceiling mirrors, I frightened the life out of myself walking into the room! 

The amenities of the room are befitting of a 5 star hotel, memory foam topped beds, high count cotton linens, Air conditioning, iPod with Bose docking station, mini bar, flat screen TV, robes & slippers to name a few. They even have hair straighteners & curling tongs available on request.

Breakfast is served in the Tavern Restaurant, where they have everything & anything you could possibly want, all freshly prepared. The only difficulty I had was it was so hard to choose what to have! Sue has regularly commented that The Dylan have the best brekkie she's ever had (and she's had a few). 

I went for the Eggs Benedict & was not disappointed with my choice. It was undeniably the best Eggs Benedict I’ve had in any hotel across the Country. I have a feeling the next time we are celebrating something & heading to Dublin for the night we just might be booking a room in the Dylan again.

Tell us, have you stayed in this 5 star gem of a hotel before? Let us know!

The Heritage Golf & Spa Hotel Killenard - So Close Yet So Far from the Elusive Five Stars

There's not many among us that don't love a bit of five star luxury when it comes to a hotel escape, especially when a five star hotel provides an experience that lives up to that accolade. When it came to The Heritage Golf & Spa in Killenard, things happened to be a mixed bag. 

Sue & I were lucky enough to escape for a night away last month. We wanted somewhere close to Dublin & Kildare as we didn’t want to travel too far for just one night away. A decent Spa was also top of the requirement list so we could relax & unwind. I had been gifted a Spa-Ireland voucher so I also wanted to use that. 

The Heritage Golf & Spa Resort in Killenard, Co Laois was chosen as, on paper, it fulfilled all of our requirements. We paid €140pp for 1 night B&B, Dinner & a champagne cocktail, 2 hours use of the thermal spa was also included in this rate.

It’s best advised to book your dinner in the Arlington Room to avoid disappointment, so we did just that. We both opted for steak & I have to say it was the best presented and tastiest I’ve had in a long, long time. Sue commented that it was the nicest she's had anywhere, ever. We paired it with a delicious Chilean red, there is plenty of choice on the wine list with prices starting at a very reasonable €25.50 per bottle. 

The staff in the restaurant were friendly, efficient & knowledgeable about the dishes on the menu. A 5 course set menu is €45 with a surcharge of €5 for steak. I highly recommend the Arlington Room if you are looking to treat that someone special. I will be going back just for the steak alone! The Arlington is open for dinner 7 days a week from 6:30pm.

After dinner we went to the bar for a few cocktails to unwind & chat. Service wasn’t the best unfortunately and just not on a par with the treatment we'd already enjoyed. We waited over 20 minutes after asking the Assistant Bar Manager could we order a cocktail. 

Having lost hope of him coming back, I spotted the bar tender had returned and went to the bar to order. He was indeed full of apologies for the delay and informed us that, despite champagne cocktails being part of our package, they're not available and whipped up two of the tastiest Singapore Slings we've had. In fairness staff seemed inundated with a full bar so we retired to our room after just the one. 

We had a stunning view of the golf course from our room on the second floor. The room itself was gorgeous, understated luxury. The large bathroom was well stocked with fluffy towels and luxury toiletries to be used with the walk in shower or the most decadent roll top bath. 

We had two of the softest double beds with equally soft pillows, it felt like I was sleeping on marshmallows. It made for a wonderful first full night of sleep since having my son last October.

Breakfast is served back in the Arlington room, which was particularly dark with drawn curtains and doors, though the sun was splitting the stones outside. Unfortunately the cooked breakfast wasn’t as appetizing as hoped so I went with a fresh fruit salad and Sue opted for waffles & berries, which went down a treat.  

After breakfast we headed up to our room to don our robes & slippers to go to the Spa for the morning. There is an underground tunnel from the hotel to the spa which is accessed via lifts using your room key card. While we were staying the tunnel is undergoing renovations so it was quite cold & damp for the 5-6 minute walk from the lift.

There was a fiasco with our room key not working in the lift at the other end of the tunnel so we ended up having to walk the distance back to find the lift wouldn't accept our key card either, we eventually exited through the tunnels emergency exit to the car park. Believe me it’s no fun when you are in a car park in nothing but your swimwear & a robe when its -3 degrees. On the way back it happened again & our room key wouldn’t work, we met another lady there who was having the same problems since the previous day. 

We later suggested that a simple intercom or open phone line at point of entry to the spa would have saved our 20 minute debacle and our sub zero, half clad car park appearance. While the spa itself is a perfect little oasis, I can only imagine that many a trip has been marred with that simple omission. 

Speaking to the General Manager at check out, he accepted that some issues are in need of attention. He attributed the gaps in service to the hotel having been in receivership for 5 years (which has unfortunately been the case in many of Ireland's luxury hotels) but he assured us that a new owner had taken charge and there are big plans afoot for their 10th anniversary in June. 

We were advised that the hotel would be back up to 5 star standard by then, unfortunately that's really not much help to guests in the interim. If you are looking to book a stay, I'd maybe hold off a couple of months so you can enjoy the full 5 star luxury that I'm sure The Heritage can offer. If you have a special event coming up though, dinner in The Arlington Rooms is worth the trip alone.

Have you stayed in The Heritage before? How did you get on? We'd love to know!