Ashford International Hotel

Last weekend I headed off on a little escape from London, to Ashford in Kent.

The Ashford International Hotel was my home for the weekend, and what a beautiful home it was. Part of the Q Hotels group, it's situated just off the motorway and a perfect hub for business or for relaxation.

Everything looks brand new and clean, and the reception area is huge and nicely furnished, complete with a warm welcome from the staff.


The room was hidden down a maze of corridors, but although the hotel is pretty huge you certainly don't feel like it's busy. It's not often you bump into anyone in the corridors, and the shared areas such as all the seating in the lobby were always comfortable and quiet.


The room was far more spacious than I had expected, and the red and pink decor felt plush and luxurious. Everything was spotlessly clean and the bed was unbelievably comfortable. The bedding was also really soft, and didn't have that starchy feel you get at some hotels.


I was slightly obsessed with the bathroom, which was beautiful, warm and bright. The shower gets top marks for its power, too.



I didn't have any evening meals at the hotel itself, but late night hunger led to the order of a delicious chocolate fondant. Breakfast both mornings was fantastic, with a huge range of foods, hot and cold, to choose from.



The one slight disappointment at the hotel wasn't the fault of the hotel, but to a conference group staying at the same time. There was a conference of student teachers who stayed on the Saturday night and were loud in the corridors. Breakfast on the Sunday morning felt crowded and a bit like being in a school or university dinner hall, as they were dragging extra chars over to tables and calling across the room to one another, which slightly ruined the calm atmosphere of the previous morning. However, when mentioning this on checkout the hotel kindly took care of some of the bill as an apology. It certainly wouldn't stop me returning.

I had expected to enjoy the weekend, but wasn't prepared for just what a lovely stay it would be. The hotel was just beautiful, and somewhere I would definitely return to if I had a reason to be back in the area.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reading List #7

Image
The weekend seemed to fly by and I didn’t get around to finishing my reading list post, so here it is now. I’m still going through my period of pulling lots of books off shelves that I haven’t read yet, so the wide mixture of books continues… The Sea, John Banville I read two Banville novels at university and was more than impressed, so was excited to find this gem on my parents’ bookshelf. In ‘The Sea’, art historian Max returns to a place he holidayed as a child, following a personal loss. The novels flits between two periods of his life - the then and the now - leading to themes of childhood discoveries, maturing, and loss. The time periods almost blend into one another, yet there is something distinctly separate about them too, so it is not confusing. It reads almost like poetry, and is utterly beautiful. Any literature fans, or fans of superb writing and narrative, need to give it a go. A Small Part of Me, Noelle Harrison Christina’s mother, Greta,
Read more

Writing fiction as a way to move forwards.

Image
Last week I shared a bit about the writing course that led to me writing my short story, Aftershock. Today I thought I'd share a bit about what it was about, and the process of writing it. I had planned to write it slowly, leaving myself lots of editing time and really making use of the month or so we were given. In fact, I wrote most of it in one sitting, on a single afternoon when I most definitely should have been doing other things. The words just kept coming and I didn't want to cut them off. I based my story on something that had actually happened to me, as one of the things recommended on the course was that it could be easier to get inside a character or situation if it was something you knew and understood. I share a lot on this blog and I'm incredibly open about my journey with anxiety and depression, but one of the big things I haven't spoken about was something that happened to me in October 2016, when I was living and working in London. It h
Read more

The Reading List # 5

Image
Weekends are the perfect time to catch up on reading, so here’s the latest instalment of things I’ve been reading recently. Fatherland, Robert Harris It is 1964, and Hitler is nearing his 75 th birthday, having been victorious in the Second World War. Detective March finds a naked dead man in a lake, and this begins to unravel a huge conspiracy. The premise of this book was so interesting, and it certainly delivered. There is enough fact weaved in to make the events believable, and the atmosphere and architecture of this 1960s Germany is conjured up well. The book is realistic in that there is still plenty of discontent in the country, so it was a rounded picture, and then in amongst it all was a gripping detective story. This is well worth a try. Revenge Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger Ten years after The Devil Wears Prada ended, Andy is co-running her own successful wedding magazine. Her life has changed a lot, and is the usual rollercoaster of emotio
Read more