Marlin Queen street apartments - London - May 2010

We stayed in the heart of the city for a friend's wedding. This was the nearest place to stay to the venue, and was also competitively priced. We've never stayed in an apartment before and we found having the kitchen and living areas a great asset, although it would be of more use to a family, or someone staying more than two nights to really benefit from self-catering. All the kitchen utensils you would need are supplied. The bedroom was extremely small, the bathroom was adequate with a shower over bath. You can hear the tube trains running underneath but they don't run through the night so it's not really a problem. The concierge was friendly, but you're pretty much left to your own devices here. The area is well lit and feels safe at night.

The city as always, is dead at the weekends, so there's not much open nearby, but the Sunday service in St Paul's is magical, definitely worth a special trip. I'd recommend walking across the river to the Southbank area for breakfast, there's an Eat right on the river.

www.marlinapartments.com

Seaspray hotel - Brighton - Mar 2010

We stayed in the Moroccan themed room in this B&B on a lovely sea front square in Brighton. The location is great, out of the way enough to be quiet at night, but easily walkable into town. Parking is on the street so it's down to luck how near you can get but the actual square it is on is much more expensive to park than the surrounding roads.

The moroccan room is on the loft level at the back of the property so there are no sea views. The decor looks much better in the pics than in real life, the soft furnishings are a bit tatty and cheap looking. The bed is very low and small and the worst thing was the heating. Perhaps because it's the loft room it got very hot, we had to use the supplied fan in the night to get some sleep - and this was in March! The ensuite also got very hot but is immaculately furnished with a modern shower and sink.

The owners and staff were lovely though, the heat was much better the second night. Breakfast was full english, or whatever hot items you choose to order. Kemps brasserie which was recommended to us a few roads away was exceptional, we went back twice!

www.seaspraybrighton.co.uk

Barnham Broom - Norwich - Jan 2010

Barnham Broom is a golf/spa hotel set in the countryside outside of Norwich. On first impressions it's a non-descript modern conference type hotel building. The things that really stood out to us though, were the superb Flints restaurant, and the spa. The golf course was the main reason most were there and the hotel is focussed towards this area, although it wasn't the weather for my fair-weather golfing partner!
Breakfast was great with a continental buffet and order your own cooked breakfast. The service was perfect. Dinner in the restaurant was first class, with an interesting and varied menu.

The spa was up to the high standards of many spa hotels with prices to match! Definitely need to book in advance here.

Our only gripe was the bed in our room which was very soft and lumpy and incredibly uncomfortable. We may have just been unlucky with the room we had, though we wished we had noticed this earlier in the day, rather than in the middle of the night, so we could have asked for another room. We only stayed one night here.

www.barnham-broom.co.uk