Hinckley Island – Fantastic Family Hotel

We love trying new things and I personally love trying new hotels.  I love staying at nice hotels, I am all for budget travelling but there needs to be splurge once in a while.  Last weekend we visited the Hinckley Island Hotel in Leicestershire and had a great time.  There are loads of features, which really stood out for me that highlighted that the hotel was striving to be family friendly which made me love it more.

The location of the hotel is great as it is literally off the M69 so is perfectly situated for exploring both the Leicestershire and Warwickshire (as Hinkley is on the boundary of these two counties).  The hotel is part of the stay and play Leicestershire offer which was mentioned on our blog post about ideas for october half term.  From the hotels on offer I think this would be an ideal choice for the attractions that are on offer as you are able to easily access the motorway.

On arrival to the hotel, the check in was straight forward and the staff were really friendly to all the children.  a nice touch is that each child who is staying at the hotel is given a welcome activity rucksack with a range of different activities inside.  We have stayed in lots of different hotels across the globe but a child pack was not something that many hotels provide.  Obviously, the little adventurers were in fits of delight.  There was an activity book binoculars, playing cards, jigsaw and my personal favourite the crayons where you can change the colours (yup, like the ones we used to love in the 1980s, so retro!)  Within the activity book there is a hound hunt.  The children had to find the frames of the five dogs across the hotel.  The little adventurers had loads of fun and we got to walk around most of the ground floor in search of these elusive hounds.   but there is a few points that I thought could be changed.  It wasnt obvious what we were looking for.  The first sign we found was near a big dog statue so that got us thinking that each sign would have a similar one.  We realised that this wasnt this case.  Also, whilst we there it wasnt as busy with families but can imagine that it gets really busy over summer so would recommend a little clue by each dog…

The rooms were HUGE!  We had two double beds, 1 cot and still plenty of space to spare.  When travelling with children, especially three young children, space is not a luxury it really becomes a necessity.  I’m not one of those people who spends loads of their time indoors when there is so much to see and do outdoors but having that extra space makes the time you do spend inside the hotel room so much easier.  The room we stayed in was an executive double so I am not sure if the others would be smaller.  The size of the room also would be ideal for families with older children as there is plenty of space for 4 people.  The rooms also had a bath which was perfect as we had been struggling with hotels only have showers (our Raihan hates them with a vengeance!)  One touch that I liked with the free toiletries was that they had one for children in addition to the normal adult ones that most hotels provide.

The hotel had a swimming pool, in the leisure club which was accessible to all the guests.  During our stay we used the swimming pool and our kids the little adventurers loved it.  The pool itself was a really nice temperature which often is not the case with leisure club pools and we were comfortably used the pool facilities for nearly 2 hours.  There was a steam room which me and Doc used in turns and it was perfectly timed as we had both been showing the signs of running a cold and this helped really clear it.  The showers outside were lovely, powerful and warm which is always lovely after coming out of a warm pool.

The stay at the hotel also included breakfast and it was varied enough that we found something that each of our adventurers enjoyed. There was hot food, continental breakfast and a range of juices.  it is was the perfect start to the day we needed.

We usually stay in budget hotels in the UK but this was a very nice four star, easily comparable and in my opinion then even more well-known brands such as Hilton or the Marriott group and it made for a nice change.  overall, the hotel was great and we had a real feeling of a mini holiday.   They are lots of great features which make it an ideal base for families.  I think it speaks for itself that Raihan has asked me everyday this week that when are we going back to Leicester for another holiday.  His last obsession had been our fantastic holiday in Turkey so that is testament to the great time we had!

Highly recommended.