Our first stay in a Delta Hotel : Cheltenham Chase

When Sue suddenly decided we needed to go away for the weekend (Valentine’s Weekend 2023) I decided to totally leave her to deciding both the destination and the hotel.

Surprisingly she came up with a overnight stay just outside Cheltenham, in a Delta Hotel by Marriott. We spent the Saturday in Gloucester, and then the Sunday in Cheltenham and I have to say, they are both nice destinations that we will definitely go back to in the future.

Now I know the Marriott brand but I hadn’t heard of the Delta chain of hotels, so didn’t really know what we were going to find when we arrived, but I have to say we certainly weren’t disappointed.

I had booked an accessible room for Sue, and had been contacted immediately by the hotel reception via Booking.com to let us know that everything had been arranged for our arrival.

The hotel from the outside is unassuming, but inside we were pleasantly surprised by the modern and stylish surroundings, and the general high quality of the public spaces.


Check-in was completed by a very pleasant receptionist, Ariel, and while a lot of hotel staff have the expected professional demeanour, and go through the whole scripted welcome finishing with “have a nice stay”, there was just something about Ariel that went beyond this – a genuinely lovely person who really did go that extra mile to make us feel welcome.

She also joined us up to the Marriott reward schem , and I have a sneaky suspicion that we will be using more often now we’ve had a taste of their hotels.

The hotel inside featured clean, modern styling and was very well kept throughout, with nice public spaces and a resepctably sized restaurant serving nice quality food. We used the bar and restaurant during our stay, and we have nothing but praise for the venues and the nice staff who work in them.

We had been given an accessible room as requested and this was for once a PROPER accessible room – high level toilet, roll in shower, rails everywhere without looking clinical. There were hearing links for the hard of hearing, wardrobes with pull down rails to suit a wheelchair user, and a host of other subtle but essential features.

The room was a good sized king double and there seemed heaps of space in the room. The bed was exceptioonally comfortable ( we couldn’t find the brand label) and also had a nice tick topper on the top of the mattress. Throw in a nice sized TV and free wifi, tea tray with biscuits, room service and complimentary bathroom products and we would say this was exceptionally good value.

We almost found this hotel by accident and chose it for its nice central location between the two towns. We also found Cheltenham and Gloucester two excellent places to visit, so I guess we will be back at this Delta real soon!

Thanks to all the staff and we hope to see you soon.

Rob and Sue

Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park

When we finally booked for our family holiday to Florida, it occured to me that Poppy and Freya had never been near a plane, never mind flow across the ocean for 10 hours.

So I hatched this idea to take them to an airport and let them have a look around and get a taste of what goes off there and see some real planes in all their glory.

Looking around, there aren’t many airports these days that encourage spectators, or even have facilities for them, and as we were flying from Manchester I thought I would check them out too.   I’m glad I did, because what I found exactly fit the bill.

Continue reading “Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park”

REV IEW BLE TCH LEY PAR K…

For a long time one of Great Britain’s best kept secrets, when the activities of Bletchley Park were final revealed to all after it was declassified under the Official Secrets Act, a race was underway to restore the rapidly decaying huts where hundreds of men and women (mostly women) served relentlessly to decipher enemy messages which were to shorten the war significantly.

Many years later, and after many years of tireless restoration, the Park now stands to inform and commemorate many unsung heroes of the second world war.

Continue reading “REV IEW BLE TCH LEY PAR K…”

Video review – Gulliver Land

It’s a little late for Easter but if you are looking for a nice day out with the kids this summer you won’t go far wrong at Gulliver Land.  Our grandkids just had the best day, which was part of a long weekend also pulling in our trip to the Harry Potter studio tour.

Maybe this short video will give you a taste of what’s in store for the little ones.

Review: Red Wings Lodge, Dunstable

Tucked on the A5 near Hockcliffe, the Red Wings Lodge Dunstable is a basic but friendly motel style hotel, reminiscent of travelodge, but with a few personal, friendly touches that probably elevate it slightly above the normal travelodge standard. Continue reading “Review: Red Wings Lodge, Dunstable”

Video review: British Airways i360

Back in March (I know!  Halfway through July already – I will be starting to plan the Christmas party video soon)  we visited Brighton and the British Airways i360 experience.   You can read the whole review here and now you can experience a little of it for yourself by watching our video review on our youtube channel: