Detailed review by koshkha
koshkha
Northampton, United Kingdom90%
When my friend’s daughter was getting married in Bridgend, her mum invited me and my husband to go along. We felt really old since it was the first time our friends had kids old enough for such things. We booked into the Holiday Inn Express because it represented excellent value for money and we knew it would undoubtedly be better than the horrible B&B where we’d stayed before. You don’t get any surprises with a chain like HI Express but you do know that the room will be clean and comfortable enough for a brief stay and breakfast will be included in the price.
Bridgend is a pretty horrible place that I’d never choose to visit if I didn’t have good friends there. It has a reputation as the youth suicide capital of Wales (which is not short on depressing towns) and you can understand why. It’s unlovely and unloved so it’s probably a good thing that HIE is situated very close to the M4 motorway which is the quickest way out of Bridgend. It’s also on the site of the only thing worth going to Bridgend for, a fairly good knock-down outlet shopping centre. There’s a multiplex cinema within spitting distance of the hotel too, so you can go watch a film and try to forget you’re in Bridgend.
We had booked and paid in advance I think from memory I paid with loyalty points from my Holiday Inn card which made things even cheaper and meant more money for the wedding presents. We went to the hotel to check in and leave our bags before going to the wedding so that we could have a few drinks and not need to worry about the hotel forgetting we were coming. We left our car in the large free car park.
The room was of moderate size with a comfortable double bed, a clean small bathroom, a television, plenty of storage space and of course a tea and coffee tray. This is the UK where any room is acceptable so long as there’s tea and coffee.
When we returned by taxi at the end of the evening, the bar and reception area were lively but unthreatening and filled with people enjoying themselves. Our room was far enough from the bar for us not to be disturbed. In the morning we discovered that not only most of the guests from the wedding were at breakfast, but the bride and groom had also stayed there. HIE Bridgend might not be the swankiest place in town, but it doesn’t have a lot of competition. Since the happy couple had forgotten to pack any other clothes, they sat at breakfast in their slightly bedraggled wedding clothes and we made quite a party of breakfast time. Checkout was quite late, either 11 am or even noon, and we were all quite hung-over but I think everyone agreed that the HIE Bridgend was absolutely fine and great value.
Express By Holiday Inn Bridgend7
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