Norbreck Hotel - Blackpool

Norbreck Hotel - Blackpool

It took us a week to find the perfect hotel for our 2 week stay in Blackpool, and it was my husband Sean who found the Norbreck Castle Hotel. We got an awesome deal on a 2 week stay by going direct, we looked at loads of other hotel compare sites but none was as cheap as going onto the Britannia Hotel website.

I will be honest, it doesn't look great from the outside, when I first saw pictures of it on Google, it reminded me of a prison instead of a hotel but we got an awesome deal on our stay and I figured it could be worse haha.

We stayed for 2 weeks in October as we thought it would be a quieter time, we arrived on a Saturday and there was a signing convention so it was absolutely packed. They have a huge car park but it took us nearly 20 minutes to find a space to park in.

Checking in was fine, we got our room key quick quickly and was soon going up in the lift to find our room. Parts of the hotel are extensions on the original building so there are a lot of rooms, 487 to be precise.

I know we got a cheap deal on our room but I was a bit disappointed when we got to our room to find that it was big enough for a double bed, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and about 2 feet to walk through on 3 sides of the bed. It was a very small room and what made it worse was when I looked out the window to see a wall 3 feet in front of me. I liked the bathroom though, it was a good size with a bath/shower, sink and toilet.

The bed was ok, we started to get back problems towards the end of the 2 weeks. The pillows were great though, we asked for extra and it was no problem getting them.

One thing you should know is that no matter how long you are staying in the hotel, your room won't get cleaned or bed changed unless you ask for it. We brought bin bags to change our bin ever few days and then gave the rubbish to a staff member who was cleaning the rooms.

At the beginning of our stay, Sean and I came down with a stomach bug. Sean was ill the day after we arrived and just after he started to feel better, I became ill. We thought that it was something we had eaten when we were out but found out that other guests had been ill as well.

As part of our deal, we also had a buffet breakfast included. They had a great selection from a fried breakfast, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, hash browns, baked beans, mushrooms and toast. Then there was fruit, yoghurts, cereals, different breads and fruit juices. We never had any issue with finding a table and no matter what time we went down for breakfast, there was always plenty of food.

You can also have a buffet dinner but you need to book that each day once breakfast has finished. The menu changes each day and it is put on a notice stand in the lobby. It was £12 each when we were there, which I thought was a good price seeing as we would have spent a lot more than that if we had gone out for dinner. There was also a great selection of food for dinner, usually something in a sauce with a potato product like chips or mash and then lots of different vegetables. We saw menus that had beef hot pot, chicken kiev, pasta bakes and Cumberland sausage in gravy. You also got dessert which was usually different cakes.

There is a big bar area where they put on nightly entertainment such as bingo, a quiz or cabaret. We had loads of fun going to the do the quiz and play bingo, during the week there wasn't a lot of people staying in the hotel so there wasn't loads of us but it was still lots of fun. If we won at bingo, we won money but if we won in the quiz, we won bottles of wine, so we were happy haha. The cabaret though, was not very good. The girl singer didn't sound check properly so she sounded terrible and even though my Sean tried to help (seeing as he is a musician so he knows how to sound check properly), she didn't want to hear what he had to say. One night there was a man singing with her and he was really good, but he didn't get to sing much.

There is a spa that has a gym, swimming pool, steam room, sauna and a jacuzzi. You can get a week pass for £5 as a hotel guest and it is so worth it, one days when the weather wasn't nice outside, we would have a day in the spa. We didn't use the gym, but we could see it through the windows and it looked really nice with lots of equipment.

If you do find yourself bored in the hotel, there is an arcade room with lots of games and a cinema that shows a few films a day.

Other than the big bar area, there is also a lounge and an adult only bar called Jack's but neither of them was open while we were staying in the hotel.

There is a tram stop on the opposite side of the road to the hotel which will have you on the main seafront in 20 minutes. The Blackpool Trams are also very regular and runs until late so you can go out having fun and not worry about getting back to the hotel. They go all the way down to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and all the way up to Fleetwood Market.