JAYNE Howarth asks:
WHAT is it you like about taking a holiday?
Is it the relaxation? The change of scenery? Waking up at a time that suits and not when the clock rudely interrupts your slumber?
Or is it getting away from the cooking and cleaning?
That's not as daft a list of questions as you might think. There are myriad reasons to get away from work and enjoy a few nights away from the everyday hustle and bustle.
Without doubt, many hotels are great establishments: you can forget household chores and let someone else worry about whether or not there is enough milk for breakfast. But, they are not always the best option when you have younger children.
They might need dinner at 5.30pm and have to go to bed at the same time as the hotel restaurant opens for service. Self catering is ideal. You have the flexibility to do what you want, when you want. If you want to eat porridge for dinner you can.
You can hire a gite in France, a villa in Portugal, a parador in Spain. But what about if you want a city break? There isn’t much chance of a cottage in the middle of the city.
This is where the apart’hotel comes in.
There is a burgeoning market for the apartment/hotel, not just for holidaymakers but for the corporate industry, so that workers needing a long-stay residence can enjoy a home from home in a hotel-style environment.
Most look like your common or garden hotel room, with bed, desk and en-suite, but have the addition of a small, equipped kitchen area where basic meals can easily be rustled up.
Citadines is one such group that is making its mark in the sector. Part of the Ascott International group, it has dozens of apart’hotels across the world – there are 41 in Europe alone, five in China, four in Thailand and one in Singapore – and more in the pipeline.
We tried one of the four properties in London, at the Barbican, just a few minutes’ walk from the Barbican Centre, financial district and St Paul’s Cathedral. It might not be the most obvious place to go and stay when on a family break, but you are only a couple of minutes’ walk from the Tube station.
Goswell Road is a fairly busy place, geared up for locals and workers. A nearby Tesco Metro meant there was a convenient place to stock up on basics and there are dozens of bakeries and coffee shops within a short stroll of the complex.
We had adjoining rooms, so the children could go to bed at their usual time, leaving we adults to enjoy a glass of wine in front of the TV without any danger of disturbing them. The rooms are small and functional, a la student accommodation, but perfectly decent.
They are each furnished with a large sofa bed, TV, desk with wi-fi access and a small kitchen with dishwasher, microwave, double hob, fridge, toaster and kettle, as well as the usual accoutrements needed to eat a meal.
The blurb in the room tells guests that the beauty of the apart’hotel is being able to invite friends over for dinner. Well, while the kitchen is equipped well enough to cook a dish of pasta and prepare a side salad, it will hardly be an elaborate affair.
Anyone who has ever lived in a bedsit will tell you that it is bad form to cook food with strong odours unless you want to be reminded of it for days afterwards. And, to be honest, there is only the desk and small pull-out at which you can eat, so it would be a fairly informal meal. But that is all that you might need.
We managed to make a decent evening meal on our first night, but agreed to splash out and eat at a restaurant the following day. While business guests might have their laptops to access the internet, holidaymakers without their laptops can still plan their day, thanks to a computer for guest use in the lobby. After breakfast, a typical help-yourself buffet affair with breads, cereals, toasts, eggs, fruit and yoghurt, we searched the visitlondon site and made a long list of “must dos”.
Of course, London has tons of stuff to do and see, so it’s a case of careful planning to ensure you do enough, but don’t run yourself ragged.
We visited London Zoo, a sprawling place on the edge of Regent’s Park, with more than 750 species of animal, including some fascinating gorillas and scowling Sumatran tigers. When we visited the queue to get in was more than half a mile long, so plan your visit expediently. Madam Tussaud’s was a bit of a disappointment.
Unless we’d accidentally missed a few rooms (which I’m certain we didn’t), it was all over well within an hour. But we made up for it with a trip on the London Eye and a Thames river cruise. Thankfully the weather was fine enough to see as far as Wembley Stadium and this time – four years after our last trip on the Eye – our youngest child didn’t spend the entire journey in the pod crying.
It’s obvious that London has pretty much everything you need for a family break and now I know about the functional Citadines apart’hotels, I can enjoy the freedom of a city bolthole when I return to complete my tourist to-do list.
FACT FILE
Citadines Apart’Hotels can be found across the globe, including China, Kazakhstan and Thailand.
There are four sites in London: Barbican, Trafalgar Square, South Kensington and Holborn-Covent Garden. Cost per property depends on which apart’hotel you are staying in and duration of your stay.
* Jayne was a guest of Citadenes during her recent stay in London.
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