Going on holiday in the UK used to be a cheap option but the cost of living crisis, allied to rising inflation and the irritating trend of budget brands thinking they can drop the ‘budget’ is running the risk of making them unaffordable for many families.
According to Which, the average cost of a week’s stay in the Cotswolds and Hampshire is just under £1000 for a typical family.
The consumer giant also compared prices at the UK’s top hotel chains, and found that the average nights stay at old cheap familiars like Premier Inn (£93) and Travelodge (£79) are now on the pricier side too.
Perhaps as a response to this sudden price hike, a new and unlikely player in the budget holiday scene has come into play in the form of Wetherspoons.
Tim Martin’s pub chain now has 56 hotels across the UK located in some of the country’s prettiest and most scenic spots.
Going on holiday in the UK used to be a cheap option but even budget hotels like Premier Inn are a little on the expensive side now
Tim Martin’s pub chain, Wetherspoons now has 56 hotels across the UK located in some of the countries prettiest and most scenic spots
To put it to the test, MailOnline visited two Wetherspoons holiday destinations to run the rule over their pros and cons
In line with the hotels cheap and cheerful brand, the hotels are modestly priced with a night coming in as low as £54 in some places.
But can the UK’s favourite (and let’s face it rowdiest) pub chain ever be considered a serious option for young families and holidaymakers?
To put it to the test, MailOnline visited two Wetherspoons holiday destinations to run the rule over their pros and cons.
The Five Stones – Haven Primrose Valley Holiday Park
£229 (Four guests, three nights)
It’s a cold but sunny day at the Haven Holiday Park in Primrose Valley when I step out of my frankly outrageously expensive taxi.
The wind is whipping through the park, causing caravans to sway and in the playground, children are busying themselves with play and noxious screaming.
On the beach below, I can pick out throngs of miserable walkers on their trudges. Each group desperately trying to convince one another they’re having a pleasant time.
The Five Stones pulled it’s first pint in March and is operated by Haven themselves
It’s the first Wetherspoons to open at a Haven site in the UK
All in all, It’s about as British as a holiday can be.
Most expensive weekly UK staycation regions according to Which?
Outer Hebrides – £1071
Hampshire – £989
Cotswolds – £949
Perthshire – £903
Isle of White – £897
At the centre of this grey metropolis stands the park’s newest and boldest attraction, a shiny freshly opened Wetherspoons.
The Five Stones pulled its first pint in March and is operated by Haven themselves but is to all intents and purposes a proper Spoons – albeit with two key exceptions.
The first is that the famously low prices for which the brand is loved don’t seem to apply here.
Whilst browsing the menu, I found myself shocked by the price of the combo meals with the cost of a pint and a gourmet burger (the word gourmet here loosely translating to a ‘burger you’d actually want to eat’) coming in at £15.40.
Things were even worse in the chargrilled chicken section, where half-a-bird and a Guinness will leave you £16.34 to the poorer – that is more expensive than Nandos!
Still, despite their high prices, the Spoons is still considerably cheaper than casual rip-off chain Slim Chickens who staggeringly also had a restaurant at the park.
The second and perhaps most egregious difference between this and your average Spoons is the number of children inside the pub.
This small breakfast and pint of Ruddles set me back a not inconsiderable £9.30
It was a family friendly pub so the shreiks of children were never far away
Yes, this is a holiday park. Yes, it’s clearly orientated for families. Yes, children need to eat too – but my god they’re loud.
There I am, trying to enjoy my third pint of £1.95 Ruddles before 12pm in my little corner (as is my right) and shattering my mood of sombre self-reflection (self-loathing) are three awful children playing hide and seek.
Spoons are always noisy places granted, but there’s a difference in decibels between a sozzled hen party from Leeds and just one precocious seven-year-old telling his entire family about dinosaurs.
I sank the Ruddles and left. It’s probably a life raft for the parents stuck on the campsite, but it’s not for me.
The Admiral of the Humber – Hull
£135 (Four guests, three nights)
My next stop was the Admiral Humber Wetherspoons hotel in your friend, and mine, Hull.
The budget nightspot offers a double bedroom flat rate of £54 which works out at £27 per person per night cheaper than the local Travelodge and most Airbnb options I could find.
For a family of four, this comes to just £135 – which is a steal in anyone’s colouring book.
My next stop was the Admiral Humber Wetherspoons hotel in your friend, and mine, Hull
Despite it being just after 2pm, the pub is already busy and bustling with a heady mixture of football fans, tourists and day drinkers
The room is cheap, cheerful and basic – which worked for me!
Room for a small one?
Each room had a cute little menu in it advising you on the dos and don’ts of your stay
The pub is located in the centre of the city, just a stone’s throw from classic attractions like the River Humber and that sunken aquarium they’ve put in the River Humber.
Despite it being just after 2pm, the pub is already busy and bustling with a heady mixture of football fans, tourists and day drinkers.
Most expensive hotel chains in UK per one night stay according to Which?
Holiday Inn – £115
Ibis – £102
Holiday Inn Express – £98
Premier Inn – £93
Britannia – £82
Travelodge – £79
Wetherspoon – £54
I moved through the throng and approached the hotel reception where the excited concierge asked me if it was my first time staying at a Wetherspoons.
Tragically it was and so I was forced to admit I was a Spoons virgin.
‘Not a problem, everyone is once’ he said with a smile as he led me to my modest room on the third floor.
My first impressions of the room were relatively pleasant. The bed looked clean and the desk area had its own kettle and provisions.
The bathroom was shiny and modern and the window had a pleasant panoramic view of the beer garden and building site below.
All this for £54 – who’s a canny boy? I thought loudly and proudly.
After lying on the bed for a few minutes and laughing at all those clowns in their Airbnb’s, I ventured downstairs to sup a while with the regulars.
Unlike other hotels which come complete with depressing lobby bars, my hotel opens up into a packed pub filled with locals and tourists who appreciate a cheap drink and feed.
I get chatting to one man, whose name I can’t remember, and begin to brag and bray about my fortuitous Wetherspoon find.
My window had a pleasant panoramic view of the beer garden and building site below
After hours, residents like myself are allowed to make use of the beer garden late into the night
After we’d finished our work of course!
Verona Coggon (far left) claims her brother swears by Wetherspoons hotels
‘Yeah, it’s basically £27 per person per night when you deep it’ I chuckle, ‘and the room isn’t that bad! It’s not five star, but it’s better than a Travelodge! Would you ever stay here?’
My companion, by now suspicious that I work for Wetherspoons (I don’t, I’m just a massive fan) is more salient in his view and proffers that as people age, the prospect of a night above a pub is less galling to them.
He remarks: ‘I think that people wouldn’t necessarily think it was an option. When I was in my mid 20s I loved designer brands.
‘These days I shop in Primark. It’s one of those. In most of these destinations where they have hotels, people wouldn’t even know.’
Moving back towards the bar, I meet Verona Coggon, who herself is no stranger to the virtues of a Spoons city break.
She claims: ‘My brother swears by them. He says the rooms are nice and he can always get something to eat and drink.
‘He will look for them whenever he travels now.’
I passed an enjoyable evening in a child-free pub lost in my wretched thoughts
Then I retired to my room, sat on the toilet and dreamed of a time when UK staycations were affordable to all
He sounds like a man worth meeting! As the football fans drift out to the match, I too take a jaunt around the city, seeking out other hotels and accommodation options to sneer at.
I loiter outside a Travelodge for a while and catch eyes with a couple in the hotel bar.
Knowing they can’t hear me, I begin to desperately mime that according to Which? the average price of their stay will be £79 which isn’t good value for money in this economy. But to no avail.
Taking my leave from the dark street before I’m reported, I begin my slow slope back to the hotel (and it is a hotel) where I pass an enjoyable evening in a child-free pub lost in my wretched thoughts.
And yes, although I ended up missing my train the next morning, as staycations go, I can’t think of many better (or cheaper).
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