FarAway68313671745
May 6, 2024
Waterford Hotel - allegedly 4star. Every large town in Ireland has one of this type of hotel - a gathering place for locals as we found out on our Sunday night stay this month. Firstly - on the good side there is a free and huge off street car park so don’t worry about driving here. Otherwise it’s a perfectly good hotel for an overnight stay and is reasonably priced at £130 including full breakfast for two but don’t expect a great hotel - it’s adequate, generally clean but don’t look for what passes for a 4 star hotel in other countries. It is some distance outside the city centre - they say it’s a short stroll to the city but it’s well over an hour’s walk if, like me, you walk more slowly than most.. However, it’s not really an hotel you would go to enjoy what Derry city itself has to offer the tourist and it has no facilities like a swimming pool to keep the family otherwise amused. Stephenie on reception does a great job on her own dealing with customers and when we were there she really was working all day long. Well done Stephanie. The rooms are small but adequate - nothing much by way of amenities though. The double bed was only 4’ wide - a bit small for us and the room is very hot during the day (you cannot turn off the central heating) But we managed to set up our own air conditioning using an open window and the provided portable fan to pull in cool air. Wireless internet is fine so no worries there but there are no USB points so bring an adaptor for your gadgets. The TV signal is poor and noisy neighbours demonstrated the lack of good sound insulation. Oh yes - the loo seat collapsed on us and the shower needs a good clean around the seams. It’s a busy hotel - the social centre for the area. They have a pub which we did not visit and a wine bar cum restaurant which was packed when we went for dinner at 6.30pm. However, service was good, as was the food quality, the menu choice and the wine selection. Serving staff coped very well - the only problem being the bill which took 3 tries to get right 1 they forgot to include all the drinks we did have 2 they changed that but added drinks that we didn’t have 3 all ok Would we stay again - no I don’t think so - there are so many other choices. They won’t need us to stay again as they are so busy anyway!!