Travelodge

Just back from our first visit, or at least our first visit for quite some while, to a Travelodge. In this case the branch on the Witchford Road out of Ely. A visit thrust upon us because there was not enough room at the inn in town, that is to say at the Lamb, where we usually stay.

A hotel made up of a linked collection of single storied buildings (with proper pitched roofs) on a site which it shares with a petrol station, a small M&S, a Starbucks, a Burger King and a small lorry park. Plenty of people seemed to be using the M&S as a convenience store - certainly handy if you lived on that side of town, as there was no competition that we could see.

Inside, a fairly basic hotel, but the rooms were well thought out, smart, clean and tidy. Unusually for a hotel, neither quilt nor room were too hot and we could open the window, which overlooked a boundary hedge, through which we could see the fields beyond and in which, one morning at breakfast, we saw a small flock of coal tits on their travels.

The only food option was a breakfast box, so we did DIY, consisting mainly, in my case, of bread and cheese. We also had real milk, which meant that, unusually for a hotel room, we had real tea.

About a mile from town, say a half hour walk. Which was fine, with the only catch being there was nothing much, apart from houses, between the hotel and the town proper. So nowhere to rest if one got tired or if it started to rain in a serious way.  But this was not a problem in the course of any of our four walks.

Wifi was a chargeable extra, but the charge was modest and the wifi worked. Not a problem. Staff friendly, probably local ladies. Some signs of non-local lorry drivers on R&R. But quiet inside, with only faint noises from either other customers or passing traffic. No noise that we detected from generators or ventilators.

Something of a new experience for us, but it worked. And it was very good value, maybe a third of what the Lamb would have charged us in town.