The good - Location and the room was very quiet The bad:…read more- No servicing of room for three days. As we left day two at 1015am we were told "it will be serviced today" Returned after midnight - it hadn't been. - Was told "I'd love to sell you a glass of Merlot, but I can't because we don't have a corkscrew" - verbatim in the Gin Bar Monday July 3! - I paid in full on check in or so I thought. At check out I was hit with "did you extend your stay?" (I hadn't) "you were undercharged by the Manager at check-in" and "that Manager is not supposed to check anyone in"! Had no choice but to pay as I had a train to catch!

I had the pleasure of staying at the Crowne Plaza in Newcastle for two weeks and it was truly…read moredelightful. Breakfast every morning was a treat with the buffet option of a cooked breakfast and continental breakfast. There is also a menu option with eggs benedict, eggs royale etc that you can't get at the buffet. All options are delicious and they even give you a little paper bag that you can put some fruit, muffins and pastries in to take away for your lunch! The spa facilities are quite good, the gym is slightly on the small side but still useable. Lovely swimming pool, jacuzzi and steam room with friendly staff. I had one dinner here in their Hawthorne restaurant, and it was one of the best meals I think I've had in a hotel! To start with I had rabbit popcorn which was well seasoned, moist and extremely tasty and for my first try of rabbit, I was impressed! For mains I had a venison burger with chips. The venison burger was literally one of the best I have ever had! I asked for it to be cooked medium and it was cooked too perfection! Not too red but juicy and crumbly - utterly delicious! My mains was a rich chocolate brownie, which again was pretty amazing although I do have to admit that at this point I was pretty full and didn't manage to finish it all! Overall, the Crowne Plaza in Newcastle is a lovely hotel, comfy beds, good service (I broke my nail one night and the concierge found me a nail file right away), tasty breakfast, decent food, excellent facilities - definitely try and stay if you're in the area!

We had a lovely stay with Pauline and Russell at Kingsmere. We had a family room (2 adults, 2…read morechildren) that had its own ensuite. As expected, not a lot of space in our room, but it was very clean and very homely. The bathroom was a great size and presented really well. Plenty of hot water for the 4 of us. All of that being said, the best thing about this place were the hosts! Pauline and Russell were so welcoming and helpful. They cooked us up a beautiful breakfast and nothing seemed to be too much trouble. Most of all, the conversation and local knowledge/history they offered was greatly appreciated. A big part of travel is the people you meet! Thanks for a great stay guys! Steve, Renay, Melayni and Jonah. Melbourne, AUS.

Hospitality is fantastic, breakfast is spot-on, parking is easy and close, room with en suite is…read moreclean and tidy, and shower feel just like home. The only downside point is that, I found a piece of hair and dusty bits inside the drawer - we were going to put our clothes and stuff inside drawers but ended up not to use the furniture because of that. Still love the place very much despite the small minor point tho!

For Durham, I suspect this is a pretty good hotel. The bed was comfortable, although the room was a…read morebit warm. I was there during the summer, and either with the window open or closed, it stayed toasty for my taste. The location is top-notch. Literally a 15-minute, and picturesque, walk to Durham Cathedral. We passed one other hotel on the walk over, but it was rather scary. It may have been closer, but I wouldn't have wanted to stay there. Breakfast, which in our case came with the room, was rather blah. Not much flavor, and I think the mushrooms (a requirement for an English breakfast) clearly came out of a can. Not really any made-to-order options. For England, the price was moderate. If you're converting from dollars, it's going to sting a bit, but that's the case in the entire country.

I really liked Radisson Blu Durham…read more The room was really great, a very large room with massive ceiling to floor windows, cathedral and river view. Very large desk area with long strip lights, easy to hook up the laptop to the TV for dual screen working. The breakfast buffet was quite standard, but with made-to-order Belgian waffles which was a really nice special touch. Sadly the restaurant that I was looking forward to eating at, was closed on arrival. Apparently the hours have been reduced lately due to lack of demand, which I quite understand all things considered. The receptionist was very good with nearby recommendations, including several in the new development mini-mall which is just across the bridge from the hotel.

Extremely nice accommodations at the top of a hill above Durham. A nice Indian restaurant is on…read moresite with drink specials for guests. Breakfast was included with our stay and both mornings the staff performed admirably. The eggs Benedict were especially good this morning. Both mornings here we also enjoyed fresh homemade jellies and marmalade. Coffee and tea were spot on and we would be inclined to stay here again.

I've stayed at this hotel once, but I've frequented their bar and spa quite a few times. The room…read moreis excellent, lovely furnished with a great flatscreen lcd on the wall; although, I did have trouble with their shoddy remote control. The bathroom was sweet with a lovely shower; but, I did miss having body lotion. Frankly, with an amazing Spa in the hotel, I think more luxury products would be given to entice guests to the Spa. This hotel would get FIVE STARS if not for a few mistakes, that can only be chalked up to mediocre hotel management, excluding their elevator that makes a horrible noise as if it's going to detach and plunge me to my death (please fix that). First of all, there is no access to ice machines, or ice bucket in your room. You must visit the bar for both. You could probably call it up, but that is always a hassle. People at the bar seem like they're forced to be nice to you, but if could have been a bad day. I'd stay at this hotel again and again. I highly recommend it, if not for the tiny fixes to make it a FIVE STAR. The towel warming rack in the bathroom is a nice touch. Please fix the elevator. Lastly, the worst trait of this hotel is the waiter staff during breakfast in the restaurant. My girlfriend and I waited so long for our coffee, tea, and toast that it had to be reordered. Suddenly the reorder comes to our table with black tea instead of green tea. Within seconds later, after a half hour of waiting our original order comes. The waitress is completely confused. In this time, we already ate the self-serve part of our breakfast. Completely and utterly ruined. Still, I would return.

I love this hotel. I have stayed there a few times, as well as testing out their spa and brasserie…read more It is situated right by the Millennium Bridge on Newcastle's Quayside, giving an amazing view of the River Tyne and its bridges. There are loads of bars and restaurants nearby, and it's a 15 minute walk to the city centre (there is also a Quayside electric bus which takes you to the centre, or you can take a taxi from outside the hotel). Now on to the interior...I just love it! It's dark and sensual with a lot of purples. The rooms are spacious, and the suites are fantastic: luxurious comfort is how I would describe it. And those beds?! Amazing night's sleep. My husband is American and it's traditional to host a Rehearsal Dinner before your wedding. We held this is a private dining area in the brasserie and from all the planning to the actual event, I could not have had better service. The food is all made on site by the chef and his/her team, and it was delicious. The spa is really adorable, and a lovely place to come and relax. We had a couple's massage. The staff were extremely professional and I loved chilling out in the relaxation room. 5/5 for everything about this place. We had such a great experience from start to finish.

This was a last minute booking made after my snap decision not to stay in Hartlepool where my…read moremeeting was the next morning. In plugging into my satnav "Newcastle," it was two and a half hours versus two hours and eight minutes for "Hartlepool." Realising it'd been 14 years since I was last here and remembering what a good time I had, it was a no -brainier and only 20 minutes from my meeting tomorrow. I discovered this was an old Jury's Inn and, to my surprise, the Leonardo chain has done really well with this space. The staff were lovely downstairs, but it was courtyard and open space that took me aback. However, I stepped back a moment when seeing how big my room was, with a large king size bed and spacious bathroom. The view I had from my fifth floor window was a nice bonus. I'm very pleased with myself and enjoyed both the accommodation and time in Newcastle!

I came here with my 9 year old son and originally we were booked into one room which we had to…read morehave changed because the internal sliding window had fallen out of the frame and was holding on only by the wooden pelmet along the top. The bathroom was grim and looked like it hadn't been cleaned properly. We were moving rooms though so that was fine, or so I thought. We moved next door and this room was worse. There were 3 dead bugs on the bathroom floor, the grouting in the tiles was filthy, bath taps and shower head were filthy. The toilet seat wasn't attached properly and was also filthy around the fastening. Round the back and side of the toilet you could clearly see it hadn't been cleaned and also places like around the sink, the extractor fan, the shelf above the sink. The "complimentary toiletries" they mention is actually a bottle of hair and body wash screwed to the wall. Pretty much what you get at a much cheaper hotel where you know this is what you get. The amount of dust in the top of the radiator and across the bed headboards were disgusting. The doors of the rooms don't shut properly unless you bang them which is also annoying when you're trying to sleep and others are having to do the same thing. I had asked for a disabled adapted room as both my son and I are disabled. They didn't have one available for us and the parking, well it doesn't exist. This hotel DOES NOT have its own parking. The closes one is £14 a night however if you park there and move the charge will reset itself so only park there if you intend to stay there. There is a cheaper one a little further away that seemed to be advertising it's self as being the car park for the hotel (the hotel staff don't appear to know about this one though) and they seem to charge £5 a night. If you are disabled there are 2 bays out on the main road. It's still not super close and if you are wanting to park and carry your luggage, well that's not ideal. The breakfast was decent and had a good selection. There was one member of staff there who tried hard to help us with everything and he was very nice, the only part of this whole stay that was. His name was Alex. Aside that, the whole experience was terribly stressful. Caused my COPD to be badly and my sons asthma due to the sheer level of dust in the room. I have stayed in Jury's Inn hotels before and they were nice. I haven't stayed in them since they became Leonardo's but after this visit, I'm not sure I would stay again. Very disappointed. This trip was supposed to be for my son and I. He is 9 and just beat a 4 year battle with cancer so we are now trying to catch up and make all the memories. This trip was extremely stressful and ruined basically. I wouldn't recommend this place at all. To add insult to injury I was charged TWICE for the stay. This has been resolved now but I was horrified to see that they had taken the money twice causing me further stress and problems. If you email them like the "welcome note" in the room says, don't expect a reply either. The whole stay was incredibly stressful and ruined the things we had planned. It took me ages to get checked in after arriving because of the issues with parking. If you stay here and have any issues with your room and have to move, please please make sure you don't get charged twice. Check your bank!

Nice big pub/hotel which is nicely set out with plenty of room & privacy area. Just a latte & scone…read morethis time but menu looks good, south side of Durham on A167. Must call in again to eat. No idea of rooms but I believe it's been recently refurbished.

This is a really difficult review for me. Honest Lawyer is really an American-style hotel rather…read morethan a B&B or a "charming old-fashioned" hotel... The room was clean, and the bed was comfortable. I will also say that the restaurant had tasty dinner. The annoying parts of this stay unfortunately outweigh the positives in my mind. Firstly, the nice, quite room is basically completely Wi-fi proof. While they do offer free Wi-fi, I was unable to actually use it from my room - I had to either go outside, or back to the restaurant/lounge to connect. Second, while the dinner was pretty good, they ran out of cask-ale after my first pint, and didn't seem enthusiastic about changing the cask. Also, the dinner wasn't really a bargain. This dovetails in to the second issue I had with dining, which was the breakfast. It was a mediocre steam-tray buffet. It was not worth the £9.99 per person that they charge. Third, they don't have a business center - this isn't normally a huge deal, but I'd love to have been able to check in for my flight and print my boarding passes from the hotel, especially considering how troublesome their Wi-fi was. My overall summary of Honest Lawyer is really that it's about a 2-1/2 star experience. It's tolerable if you cannot find a B&B, but it really doesn't compare to a good B&B experience, and it's costly enough that it cannot realistically be called a bargain.