This is a newish hotel in the heart of Newcastle, a very short walk from the central train station. As such, it is convenient to everything. This is also its main problem. It's on a small but busy street, with a fair degree of traffic, including a lot of trucks and loud motorcycles, that goes on all evening. Most of the rooms face this street, as did mine. A few face the tracks. I suspect these are also noisy, as some of the trains are diesel. Bring earplugs! On the positive side, the bed was very comfortable and, with earplugs, I slept well.
As for food, they offer a buffet-style breakfast: sausage, ham, scrambled eggs, beans, stewed tomatoes, fruit salad (90% apples), melon, and a few other things. The quality of breakfast is so-so, but at a premium price. You could get breakfast cheaper by pre-ordering it at the time of check-in, but then you're locked into having it there, and in my opinion it is still overpriced. The breakfast buffet area also has a major bottleneck. There is a machine that dispenses hot liquid - coffee, espresso, chocolate, latte, water, one cup at a time. It takes about a minute per cup between looking at the various choices, making your selection, and having your beverage dispensed. Cool idea if you're the only one there. Not so cool if there are 7 people ahead of you in line for a cup of coffee. Breakfast here needs a lot of work. Best advice is to get it elsewhere.
Meals can be obtained anytime after 10 AM through the evening, and the quality of these dinners is quite good, and fairly priced. Salmon fillet comes with a generous salad of a large variety of greens, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette, and very tasty. Sandwiches were also good.
All the staff were very pleasant, friendly, and easily approachable. read more