From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Staffordia

It's been awhile since I stayed at HI express, but from memory the free breakfast consisted of cereals and bread/pastry products, plus the all important coffee.

greenbee

We used to have the cereal variety packs on holiday - all part of the holiday experience! We never got them any other time and definitely didn't get the sugary options that all our school friends claimed to have daily. It's nice to have something like that to mark the difference between 'ordinary daily life' and 'holiday' - it's a little thing, but a real treat, and clearly LG sees it as such.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82021156#Comment_82021156

Ah, Ok. Thanks for that. Certainly has a value, and I will have to remember to think about all providers when booking somewhere in the future. I'm wondering are HIex or HI located more in town/city centres? There's an exhibition we'd quite like to see that is in a city centre location, and it's one of those places that to drive to is a little bit of a pain, and finding parking would be, not impossible, but limited and expensive. A trip by train/bus and an overnight stop in a budget motel might be a similar cost, but more straightforward iyswim.

Greying X

peb

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82021167#Comment_82021167

This. Even as an adult holiday breakfasts are different and part of the experience

peb

I haven't had one but I checked the reviews and it included hot breakfast and there was reference to bacon. The only complaint I found was that the eggs were scrambled or scrambled

Just checked and for two adults and one child they do a room with a double bed and sofa bed - £72 on the night im looking at

Im looking at the Droitwich one. It's just off the motorway and people seem to use it as a base for places like Worcester. For me it's part way to my destination and means I can swim at the lido

Greying_Pilgrim

I do actually - in my heart of hearts - agree with you all about the cereal and 'treat' aspect. But my consideration also has to cover the practicalities of having milk (neither DH nor LG like UHT 'raw' - ok in hot drinks, but not any other way), available, and without access to a fridge, I have to carry that milk safely. Saturday's weather was way hotter than forecast, and we were unable to park the car in shade, I would not (in hindsight) have been able to keep milk cool in the hotel room, and I knew we were departing for the event (held in a rural location), before the shops opened on the Sunday morning. So I wouldn't deny LG their treat, it just creates an extra layer of planning to have cereal in a hotel room (eg on a Sunday). Whereas in the caravan at Easter, we had access to a full size fridge etc. It was easier to accommodate the 'treat'. And yes, I'm pleased that LG is being sensible about keeping the cereal as a treat, and not letting it morph into 'everyday'. On the Saturday, we went to find a post box, in the afternoon sun 🥵 and LG asked if they could buy a can of cola. We went into the nearby aldee, and they bought a 6 pack (the individual bottles in the chiller were more than a 6 pack of cans…..), of aldee's dupe of the cola that comes in a red can. We tried (not very succesfully) to cool down a can that afternoon/evening, and they had one on the Sunday too, and one on our return on Monday. But they realise that the remaining 3 cans are not to be guzzled daily, or just because, and they will be available maybe, for example, with a pizza/wedges tea on a Friday or something.

peb - that price is comparable to what we were going to pay for a PI room on the Friday night (I cancelled to accommodate more work on the garden), but of course, zero breakfast included at PI. Thanks for the nudge, I'll be looking into that chain's offerings in future.

Drizzle has started, it's not heavy, nor consistent I don't think, but it's probably already enough to make the soil too tacky to work - but sticky enough to clag to your boots ☹️ Shopping it is - which is just as well, as I've remembered we're out of bread too 🙄

Greying X

themadvix

We've had decent full buffets available at the two HIEs we've stayed at - in Antrim and MK. Nothing special, but a full spread (and potato bread in NI 😊). Not so sure about city centre locations - the one in our town is very central, but the two we've stayed at were not, so I guess it varies. Definitely comparable price-wise to a PI or a TL in some places.

oceanspirit

HI also do evening meals at a reasonable price for the quality with a choice of veggie options. I stayed in one in April and they did a veggie curry with rice as a meal, then you could add bhajis, samosas, poppadoms and naan breads as individual extras if you wanted. I thought that was a good idea as it gives people the option to spend and eat to their own budget and appetite. I don’t like being presented with a huge portion that part of has to go to waste as I have an average appetite so that sort of build it to your liking works well for me.

I had a similar problem booking Days Inn as you had with TL which is why I ended up at HI that particular night so I think it’s just random system glitches rather than users doing anything wrong.

Another one here who had the variety pack cereals as a holiday treat.

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - if you do decide to go for longer than 3 days away, self-catering airbnb is honestly very affordable per night - the last time we went for 6 nights, it worked out to 50 a night in the tourist part of wales during term time (bad planning on our part). It was very clean, had a fully stocked kitchen (potpots/pans/dishes/cutlery), dishwasher, fridge, washer & dryer, a king size bed and double sofa bed - we took most of our food from home in a cooler, fresh milk and eggs were bought mid-week and we only had one dinner and one lunch out. Had our own entrance/exit and parking spot, bi-fold patio doors and garden patio to use. A slightly posher version of home without the hotel feel. We made use of our NT membership and also visited free museums. What I like about the Airbnb site is that you can narrow your search to cost/area/nights before even planning so we tend to pick three areas and go where we will end up spending the least.

Greying_Pilgrim

Gosh, I step out for 5 mins and I have lots of lovely visitors 😁 Thank you so much tmv and oceanspirit for the valuable additional info re HIex. I will definitely broaden my horizons in future searches - thank you both for taking the time to comment and help me out.

rt I don't rule out airbnb, it's just rare that we go for more than one or two nights away, and usually fall foul of the 2/3 night minimum requirement. However, you're absolutely right about it as an option. Our Easter break, at £77pn in the static couldn't be beaten by airbnb, and availability seemed to be limited to 1 bed/2 persons, or 16 bedrooms/32 people+ 🤣 with not alot inbetween in that location. We do make use of a cottage that is under that system though, and have had good holidays away as a result, so for sure, not to be discounted. I just seem to not be able to get it to work very often for me with it being the 3 of us.

So I've been shopping, in the rain. It is now pavement splitting sunshine 🙄 However, I went to MrL and MrS today. No green boxes. MrL was clearly doing shelf-stacking day, with no staff, as there were wire cages everywhere and nothing getting put on the shelves - many of which were empty (mostly limited to non-food though, I hasten to add). There is no wine in my totals today, as the bottle I buy was oos on the shelf, and the replenishments were at the bottom of a very full, bound up in plastic, wire trolley. So that will have to wait for another day.

I did get some jam app price in MrL, as they had nice flavours for 99p. I love plum jam - hope it's nice. And I did get some salady bits in MrL, as they had quite good stocks today, for OK prices - including the ruby romaine lettuce for 79p. I did notice that of the strawberries in the PoTW, our branch had 2 boxes of 400g punnets mixed in with the boxes of 225g punnets, which was actually the size of the offer. I did notice several people getting the bigger punnets - because of course those strawberries looked nicer - but there wasn't a member of staff around to point it out to. Perhaps folks won't mind paying the extra, but it irks me (personally) when stuff is mixed up. It wasn't just a case of a punnet had been left by a customer, there were 2 large boxes full of the bigger punnets.

In MrS, I got a couple of NP items - 2 MNP, and one NP SEL, and I got some YS'd mushrooms. Not a terrific saving - only slightly less than the MrL family pack price - so maybe a 9 or 10 pence saving? But it was the best box out of the half a dozen or so that were YS'd. I did spot some YS'd asparagus, but it was well gone - and if you know what rotten asparagus smells like, you know…… 🤢

My shopping came to £41.38 today. Nothing fancy bought. No one item particularly expensive, and no real 'meal ready' items - mostly just components.

I've put a wash on, and I'll have to put it in front of the dehu, as DH has taken down my washing lines (it was the right thing to do at the time), and I can't re-install them by myself. It's a real shame, as we have sunshine and a good breeze.

Right, I'm away to update my siggie figgie and the GC thread.

Ta for popping by and being so helpful. Greying X