West Coast First Timers - Pre Travel Day

[abiknox]

Index here

Well today started for me like all past pre travel days…. at work! I’m always short of annual leave so I usually work up until 5pm and then we race up to Manchester or down to Heathrow on the evening to try and make the most of whichever hotel we have booked. On this occasion though I managed to take a ½ day unpaid so escaped the office at 12.15pm! On the dot

I raced home to find Aaron still asleep having worked a night shift and sat killing time doing online check in, watching the Big Bang Theory & packing the last few bits until I was allowed to wake him up. Turns out I didn’t need to actually go upstairs to wake him; apparently I was being loud enough from downstairs.

We made it out of the house at 2pm after saying goodbyes to our dog Rose. My mom would be picking her up later in the day. We made a pit stop at the local petrol station to fill up and check our tyre pressures before we set off. We times it really bad, the second Aaron got out of the car, the heavens opened. So I sat in the dry car, laughed and took a photo



Soon enough we were on the road, this time round we were flying from Heathrow so we hit the M40 and stopped off after an hour or so at the High Wycombe TGI Fridays to get the America food ball rolling.





We ordered Pretzels & Skins to start with. I then had Chicken Fingers with loaded fries and Aaron had the Chicken Finger BLT. It was all very good although the service left something to be desired. £35 with no tip.









Back on the road and within 30 minutes we were pulling up at the Premier Inn on Bath Road, we paid the £12 parking fee and made our way inside where we were directed to a self check in booth. I typed in our name, no booking found. Ummmm. We pulled out our paperwork, showed it to a member of staff and were informed that we were at the wrong hotel and should be at the other one on Bath Road. No worries he said, its only 3 miles down on the same road and we could use the same parking ticket. Off we go again, 45 minutes later after driving round some of the more interesting estates of the area we finally found the right hotel. I honestly don’t know how we went so wrong but that mixed with rush hour traffic suddenly made the drive very stressful.

Anyway, in we go. Check in fine and make our way up to our room, number 1174, very nice. Standard for a PI room and perfect for the £29 price for one nights sleep.





After a couple of minutes Aaron popped back down to the Costa Coffe & returned with goodies. Latte for him, Hot Choc for me & two cakes that we shared. A Lemon Slice & a Salted Caramel Muffin, the latter was immense! £9



Im not sure what we spent the rest of the evening doing, just relaxing I think. I know I had a bath & we watched Avatar before falling asleep.

Tomorrow – travel day!

[Ruthy1604]

Lovely day
We never book a hotel the night before, but I'm tempted now as it sort of makes the holiday longer! Did you find packing/unpacking for the overnight stay a problem? I can just imagine luggage everywhere with us

[SarahJayne]

Yay! You've started!

Good travel day (apart from getting lost!) I like a good Premier Inn, does what it says on the tin and always clean.

Really looking forward to the rest of your trippie!

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by Ruthy1604

Lovely day
We never book a hotel the night before, but I'm tempted now as it sort of makes the holiday longer! Did you find packing/unpacking for the overnight stay a problem? I can just imagine luggage everywhere with us

See more...

We take a seperate little hold all with our travel clothes in and then leave all our worn clothes in the car whilst we are away. Come to think of it, they must still be in there now! Oops

Originally Posted by Floopy

Yay! You've started!

Good travel day (apart from getting lost!) I like a good Premier Inn, does what it says on the tin and always clean.

Really looking forward to the rest of your trippie!

See more...

Yep, Premier Inn's cannot be beaten for the price, or the goods night sleep guarantee. We had trouble once in Manchester with some loud teenagers in the room next to us and the room was refunded before we even complained! That's good service!

[Guest]

Ah great start! We never got to try tgi in usa but uk is 9 times out of 10 disappointing!

[florida girl]

Good start except for confusion over PI well they do all look the same.

[Pussycat Doll]

Great start, we always have dire service in TGIs, don't bother with them now, especially as they charged my debit card three times! Looking forward to travel day! Pussycat

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Ah great start! We never got to try tgi in usa but uk is 9 times out of 10 disappointing!

See more...

We used to love it but our local one has gone really downhill. Luckily we have a lovely little independent burger place that's just great. its our go to place now if was want an America fix

Originally Posted by florida girl

Good start except for confusion over PI well they do all look the same.

See more...

Too true, ill admit it's not the first time I have done it

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Great start, we always have dire service in TGIs, don't bother with them now, especially as they charged my debit card three times! Looking forward to travel day! Pussycat

See more...

Its a shame as their food can be good if you just want a good juicy burger! Nightmare about the debit card!

[lovedisney89]

Just seen you have started youtr trippy
Hope you had an amazing time, great pre-travel day.

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

Just seen you have started youtr trippy
Hope you had an amazing time, great pre-travel day.

See more...

We had an incredible time! It seems like a lifetime ago already though