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You are here: Home / ADVENTURE / Our half term adventure part 1: The Grand Harbour Hotel with Holiday Extras

Our half term adventure part 1: The Grand Harbour Hotel with Holiday Extras

February 24, 2016 by Molly 10 Comments

Holiday Extras Grand Harbour Hotel

You know when you book a holiday and you think about every detail – where everyone will sleep, what you’ll do every day, how many kids’ books you should take to keep the children occupied on the plane? But, as the date draws closer, it dawns on you that you’ve got to actually get there. And your flight is at 3am and how are you going to keep the kids happy for four hours during check-in? That’s where travel add-on site Holiday Extras comes in.

Grand Harbour Hotel Southampton

We were off on a brilliant adventure to the Isle of Wight with Blue Chip Holidays on our first ever double family holiday that didn’t involve extended family. There’ll be more of our holiday with Alison from Not Another Mummy Blog and her family very soon. But first, I want to tell you about the night we stayed in Southampton before we got the ferry to the Isle of Wight.

Grand Harbour Hotel View

The team at Holiday Extras organise all the extra bits of your holiday that you may not first think of. They’re all about parking, extra hotel stays and any other holiday add-ons that you don’t first think of when you’re in the midst of holiday booking excitement.

We told the company we would be travelling to the Isle of Wight with Red Funnel from Southampton, and the hotel they arranged for us – The Grand Harbour Hotel – couldn’t have been better. Location-wise, it was literally two minutes from the Red Funnel terminal, and with an added bonus of being two minutes’ walk into town it had pretty much everything we could hope for.

Here’s a little vlog I made of the first part of our half term trip to give you an idea of our experience at The Grand Harbour Hotel:

We had such a brilliant time! As you’ll see in the vlog, Frog was hugely excited about the prospect of a night in a hotel (she loves a good hotel – girl after her mother’s heart) and her excitement was infectious. Staying in a hotel the night before our holiday not only made everything less stressful because we didn’t need to worry about packing up the car and making the long journey to the ferry terminal in time, but it also added to the whole pre-holiday excitement.

Grand Harbour Hotel Bar View

The Grand Harbour Hotel is a four star hotel right next to the medieval wall into Southampton’s city centre, overlooking the docks. It has a bar, restaurant, swimming pool and spa on site, plus ample parking. We were staying in a family “quad” room, which was basically a double bed with a little put-me-up bed for Frog and a travel cot for Baby Girl. The bathroom had a bath and separate shower, and there was all the usual tea and coffee making facilities you’d expect in a four star hotel room.

Grand Harbour Hotel Room

For us, the highlight was the bar area where we enjoyed a pre-dinner time drink before walking over to Pizza Express ten minutes away in the town centre. The bar enjoys lovely views over to the medieval walls of the city, and it’s really light and airy. There’s a terrace area which I imagine would be very popular on a warm sunny day, and plenty of comfy sofas to sit back and relax in. The wine was pretty good too!

Grand Harbour Bar Southampton

Another bonus of staying in a hotel the night before our trip was that we got to enjoy an epic breakfast – something we never usually have time for. We went all-out, stuffing ourselves with a full English cooked breakfast, fresh fruit, cereal, yoghurts and croissants, washed down with fresh orange juice and plenty of tea and coffee. Monday mornings have never looked so tasty.

Grand Harbour breakfast

We also got to squeeze in a quick swim at the hotel pool before we left (plus points for the family changing room and big fluffy towels) which was far more fun than a stressful cross-country trip to get to a ferry terminal on time! After we checked out we had an hour and a half to kill before we needed to be at the ferry, so we wandered over to West Quay Shopping Centre which was literally two minutes’ walk from the Grand Harbour Hotel. We had a browse in the shops but ran out of time to explore IKEA (we saved that for the return journey home). There are loads of family-friendly places to eat here, including another Pizza Express, so if you stay at the hotel but don’t want to eat there you’re spoilt for choice.

Grand Harbour Hotel

Thanks Holiday Extras for taking the stress out of the start of our holiday. And thanks Grand Harbour Hotel for making us feel so welcome. I’ll be posting vlogs and plenty more pictures of our holiday very soon, both here and over at family interiors site Roost (the house we stayed in on the Isle of Wight was AMAZING).

Pin this for later…

Family friendly hotel in Southampton

**

We were guests on behalf of Holiday Extras for the purpose of this post. You can call the free UK helpline for all travel add-ons, including hotels, parking, airport lounges, holiday insurance, car hire and overseas transfers – all your extras needs in one handy place. The helpline is 0800 093 5478. All words and opinions are my own, naturally. For more information about how I work with brands check out my Work With Me page.

Filed Under: ADVENTURE Tagged With: Family holidays, family travel, family-friendly hotels, holiday extras, hotels, Southampton

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Half term adventure part 2: The Isle of Wight with Blue Chip Holidays »

Comments

  1. Fritha Strickland says

    February 28, 2016 at 10:59 am

    more vlogs please! you are so natural on camera. I love a good hotel breakie its one of my favourite parts of a trip away! x

    Reply
  2. Kathryn says

    February 26, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    Our kids love the novelty of staying in a hotel too. They get mega excited about it. I get excited about the breakfasts too! xx

    Reply
  3. Katie Albury says

    February 26, 2016 at 10:12 am

    This looks like a great place to stay and so accommodating with babies. What is it about hotel breakfasts- you look forward to these more than breakfast at home. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that you don’t have to make it and clear it all up! ha! x

    Reply
  4. Lia : Tangerine Canteen says

    February 25, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    I am all about the breakfast whenever i stay anywhere!! The hotel looks fab and now I’m off to check out the IOW house – i’m planning on a trip to the island this summer 🙂

    Reply
  5. laura redburn says

    February 25, 2016 at 10:40 am

    that is a fantastic idea for a company, so useful! the hotel looks great, as does the breakfast. also i feel like the only person in the uk that’s never stayed in a hotel :O

    Reply
  6. Mel Wiggins says

    February 24, 2016 at 9:43 pm

    Oh yes! Pre holiday hotel stay is the BEST way to build up to the actual thing and probably makes you feel a little more relaxed heading off – all the checking and rechecking is done! No frantic tidying or dishes – glad you had a great time! x

    Reply
  7. Polly says

    February 24, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    the best thing about going away is the hotel breakfasts!! also… how big does your littlest look!!

    Reply
  8. Alison says

    February 24, 2016 at 8:14 pm

    Love the sound of this hotel, and Holiday Extras. And LOVE the video!! Frog is such a cutie and Baby Girl looks adorable when she matches her big sister!

    Reply
  9. Slummy single mummy says

    February 24, 2016 at 11:48 am

    You HAVE to go all out on the hotel breakfast, it’s the point of them!! I try to eat enough to fill me up for the WHOLE DAY. (Greedy).

    Reply
    • Molly says

      February 24, 2016 at 7:07 pm

      You’re exactly right. I’m the same!

      Reply

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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The self-isolation ends today so I’m planning a The self-isolation ends today so I’m planning a hike this weekend with my favourites. I don’t even care if it pours with rain, everyone is grumpy and I can’t open the thermos cos my husband’s screwed the lid on too tight. 
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Hey! Are you a teacher in a school with dwindling Hey! Are you a teacher in a school with dwindling budgets? Or maybe you run a kids’ club or youth group that relies on donations to keep going? Then I’m looking at 💥YOU💥
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On Tuesday November 3rd I’ll be hosting a ✨FREE✨ Body Happy Kids workshop at 2pm. There are 10 places up for grabs and you can apply via the link in my bio. These places are reserved for those that can’t afford the regular sessions (which cost £25 a place / £125 a group).
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Tag someone you think could benefit from the opportunity, or let your kids’ school know! (PS there’s a downloadable info doc on the website you can send them for more info 👀) SWIPE ➡️ for testimonials 💕 #BodyHappyKids 
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It’s been a crap day - for no reason other than It’s been a crap day - for no reason other than I’ve hit a wall after 11 days of self-isolation. (Sharing this with the caveat that I know I’m hugely privileged and many others have it far worse, but toxic positivity is a thing and I think it’s important to share the less-than-shiny stuff too, particularly on an app that can trick us into thinking everyone else is living their best life every day.)
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(REPOST: I’m reposting this with just the body-s (REPOST: I’m reposting this with just the body-shaming tweet and without the paparazzi photo of Billie Eilish that accompanied it. Someone rightly pointed out that everyone sharing the photo doesn’t help Billie and on reflection I agree - it just gives more power to the person who took her photo without her permission.)
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Self-isolation uniform as standard ✨ (PS She’l Self-isolation uniform as standard ✨ (PS She’ll always be my baby. May she always know how lovely she is 💕)
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