So, if any of you that read this blog have looked around I’m sure you’ve realised that we work for holiday add-on company Holdiay Extras. This blog has little to do with that however, but I thought I’d relate this post to what I did last week for work as it might be useful for a few people in the UK.

As part of my job I occasionally have to visit hotels and car parks that we sell on the website. Last Friday I drove up to the Midlands to visit the Birmingham Hilton Metropole. Now here I could begin a rant about the state of British motorways and how one accident seems to gridlock the entire network for London and the South, but I won’t. Instead I’ll borrow a picture from Phil Plait to truely display how I feel about the average motorist.

The stupid, it burns

The stupid, it does indeed burn

Quite why everyone needs to slow right down to have a look at a crash on the other side of the motorway I’ll never know. It backs up traffic for miles and added at least another hour or two to my journey. At this point I feel I need to post a bunch of “Fail” photos, but I’ll refrain (for now).

In any case, motorway woe aside, getting the Hilton from Birmingham Airparks proved remarkably easy. I took the bus to the airport, and then the free monorail to the NEC. After a walk through the eerily deserted NEC complex the Hilton is just a short walk past the lake. It’s a little confusing at first as you come in through the back rather than the grander main entrance. However the signs are obvious enough that it’s not a problem.

What I really wanted to say was that the hotel is genuinely the best airport hotel I’ve visited (and I’ve visited many). It felt like a “real” four star hotel, unlike a few others I’ve been to that seem to be more stripped down due to their proximity to the airport and the assumption that people will only ever spend one night there. I’d attribute this to the location. Being so close the NEC I guess they’d get quite a few people staying the for a longer length of time.

Anyway, just a short post today. Just wanted to recommend (if you have the cash, it’s not cheap) the Hilton for a hotel stay if you’re flying from Birmingham airport.