Lately: Sheffield, Winter Gardens and Easter plans

Before we begin celebrating the Easter weekend (does a little dance) here’s what I got up to, with my partner in crime, last weekend.

We were invited by Mercure Hotels to have a weekend stay in their centrally located hotel in Sheffield. It was lovely to get away for a couple of days without having to travel far – good old Yorkshire is a big place!

For our first day, we decided to have a small potter around the city then make the most of our superior room, spa facilities, champagne bar and the hotel restaurant, The Yard. The room was lovely. We were on the top floor so had great views looking out towards the Winter Gardens, Sheffield Hallam University and Crucible Theatre. We were left complimentary drinks, robes and slippers and a pretty nifty nespresso machine (that actually didn’t work but we weren’t bothered anyhoo).

King size super comfy bed

Robes and complimentary toiletries

Just one of the views looking out on to Winter Gardens and Sheffield University

We spent an hour in the spa and swimming pool which was well worth using even if you are only there for the one night. There is a steam room, sauna, ice igloo and aroma room but I was more interested in the pool; it was really quiet so it was nice to take advantage of it before the entire hotel descended! Not much of a people person, am I?!

After a quick spruce up we headed to the champagne bar for pre-dinner cocktails then to The Yard, the hotel’s restaurant. This is where we had a few issues. I’m not sure whether the restaurant was having a bad night but unfortunately we didn’t have great service and wouldn’t recommend going there if you’re looking for a relaxing meal out. We spent most of our time looking over our shoulders for waiting staff asking for menus, drinks and our food – very disappointing. When we did eat though, we couldn’t fault the food at all, we ordered coq au vin followed by sticky toffee pudding and both were delicious.

We decided to have breakfast in bed because of the strangely stressful service the previous night – this ended up being the highlight of my weekend. I never stayed in hotels growing up, so having breakfast brought to a hotel room, and in bed, was a complete luxury, and delicious too.

Town Hall and Peace Gardens

After leaving our bags with the concierge, we headed directly to the Winter Gardens and Millennium Gallery for a little culture. Other highlights included; Sunday sunshine at Devonshire Green, The Green Room, eating Lamingtons outside Forum Café Bar and watching the big match with my Mr.

Sheffield is awesome, the hotel was lovely and I came away with a big Cheshire Cat smile on my face – thank you Mercure.

Roll on the weekend!

♥

Disclosure: I was given a complimentary stay from Mercure for the purpose of this review.