Need An Overnight Stopover In Dover For The Ferry? You can’t do better than Premier Inn.
A couple of months ago, thanks to P&O, I won a trip to Disney. No really I did. With my very own Photographic Prowess, no less.
*proud face*
Anyway, the date was set, the plans were made, the ferry was booked, the school was notified.
Then we realised. We were catching the ferry from Dover at 6.30 in the morning.
Dover is over 3 hours from our house.
*shudder*
Thankfully, I know people in the right places, and those lovely people at Premier Inn suggested that an overnight stop in Dover the night before might be the solution.
Well, it sounded like a good idea, so we said yes please. It’s not like we needed much for one night, is it?
And so it was that we packed a bundle of rather over-excited children into the car after school on the Thursday and headed off to Kent. Nine o’clock that night a tired and chilly family emerged blinking from the car to the welcome glowing lights of our destination…
Parking was easy, the welcome from the reception staff was very warm and friendly. The six of us couldn’t fit into one room, so we had to separate – and sadly the rooms weren’t adjoining, but in all honesty for the one night that didn’t matter. They were only one room apart, not in different parts of the hotel, and it was fine.
The rooms were standard – nothing fancy, but absolutely everything you need for a stopover; the beds were comfy with good quality linen, there was room for a double plus two temporary singles in each room, the bathroom was roomy enough, and everything was neat and clean.
Having got all the children settled I nipped back down to the bar for some orange juice (you can take drinks back to your rooms), and asked the oh-so-friendly man on reception about finding the port in the morning as we didn’t want to be map reading at 6a.m.
Afterwards I felt a bit foolish – we were so close I could probably have thrown the children from our hotel rooms and they’d have landed on the boat!
Our rooms were overlooking the water, and we realised the following morning what a great view we’d had – we’d been to eager for some sleep the night before to notice!
We all objected to the alarms going off but left the hotel at 5.50a.m. (creeping through the corridors so as not to wake other guests at such a disgusting hour). A cheery goodbye from the (different) receptionist, and we left on the next leg of the Disney Adventure – checking in at the dock at 5.54…
If you have an early ferry (or any ferry actually) from Dover I cannot tell you just how convenient the Dover Central Premier Inn is to break your journey. We also plan to use it in reverse – if we drive across France there’s nothing more depressing than the long journey, the ferry crossing… and then ANOTHER 3+hours driving before we get home. For us it’s worth booking an extra night to break that journey up.
(We have written about Premier Inn before. I’d just like to say that I’m sorry I didn’t get the 10yr old to do the review this time – I admit it. He’s much more entertaining then me…)
