Newport

Our Wales weekend Break was fantastic. After booking a twin room on a special deal with Lastminute.com, we were upgraded on arrival to a queen room for no extra charge. We paid £80 a night instead of £150. The Celtic Manor is a 5 star hotel on the M4 between Newport and Cardiff. Three golf courses surround the hotel, the Welsh Open being held at one of them. They are currently biding for the Ryder cup in 2006. The room was quite large and the bathroom was amazing. It was tiled with marble floor to ceiling and for the first time ever in Britain I saw a bathroom with a separate shower and bath. We stayed on the 10th and upper most floor, the same floor President Clinton stayed on. His room of course a little larger than ours, and included a baby grand piano. Wonder if he played? On Sunday we went downstairs for breakfast and the main restaurant was full so we were transported to another of the four restaurants on site, the Manor house that was down the hill for breakfast. We were greeted with a glass of Bucks Fizz to get the morning off to a good start. For the rest of the day we walked around the golf courses and up to the driving range. Gavin did very well and I managed to hit a ball 50 yards, improving on actually just managing to hit the thing.

Me trying hard

Click to enlarge

It started to rain so we went back to the room and I went to the lovely gym and pool. It's so nice working out in pristine equipment. The swimming pool had a domed roof painted to look like a star lit sky. So relaxing. In the ladies changing room and spa pool the decor was old roman style with pillars all over the place. The hotel also offered beauty treatments and massages (of course these cost a little more). On Monday the weather had picked up so Gavin decided to try a round of golf. After hiring all the gear and buying 2 sets of golf balls (just as well) we set off. It was a lovely course set on the hill looking out over Cardiff. The grass rough was very long and so a lot of time was spent looking for wayward shots. In most cases I found not only Gavin's ball but also others that had been left behind by golfers who'd given up the search. So despite Gavin loosing 3 of his balls we actually could have been a few balls up if we'd picked up all the ones I found. After the first nine I was tired of looking and feeling a bit bored so I hired a golf buggy. So much fun. I zipped around the course and felt a lot better. The day was so beautiful that I actually managed to get sun burnt again so I'm quite brown for me right now. As usual the holiday came to a close all too soon and it was back to London.

I'd definitely recommend the Celtic Manor, even at normal prices. The service was always outstanding and friendly.

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