The Hand Hotel, Llangollen | review

As some of you may have seen, I was recently in Llangollen for the weekend - this was my little birthday trip, but it turned out to actually be a proposal! It was such a special couple of days, despite the awful weather, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have walked away from my favourite place as a fiancé. If you want to see some engagement photos, have a look on my instagram!

Anyway, we stayed in the Hand Hotel for our trip and I thought I'd do a quick review. I actually managed to get barely any content because of all the excitement, so I'll add a link to the booking.com listing so you can see some photos of the hotel. We booked this one as it was fairly affordable (£230 for Friday & Saturday night in mid-July) and because it has a large decked area right on the river, and we were expecting sunshine!

The view of the decking and river from our window

We checked in and paid the bill, then headed up to our room - fair warning there is no lift, and our room (47) was up quite a few flights of stairs. We had a double bed, a small table with a chair, another chair in the window, and a TV. There is a also a bathroom with a bath and shower. The first thing we noticed when we got into the room is that it was really quite dated; we didn't mind this at all, but it was definitely different for us as we have been really spoilt with staying in very modern hotels this year. The bed wasn't the most spacious, but it felt pretty comfortable. Despite the (torrential) rain outside, our bedroom was absolutely boiling, bordering on unbearable. But the view out over the deck and river was utterly gorgeous, so we didn't mind *too much*.

Kate offered to run me a bath, but sadly the water came out in a sad little trickle which was really disappointing as I was so looking forward to a nice soak - it just wasn't meant to be. When we showered the next morning it wasn't much better, taking ages to heat up and having quite low pressure. But it did the job, and the bathroom was definitely nice and clean.

There is a bar and restaurant downstairs, and breakfast was included in our booking. There was tea, coffee, juice, toast, hot buffet items and cereal available and the food was really tasty. We had a few drinks in the bar on the Saturday night, when a live band was playing; the bar was much more expensive than I expected, and it got absolutely rammed to the point of being dangerously busy at one point. This was a shame as the band were great but none of us felt comfortable staying down there. What I will say though is that we couldn't hear any music or other noise from the bar in our room, which was great!

 

The view in the rain!

 

The decking area outside, on the river, is just incredible - if the weather is good then it's a gorgeous place to sit. We chilled there for an hour or so before heading home on the Sunday morning when it had stopped raining, and it was so peaceful. It even has its own little bar! There is a big car park, and the Hand Hotel itself is really easy to get to - Llangollen is only small, of course, so everything is in walking distance.

I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend the Hand Hotel, Llangollen, but if the weather is going to be good and it's coming out at a decent price, then it's definitely one to consider. I absolutely adore Llangollen, and I already can't wait to go back...