Accomodation for Legoland Resort, Windsor

Planning a trip to Legoland? Legoland. It’s almost a rite of passage for parents of toddlers! Check out my top tips here.

Living in Warwickshire, we felt it would be over-ambitious to travel to and from Legoland in one day (from Alcester) so we booked a hotel (besides it was a holiday!!). I grew up near Windsor so I was fairly familiar with the options when it came to hotels.

Ideally, I would stay in Windsor – within walking distance of restaurants etc (but our trip coincided with Royal Ascot so this was a financial no go!).

Lots of people stay in the nearby Holiday Inn (in Slough) but there’s really nothing around it and it’s not the prettiest area. There is of course the Legoland hotel but this was ridiculously over priced. Friends have also stayed at Oakley Court and this is reported to be pretty child friendly (with children’s menus, child-sized dressing gowns and cookie and milk delivered to rooms before bed time). Again though, this was out of our price range on this occasion. After some deliberation we settled on the Crowne Plaza in Marlow. I went to school in Marlow and had grown up seeing the hotel being built etc. It’s a modern hotel with plenty of parking and easily assesible without being noisy. We were attracted by the swimming pool….we knew that after a day at Legoland this would be a welcome change.

The downside was that it’s not in walking distance of any restaurants. That said, nearby Marlow is delightful (I went to school there!). There’s a lovely selection of restaurants, cafes, and shops. There’s also a Waitrose and an M and S simply food (may be useful for picnic supplies!). Anyway, we decided to meet my sister for dinner in nearby Maidenhead….

Now, we’d not stayed in a hotel since having our daughter,  so we were slightly worried about the sleeping arrangements (we were going to have to be in one room!). We opted for meeting up with my sister for an early dinner and then a family bedtime (which suited me at the tail end of my pregnancy!). It worked ok…she settled eventually once the excitement had past and we all slept well.

The hotel was incredibly welcoming to us all. I have to admit to being surprised by this….I haven’t come to expect it in the UK. Our daughter was left some chocolates in the room and there was ample room for us all (and her travel bed). The swimming pool had set family-friendly swimming times (although you could swim with children out of these times – or at least we did!). There was a lovely pool for the little ones as well as a larger pool suitable for everyone. If visiting on a warmer day there was a fab garden area accessible from the pool side. Breakfast was a complete delight. The staff were so friendly and won brownie points when they went out of their way to cook pancakes for our daughter! High chairs were available in the breakfast room – I didn’t expect this so was very pleasantly surprised! A great selection – something for everyone.