Ave A Good Weekend At The Avondale
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Recommendation added: 29/01/2006 22:41
By: sg1967 (YSUK rating +4)sg1967 has been thanked 4 times for this contribution
"Recently my husband Andy, our two friends Ann and Andy and myself decided to have one of our annual cultural weekends away (two nights on the drink), and selected York as our destination (lots of pubs). Last time we went away together we went to Dublin and had many disasters so we were hoping for an improvement this time. One improvement would be to stay close to the city centre, as we'd had a 30-minute hike to the drinking district last time (even longer staggering back). So I was given the illustrious job of finding a suitable B & B, I also knew I would get the blame if it was really bad.
For many days and nights I trawled the Internet **ADDED BY EDITOR - "should now be easier with the arrival of youstayuk.com ;)"**, eventually deciding on the Avondale Guest House (it was the whiskey porridge that convinced me – more of that later). We booked by telephone at 10.30pm and received a confirmation e-mail within minutes; I was really surprised by such a prompt reply. Carole Kaleda the proprieteress, who we spoke to, seemed friendly and pleasant.
The guesthouse is situated on the south side of the river, 10 minutes from the City Centre; it's within walking distance from the train station and easy to find if driving (unless I'm navigating, I don't know my left from right), the web site gives comprehensive directions. We were not far from Skeldergate Bridge and the City walls. We had received another e-mail from Carole to say that if we wanted to arrive earlier than 1pm, we could drop off our luggage so that we wouldn't have to trawl around with it. As it was we all arrived at about one o'clockish and were given free parking permits for the duration of our stay. The overnight car parking fees in York are normally about £10 per day so we thought this was great.
The Avondale Guesthouse is situated within a long terrace of similar establishments. From the outside it looks clean and well presented with a colourful little front garden full of shrubs and flowers. Unfortunately I think it would be unsuitable for wheel chair use as it has a steep flight of steps up to the front door and has no lift inside and all the bedrooms are upstairs.
We received a lovely warm welcome from Carole (who we never saw without a smile on her face the whole weekend), she ushered us into the small but welcoming hallway and showed us around the breakfasting room and also the hospitality cupboard. She told us that we could help ourselves anytime we wished to extra teas, coffees and biscuits and that if we wished to bring food into our rooms that there was no problem, we could get trays and cutlery from the cupboard. I thought that this was lovely as in a lot of places you get frowned upon for even taking sweeties in. Talking of sweeties there was a big bowl of chocolates in the hallway for guests. She also showed us where the iron and ironing board were kept if required, I would rather go around crumpled than have to iron on holiday so we never used it. Carole then insisted on taking my bag for me up to our room. As we arrived before our friends we chose the slightly bigger room with the slightly bigger shower (big enough for two!). All the rooms have flower names, we were in Heather and our friends were next door in Primrose.
All the bedrooms beautifully decorated in a Victorian style with fresh flowers and prints by local artists adorning the walls. All rooms are ensuite with good-sized, fluffy burgundy towels and flannel; there was even a full-sized hand wash in the bathroom. Our room was spotless and well aired. Each room contains an alarm clock, remote controlled television; remote controlled hi-fi system (with a collection of CDs), hairdryer, fantastically stocked hospitality tray and best of all a corkscrew. There was also a full sized kettle and lovely large mugs. Carole heard the clink of many wine bottles as she carried Ann's bag upstairs and promptly returned with 4 very large glasses and a cooler for the wine. This is a lady who knows how to look after her guests.
The bed was the most comfortable I have ever slept in, we found it really difficult to get up each morning (and that wasn't just through the amount of alcohol we'd consumed). I think it is always nice to sleep under an eiderdown, sheets and blankets when you are used to a duvet. The room contained a very large wardrobe and chest of drawers. I cannot stand it when you stay somewhere where each drawer will only hold a single pair of knickers. The shower was slightly temperamental, it was ok for me but when Andy went in it decided to give alternative bursts of hot and cold water. The squeals were quite entertaining.
There is also a comprehensive selection of leaflets covering the many attractions in and around York along with the local take away menus. Each room also has a file in which is listed all the local information you might need on a stay in York, such as doctors, dentists and such like. There was even a section on nearby restaurants and whether you would need to book in advance or not.
We were given a set of 3 keys per room and told we could come and go as we pleased, the keys were different colours so that we wouldn't be fumbling at the locks in the middle of the night.
We were asked to fill in our breakfast choices before we retired for the night so that Carole would know what to prepare each morning, it took us all quite a while to decide what we wanted as the choice is brilliant. We could choose what time to have breakfast, 8am, 8.30am or 9am, we are lazy buggers so we chose 9am and still were nearly late down. As you go into the breakfast room there is a large table laden with a good range of cereal, yoghurts, fruit and juices. There is also a toaster and plenty of bread to help yourself to. We were given a choice of tea or coffee; I received a lovely large pot of strong tea while Andy got a cafetiere of coffee, refills are available if required. Three of us had asked for whiskey porridge and I did wonder that morning if I was making a huge mistake as I was enduring a mega-hangover, but it was gorgeous. Made with fine oats, fresh cream and Irish whiskey this was to die for, absolutely scrummy. You could see a layer of whiskey on the top of the porridge and by God you could taste it, fantastic hangover cure, highly recommended. As if that wasn't filling enough we had our main breakfast to contend with, the choice was as follows:
English: grilled bacon, sausage, egg, tomato, mushrooms and bacon.
American: grilled bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, and toasted muffin.
Vegetarian: veggie sausages, hash browns, tomato, egg, mushroom and beans.
Continental: croissant, boiled egg, smoked ham, cheese and fresh fruit.
Mediterranean: toasted bread brushed with olive oil, poached eggs, vine tomato, ham and basil.
Fish: buttered smoked kippers dressed with fresh herbs.
My only complaint would be that we were only stopping 2 days so I couldn't try every breakfast choice; the ones I did try were the Continental and Mediterranean, which were absolutely fantastic. I had thought that the Continental would be a light meal but I was very much mistaking, it came with a full fruit salad, beautifully arranged. We all thoroughly enjoyed our brekkies; those who had cooked ones said there wasn't a trace of greasiness or fat and there was plenty of it. The staff are very attentive, but not over attentive, we were allowed to spend as much time as we wanted eating.
We didn't have to pay until we left, rooms have to be vacated by 10am. The nightly room rates are as follows:
Double/twin ensuite: £26
Single ensuite: £30
Family ensuite: £29 (max 2 adults)
Adult (with child over 4 years): £27
Children 4 years and under: free
Children 5 – 11: £13
Children 12 – 15: £18.
There is a 10% surcharge for those who only wish to stay one night.
You can pay in a variety of ways, switch, delta, cash, cheque or credit card (there is a 3% charge for credit cards. We all thought it was very reasonable considering how well we'd been looked after and how lovely the rooms and breakfasts were. I would definitely recommend this B & B and will stay there again when I next visit York.
The address is as follows:
Avondale House
61 Bishopthorpe Road
York
YO23 1NX
E-mail: kaleda@avondaleguesthouse.co.uk"
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