If you are looking for the perfect Lancashire seaside family friendly UK break then look no further than the St Ives Hotel in St Anne’s on Sea.
This hotel has a special place in my heart as I’ve actually been coming for years, when I was little both sets of my grandparents and all my cousins used to come for a long weekend away in the summer. I have happy memories as a child of the craft room, children’s disco, swimming pool and I have to admit playing “knock a door…run” on other people’s hotel room doors.
We paid to return last year so I could share some of these happy memories with my daughter and husband and show them around and so was delighted to be invited to come and review this year.
So on to the hotel. The St Ives hotel is right on the front at Lytham St. Anne’s opposite the beach. It has a large free car park (for guests) at the front and you enter the hotel through a modern reception and entrance.
We were booked into a family room, this included a double bed, a single bed and a travel cot for our baby. The room was modern, clean and perfect for what we needed.
We arrived about 3pm after a day in Blackpool centre, I took our baby to the playroom which has a lovely miniature soft play and my husband took our eldest swimming. The pool is a good size and pool towels are provided by the hotel.
Whilst the hotel has its own restaurant, (where we ate last year and I would recommend) we decided to eat in the bar area, ordering burgers and pizzas so that our baby could continue to crawl around and play on the floor.
The food was prompt and delicious, the full size windows and patio doors overlooking the promenade made for the perfect setting!
From 4pm-6pm there were glitter tatoo’s and nail painting. We paid £1 for our little girl to go to the craft room and have her nails painted. She loved the experience and has since told all her friends she went to a nail salon. The craft room is amazing- and they run different activities throughout the day such as painting a pot, card making, lego- you can find out full details by calling the hotel before your stay or following them on social media.
From 7-8pm there is a children’s hour. They have a childs entertainer on and he is absolutely brilliant- there was a mixture of circus games and circus skills, it’s safe to say I was useless at spinning the plates and then after this was the disco and classic childrens party games. We had been practicing some of these at home before we went, so our little girl was delighted to win a prize for musical statues and loved joining in all the classics from the macarena, to captain’s coming to the conga. It felt quite nostalgic to see her up there dancing to the songs that I danced to in the same place I did 30 years ago.
After the children’s hour, there is more entertainment bingo and then a singer though we retreated to our rooms before this. Our children both slept through the night for the first time in ages so my husband and I have decided we may have to move to the St Ives Hotel permanently….!
In the morning, we went down for breakfast, it’s buffet style but very extensive, there’s a huge continental offering with pastries, toasts, cereals, fruit and tea and coffees. In addition to this is a great cooked breakfast- the bacon is delicious- which to me is always the measure of a good cooked breakfast. What’s even more impressive is that Spiderman and Captain America made an appearance- which was a lovely surprise for our little girl (but a regular occurance at the hotel).
We then headed to the pool for a final swim before checking out to explore Lytham St. Anne’s which is great for a family day out.
Overall we couldn’t fault this hotel for families, it really is the perfect getaway and has everything and more a family could possibly need.
