St Ives Hotel, Lancashire
7-9 South Promenade, St Annes on Sea
The St Ives Hotel is a friendly and welcoming 2 star family friendly Hotel in the lovely town of St. Annes and the perfect venue for a stress-free family holiday. Situated directly opposite the beach the sea view rooms certainly meet any expectations. It's a traditional sea-side hotel offering kids activities at varying times through the day, with facilities to keep them under your supervision. Once parked up you can stroll along the prom, stroll into town or take a bus along to the attractions in next-door Blackpool.
Accommodation
Our family room had a large double bed, en-suite bathroom with shower over and a small yet functional adjoining bedroom for the girls with 2 single beds and a pull out which was just perfect for them. They had their own door, their own space, as well as their own free-view tv which they used early mornings thankfully! Tea-making facilities are available for early morning cuppas, room service will provide whatever else you may need.
Towels are supplied, bring your own toiletries.
To Eat
The restaurant is modern and serves breakfast and dinner buffet style. Food is plentiful with a good range of food for you all. Our girls chose ham, with salad and chips the first night - and Lottie our 7 year old carnivore supreme - declared the ham the best she had ever tasted - Dad agreed! Dessert comprised ice-cream - self-service and swirly - kids (and some adult's heaven), lots of fruit and cakes galore.
At breakfast you may choose from cereals, fruit, porridge and cooked items - they have it covered. Given the fact the restaurant is self-service to a degree feeding the kids is seamless - straight into cereals and fruit - scrambled eggs later is enough room! Ours visited the soft play and games room whilst we finished off.
To Do
There are activities planned in the hotel throughout the day. If you don't want to wander out the pool is heated, the games room has table tennis and air soccer, there's an outdoor play area and a room with a games console. The Bar has live entertainment with a mix of DJ's and live singers. We even enjoyed a couple of games of bingo with a packet of crisps! Early evening caters for the kids perfectly with dancing games and a very fun dj who kept them entertained. The bar is opposite the restaurant and so Eve (9) felt confident wandering across with her sisters to play whilst we finished dinner. Aggie still hasn't got the knack of musical statues and for some reason lies flat once the music starts - she won the game by default!
Out and About
As mentioned the hotel enjoys a splendid view of the beach - as did our room. We had a lovely relaxed day playing on the beach, riding donkeys (£3), visiting the pier and forking out pounds in 2ps. The girls went on the trampolines (£3 for 10 mins which I thought a bit steep but they came off shattered!) and there's a little train that runs around which the little ones loved. Ice-cream naturally was a given.
We visited the Blackpool Pleasure Beach - it is a must with the kids. It's changed so much, lots of age appropriate rides for all ages and good reasonably priced food - the pizza restaurant was excellent. Sadly it closes at 6pm - I remember loving the lights on the rides at night.
There is also a fab Beach Restaurant to the left of the hotel as you face the sea, at the end of the prom. Sunday roasts, coffee and cake, sandwiches, salads etc are all available. It can be terribly busy so either get there early or be prepared for a wait.
It may be worth asking for a room not above the Ball Room if you wish to get to bed early.