So this weekend we headed over to York for a much needed mini-break. For those not familiar with York, it's a historic walled city, rich in ancient history, romantic ambience and fun activities.

Marriott Hotels had kindly arranged for us stay overnight on the Saturday in their 4 Star Hotel in York city centre. The Hotel overlooks the historic York Racecourse and was within walking distance of many attractions including the National Railway Museum, York Dungeons and York Minster. Castle Howard, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors are within a 1 hour drive of the hotel.

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We could have checked in at 3pm but got caught up eating Nandos and buying mothers day gifts at Beaverbrooks. We jumped in the car from the city centre and in a couple of minutes we had arrived and parked in the grounds of the Hotel. We arrived shortly after 4pm, the décor inside was beautiful, modern and clean. The friendly staff checked us in and directed us to our room.

The family room we were given was huge, as you can see from the pictures Theodore had plenty of room to run around and play as usually. We requested a travel cot for Ted and it was great to see that they had it all set-up with appropriately sized sheets and covers.

The room came with everything a family would need for a weekend away; mini fridge, kettle, Safe, a comfy sofa shampoo, soaps, trouser-press, iron and amble amount of wardrobe space for all the clothes and luggage. The bathroom had his and her mirrors and enough towels to dry out the river-Nile.


The Hotel has it's own Leisure Club with a heated pool, sauna, steam room, spa bath, gymnasium & private tennis court. It also has a Salon for those wanting to have some treatments done. As soon as we had unpacked we chucked on our swimming costumes and headed down to try out the facilities.

The pools were lovely and warm, both pools were easily accessible and located next to each other - making it handy for those with bigger explorers to keep an eye on them. They also had family changing facilities; this had everything you would need to get the family dressed and undressed, even your own shower!

After swimming we decided to have a walk around the Hotel in a bid to try and tire the little man before tea time. Once we had visited the restaurant to browse the menu, looked at the bar and went outside into the gardens it was time to go back to the room to order room service.

As we had a late lunch and Ted needed to go to bed we decided against going to the restaurant on the night. We instead decided to order in; Ted got a kids fish and chips, mummy got picked seared chicken and I got myself a massive club sandwich. Whilst we waited for the food we decided to head over the road to the local Londis store to pick up some treats and milk for the baby.

The food arrived and it was quality, top-notch freshly sourced and prepared meals. We didn't leave a bite! Once we had eaten we settled down to watch Saturday night TV, putting Ted down before we got comfortable.

On the morning we had booked in for breakfast at the Bar & Grill Restaurant as Theodore is an early riser. As you can see from the pictures below we sat down overlooking the race course. The breakfast was self service and they offered everything you could want for a brilliant breakfast - they even had the chef on hand to make customer omelettes.




After tucking in to our full English breakfasts we decided to take a walk out in the garden. The gardens were well maintained and decorated, with a pavilion and tennis courts i could see why in the summer months the hotel and its gardens would be packed out.







We really enjoyed our stay at the Marriott Hotel and would recommend the hotel to any families wanting to get away for a short-break in the city.

Waking up to a full English breakfast this morning at the @YorkMarriott & an amazing view of the race course. #York pic.twitter.com/xFNdAeepSc
— Yorkshire Dad (@TheYorkshireDad) February 22, 2015