UK PonyCon tips: Travelodge Nottingham Central

I've previously put up a few tips for people who (like me!) are staying at this hotel, but they were on the Travel & Accommodation section of the UK PonyCon forums, which is only visible to logged-in members. What follows after the page break is a slightly edited public version.

1) There is considerable redevelopment going on in central Nottingham at the moment, so even the 2017-era Google Street View isn't quite up to date. It's still useful, but don't rely on it utterly. There's a chance that the routes I give here may not be exactly possible next month, so leave a little extra time to get to the con venue each morning if you can.

2) The hotel is about 10-12 minutes' walk from the main rail station. The simplest way (subject to what I said in point 1) is to leave Nottingham station and head north along Carrington Street, over the canal bridge. After a little while you'll come up against the side of the large Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. Turn left along the outside into Collin Street, following the road as it curves round to the right. Once the road straightens out, the Travelodge is the first tower block on the right; the entrance is in a small parade of shops and has a prominent sign.

3) The walk from the hotel to the con venue also takes 10-12 minutes. Turn right out of the hotel entrance and walk up to the first side road. Turn right into Friar Lane and follow it until you reach the tram tracks. Turn left and follow the tram tracks up the hill. Go past a small Costa on your left and go straight on at the crossroads with the traffic lights. The large cream-coloured building on the right with steps up to it is the con venue; hopefully the entrance will be signposted for the con.

4) Alternatively, you can take the tram. Do the first bit on foot as above, but when you reach the tram tracks turn right and go slightly downhill to the Old Market Square stop. Buy your ticket (before you board; you can't buy from a conductor!) and travel two stops to Nottingham Trent University stop. This will take you slightly beyond the con venue, so just walk back down. The official advice for people coming from this direction is to use Royal Centre stop, but I found that more of a pain -- it's perhaps very slightly closer, but it means a fairly steep hill to walk up. (Downhill on the way home, of course!) Whatever you do, make sure you print out and fill in the special Event Ticket Voucher beforehand and buy an Event Ticket from the stop itself; doing this will give you a return for £2:

www.ukponycon.co.uk/getting-here#by-tram

5) I'm not sure about buses. There's a bus stop right outside the hotel entrance, but as I did my recce on foot and by tram I don't know which routes stop there.

6) As with several other Travelodges, the reception desk for this one is on the first floor. (For those visiting from overseas, in British English that means upstairs!) From memory, I think the stairs are to the right as you go in. Some reports on Tripadvisor say that there's only one working lift, so bear that in mind if you end up on the seventh floor or something!

7) This hotel does not have secure luggage storage facilities, which is a bit of a pain, so you won't be able to leave your bags here before check-in (3pm) or after check-out (midday). The railway station does not have a left luggage office, unfortunately.

8) There is a bar-restaurant at the hotel, though I don't know how good it is. The breakfast menu looks like a slightly limited but reasonable traditional English menu. I'm told Travelodges are usually helpful if you're a vegetarian etc, so it's worth asking! My impression is that the range is a little smaller than the Premier Inn's breakfast menu.

9) If you don't want to eat at the hotel, there are plenty of cafés, restaurants, pubs etc in the Old Market Square area, about halfway along the route mentioned in point 4 – so only around five minutes' walk from the hotel. This is where this year's venue scores over Bristol last year, which was a bit of a culinary wasteland compared to a city-centre location like this! Of course, during the con itself you can get a certain amount of food and drinks within the venue.

10) It's always hard to tell when you're there in the daytime, but it seemed like noise levels would be average for a city-centre hotel. The Travelodge is right next to a busy main road (Maid Marian Way) so it's not going to be silent, but especially if you get an upper floor I don't think it's likely to be too bad.

11) This is a fairly old hotel and the rooms are not air-conditioned. You can open the windows (a little -- they have the usual restrictors) and fans can be supplied if you're too hot. However, don't expect five-star luxury. It's a Travelodge, after all!