The Queens Hotel Penzance review

Our break to Penzance was a bit of a last minute trip, although not at last minute as some of my holidays have been. This was because my bestfriend was going with her family, and she suggested we could use it as an opportunity to meet up. So a couple of weeks out, I booked the Queens Hotel Penzance online, and we were on our way.

In touristy hotspots I do look for parking as an essential, and ideally walking time easy for the centre of town. Then we don’t have to worry about parking costs, or finding places nearby to park. The Queens Hotel has its own free parking behind the hotel. Seagulls are a pain – don’t bother cleaning your car before your holiday, mine was revolting after they’d been sitting on the roof and flying over for a few days.

Heading for the seafront, the hotel is right on the promenade with sea views, so it was really easy to find as well. 

Being an old historic hotel (from 1862), there’s a certain charm about the building. Some areas are being renovated (our room was up some stairs that looked half painted and forgotten about), but it some some lovely areas, and artwork on the walls aplenty. It didn’t worry us about our immediate corridor/stairs being a bit scruffy. 

The reception area was beautiful, with a gorgeous staircase and old features of the building.  The lift was one of those you could see the old mechanism on the outside, which amusingly N didn’t trust, so he used the stairs. It was a bit of a trek to the end of the building from the lift side after we’d been walking lots each day. But it was nice not to have to lug everything up 2 floors of stairs.

Do bear in mind that there’s quite a few steep stairs to enter the building from the car park to reception. There is a stair lift if you need it. But if you’ve a wheelchair and suitcases to take with you, you’d probably struggle a bit and need some help. It did look like you could call to reception from there.

The staff we saw at reception were friendly, and there wasn’t a huge wait to check in or when going back to ask a few questions like there can be in chain hotels.

There are some nice traditional looking chairs and a piano in the lobby area, and there’s a restaurant and bar in the hotel. We didn’t use either, other than the restaurant for breakfast.

Our room at The Queens Hotel Penzance

We’d been upgraded to a sea view which was a treat – the first time we’ve had a free upgrade. With front and side windows it really was nice. Apart from the huge seagull poo streak down the middle of the window. Nice for the view! We found that quite funny and the room next to us looked like they had the same issue.

Our twin room was an ok size, with comfy beds, nice puffy pillows, and 2 window chairs to sit and look at the view. I quite often blog and edit photos in the evenings, but the dressing table didn’t have room for a laptop and all the cables. It was just a dressing table stool rather than desk chair as well, which was a shame. So sitting in bed it was for being on the laptop.

We had a big tv – looked larger than those in other rooms we spotted when they were being cleaned. There were plenty of plug sockets, a small kettle, tea/coffee and biscuits. Plus there was also hot chocolate which is rare in most hotels but welcomed by us. 

The bathroom was lovely but tight with the bath right up close to the toilet. And the shower pressure was poor which meant to wash all the soap and shampoo off properly, we needed to remove the shower head from the holder to use it. Not impossible, but a shame as a good shower is a crucial requirement in my book. I don’t think it was helped by being unable to stand right under it because the bath was more slanted having the foot under the shower and taps at the other end. We also couldn’t get the shower to warm up. There was a hint of tepidity, but until day 3 it was cold, even after running it for a ridiculously long time in hope.

The bathroom was nicely decorated in blue which is quite different to most hotels.

There were basic toiletries available – shampoo, shower gel and soap. We were missing a box of tissues (I’d meant to bring some and forgot), which was unusual in our experience. They also state that they clean every 3 days, so if you’re expecting a turn down service, or new towels daily, you’d need to request that. You can ask for top ups of refreshments and presumably toilet paper etc from reception if needed. By the morning we were leaving our bin needed clearing out and we’d have needed more loo paper if we’d been staying. So the 3 days was fine for us.

The road was quite noisy given we needed the window open due to the warmth of the room. There’s no air con, but plenty of windows to open. Because of the old windows (single glazed, I imagine it wouldn’t be warm in the winter!), they did bang at night when the wind got up. But it didn’t impact us too much (mostly because I didn’t sleep that well – and N moaned he didn’t due to my snoring).

Breakfast at the Queens Hotel

We like a mix of breakfasts. I generally prefer continental, but N likes a full English, dependent on how things are cooked and the quality. For us a full buffet works best because we can see what we fancy, and whether the bacon or sausages are cooked as we’d prefer etc. At the Queens Hotel, it’s a cold buffet, but you order your hot meals from the menu.

We got to sit overlooking the sea which was nice, and it was fairly quiet at around 7.30 each day when we were there.

The cold buffet was lacking for me. There were plenty of cereal choices including granola and muesli. The choices of fruit were fine – a fruit cocktail, grapefruit, and prunes. I couldn’t spot the yoghurts on the first morning, but there must have been some as others were eating those.

The disappointment was no pastries. At all. To me that’s pretty essential for a continental breakfast.

We had to wait quite a while to have our order taken for the hot food, although one day our hot food arrived before we were finished with our cereal. On day 1 N chose the full English while I chose smashed avocado on toast from the specials menu, of which there were a few to pick from.  

The breakfast could have been better. N wasn’t impressed with the sausage or bacon, his mushrooms were chewy (he said it was like they’d been boiled). His first slice of toast that came out had mould on so we asked for a replacement which was then fine.

My toast was burnt so that was the over-riding flavour. The poached eggs were beautifully cooked though.

On day 2 we both chose American pancakes with berries and chantilly cream, with maple syrup. They were the best of our breakfasts.  On morning 3 I had scrambled eggs on toast which was also good. It was lovely – granary seeded brown bread. The eggs were plentiful despite how little it looked when the plate arrived.

Things we liked about Queens Hotel Penzance

The room itself was nicely decorated. Apart from our neighbours we could hear talking loudly in the evening, it was quiet being at the end of the building.

Nice staff. Everyone was friendly and helpful when we had questions.

Quiet breakfast. While we do prefer a hot buffet to be able to see what you’re ordering, it was very quiet at breakfast. No pushing and shoving over everyone, and no large coach groups (at the early times we were there). It also helped there were minimal children around. We only saw a couple during our time there, although they obviously cater for them with high chairs in the restaurant area and family rooms. 

Nice views over the promenade. Great for sitting in the window and watching the world go by.

Lots of plug sockets around the room.

Double aspect views 

Location – right on the sea front. The Sunday and bank holiday Monday afternoons we enjoyed the bands playing at The Lugger Inn just along the road from our hotel.

Free parking. It’s always the first thing I look for. Even when there were reserved spaces for an event, we still got a space. 

Things that weren’t so great

The internet was terrible. There’s free basic internet throughout the hotel, which was okay although our phones were generally faster without it.  I paid for high speed internet at £5 a day because N wanted to finish watching Clarkson’s Farm, and I’d hoped to blog in the evenings too. Initially I got onto it with my phone, but then we couldn’t access it via N’s phone or my laptop. I wondered if it was because only one device could use it, but then couldn’t access it with the same code even on my own phone. Whatever internet we did manage to connect to kept dropping out, so I assume that was the basic one. My laptop was slightly better late at night when presumably less people were using it.

On day 3, my laptop initially picked it up, but it was patchy again so I did a speed test. At 4-5 mbps, it definitely wasn’t worth the money and it’s definitely not ultrafast. I think a hotel nowadays should just add a quid into the room charge to cover the costs and provide reasonable stable broadband for everyone. Paying for fast broadband but then being unable to log on with it after the first couple of minutes using the code we were given on one device wasn’t great.

The shower – see above. We should probably have mentioned it to them after the first morning, but I get distracted and forget, as N’s marching out of the place. At least day 3 it was warmer, if not hot.

Thickness of the walls. For an old building I’d have expected thicker walls. Our neighbours one side were very chatty late into the first night. On night 2 I could hear a snorer. To be able to hear someone snoring from another room isn’t great (I’m hoping they couldn’t hear me too!).

Overall we enjoyed our stay at the Queens Hotel. I think if we’d not been meeting friends, we’d have been more annoyed with the lack of decent internet in the evenings. And I’d hope the shower would have been fixed if I’d mentioned it while we were there. But the location was great, and free parking is always a bonus. The upgrade for the seaview was a nice treat, and very welcome.

It was a good base for our days out around west Cornwall and we’d stay there again.