Norbreck Castle Hotel

It is a massive hotel with 487 guest rooms, which have standard amenities such as a bed, tea-and-coffee-making facilities, a TV and an en suite bathroom. The beds aren’t particularly comfortable with old mattresses and the duvets are notoriously thin so don’t expect a good night’s sleep.

The hotel’s public areas include a grand-looking restaurant, Copper Face Jack’s pub, a ballroom, the Norcalympia Conference and Banqueting Centre and a fitness centre with a spa, sauna and indoor swimming pool. The gym and swimming pool are not included in your room rate and cost an extra £2–4 per night.

There is little consistency throughout the hotel. Some rooms have a musty smell with visible mould while others look like they’ve been newly refurbished but the main thing you notice about Norbreck Castle is how dated it looks. The rooms have the sort of furnishings that you would only find in a Britannia hotel and there is ugly carpet throughout the hotel, even in parts of the hotel where new carpet has been laid.

Free Wi-Fi wireless internet access is available in the hotel’s public areas but you have to pay £7 per 24-hour period per device if you want Wi-Fi access in your room.

The Norbreck Castle is on Queen’s Promenade at the northern end of Blackpool. It is 4.5km (2¾ miles) or a 19-minute tram ride north of Blackpool North railway station so it’s hardly the most convenient place to stay in Blackpool. There is not a lot of interest in the immediate neighbourhood, although there are some shops on nearby Norbreck Road.

The hotel has a big car park with 500 parking spaces, which are charged at £3 per day for guests (with a higher charge for non-guests).