My wife and my parents & I stayed in the Grand Hotel Wickow from Saturday June 30th to Monday July 2nd 2007

We booked this as a weekend away through "SuperValuGetawaybreaks.com" which for €99 pps includes 2 nights B&B and 1 evening meal.

We have availed of this offer for the past five years and have stayed in various four star hotels in Ireland through this package. This was our first time to stay in a three star hotel.

We arrived at the hotel at 12.15pm on the Saturday afternoon. The hotel car park is to the rear of the building and is outdoor and operates on payment - however this is complimentary to hotel guests. Although we arrived early there was no problem in been alocated our rooms. The hotel comprises of 33 bedrooms and we were accomodated on the third floor in rooms 217 & 219

The rooms are basic but clean and spacious. They comprise of a double bed & single bed. There are tea/coffee making facilities, tv, ironing board & iron and hairdryer. In the case of our room there was a problem with the TV which was rectified by the time we returned to the hotel from a walk around Wicklow town.

We had a light snack in the hotel's main restaurant which serves carvery food on a daily basis from 12.30pm to 3.30pm.

We were advised that the hotel restaurant would be closed on the Sunday evening and if we wanted to take our dinner option that night they would facilitate us in a separate area within the residents bar.

After an afternoon out we returned to the hotel and had food in the hotel's main bar on the Saturday evening. This was reasonable and tasty and the service was good.

There was a wedding reception in the hotel on the Saturday and even on the second floor we could hear the music from the disco. It was as if we were at the wedding! This was very dissapointing and kept us all awake until it finished around 1am! We didn't bother complaining and perhaps we should have at that point. If we weren't travelling with our parents we probably would have checked out on the Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant which is served from 8am to 10am daily. The choice of food is limited in comparison with other hotels we have stayed in. Whilst I cannot fault the food available it is very basic.

We left the hotel after breakfast and travelled around the County visiting various places of attraction. Avoca was our favourite and whilst obviously geared towards the tourist it still retains a certain amount of beauty & charm. We would highly recommend a visit to the Avoca Woolen Mills café - food there was superior to the Grand Hotel!

On our return to the hotel we observed that a number of the wedding guests were celebrating and staying for a second night. They were based in the residents bar where we were to have our dinner. This would not be practicable and after an initial hesitation the receptionist agreed to set us up a table in the restaurant.

Their idea of setting up a table was to put a reserved sign on two tables in the restaurant with no place settings. The menu presented to us appeared to have been typed up at the last minute - two pieces of A4 paper stapled back to back with starters/mains on one side and deserts on the rear. My father ordered soup which did not come with bread or a roll. My wife ordered chicken goujons which we were told five minutes later were all gone - this despite us being the only ones in the restaurant! When the starters came out we were kept waiting for cutlery to eat same with! The main courses eventually arrived which were basic enough and once again we were kept waiting for the cutlery! Once we finished our main courses we were constantly asked if we had decided on desert and when we eventually decided on desert we were kept waiting for it to arrive. And surpise, suprise no cutlery arrived with the desert either. It was so bad that my wife had to go and look for cutlery elsewhere in the restaurant. We left the restaurant and retired to the bar for a nightcap. At this stage we were too tired to complain. The two waitresses that served us were obviously not trained.

We had a better night sleep as thankfully there was no function in the hotel that night

On checkout when asked if we had enjoyed our stay my wife & I outlined all of the above problems. The receptonist on duty listened to our comments but of course was not authorised to do anything about it. She did ask if we wanted to wait for the General Manager to discuss it with him - at this stage all we wanted to do was check out and leave. She did ask me for my contact number in order that the GM could call me. As I write this review I am still waiting for that call!

Obviously I would not recommend this hotel

We stayed one night the first week of March, 2007. We had not planned on staying here, and rented a room as walk-ins. While the room was satisfactory, it was certainly nothing special and we thought it was overpriced.

My husband and myself have just spent the weekend in The Grand Hotel in Wicklow. We really enjoyed our break. The staff was very helpful and friendly. The bar was the liveliest hotel bar we have been in, there was a great buzz and atmosphere. There seemed to be a lot of local people and many of them were ordering food. We took this as a good sign and booked dinner or the following night. We were not disappointed. The food was lovely and plentiful. The portions were generous.

We were a bit unhappy with our room. We mentioned to the receptionist on Saturday morning. There was no debate or big discussion. She said she would check with the housekeeping staff. We went out for a walk. When we returned we were given a room key and asked to check it out. They had even put in extra pillows, which we had requested for our first room

We picked this hotel as we wanted a weekend break but were pressed for time to travel. We usually go to much bigger hotel with leisure centres. We found that we relaxed and unwound more, rather than visiting the gym or swimming. There was a great friendliness about the staff
We were very happy with our choice and felt it was a very good base to explore Wicklow. We visited the arboretum in Kilmacurragh, which was fantastic. There are plenty more places to visit so we will definitely be going back to the Grand hotel.