You don't expect much at a Premier Travel Inn, cheap and basic but usually a cut above a Travelodge. So maybe it was the low expectation that initially caused us to be so impressed with Annandale Water. We not only received a warm, friendly and efficient welcome at reception but experienced this with all the staff we met, including the staff at breakfast in the adjoining Road Chef.

The location is superb sitting alongside a lake with geese, swans, ducks and a heron. You can stroll right around the lake which is a great stress reliever after a hard drive.

The room itself was spotlessly clean and even had a balcony overlooking the lake and the hills beyond where you could sit and watch all the activity on the water whilst feeding the chaffinches that come to visit you on the balcony. We were fortunate in having a lakeside room and you could forget you were only a hundred yards from a busy motorway as you could not hear any traffic noise.

This has to be one of the best value stopovers in the UK, we couldn't fault it.