York Hotel Review - Mount Royale: Comfort and Warm Welcome Near York Racetrack

This is a very comfortable hotel, convenient for York city center yet only a few blocks away from York Racecourse. Perhaps not the chicest place in town but well kept and definitely good value for the money.

Pros

Cons

The Mount Royale Hotel is one of those pleasant surprises you come across now and then in England. Moderately priced,well-maintained, conveniently located and independent, it is a bit eccentric but unassuming. You might overlook this converted pair of William IV (circa 1833) town houses, about midway between York's city walls and its famous racecourse.

Don't.

The Mount Royale, run by owner Christine Oxtoby, is friendly, comfortable, unpretentious and relaxed. I stayed in one of the garden suites on a wing of newer rooms extending out into the hotel's rear gardens - of which more later. The corridor leading to the garden suites is actually a glass roofed, carpeted "greenhouse" lined with oranges, lemons, figs, bougainvillea and other semi tropical plants. My room, equipped with an American-proportioned King-sized bed, had a shady terrace, a spacious, well-equipped bathroom, a walk-in closet-cum-dressing room, a desk with internet access, a small raised area with television and several padded chairs. If you grew up in the 1970s, in an affluent American suburb, your parents probably had a room something like this - down to the thick, quilted, flower-printed bedspread and matching draperies. My only quibble - the unbranded soap was impossible to open - with teeth, a nail file or the small fruit knife I found.

In the early evening Wallace the Westie (the Mount Royale is dog-friendly) and I explored the garden off the terrace. We wandered from one garden "room" to another, through ivy covered arbors, into groves of flowering shrubs, past stands of evergreens and Roman fountains. Next day, I was astonished to discover that the complex layout is packed into only an acre - as cleverly as the contents of Dr. Who's Tardis!

Breakfast was tasty and generous - Wallace liked the sausage. All in all, highly recommended by us both.