Bangor’s Premier Inn is the first and only hotel to open in central Bangor, whereas all other accommodation has focused instead on the seafront stretch of this small town centre. So it would at least be more convenient for arrivals to the town centre where it’s found pretty much opposite the main bus and train station in Bangor, and you can pretty much see the hotel when exiting the main transit hubs. Meaning it is easy to reach on foot (3-minute walk) by just crossing the road and following Castle Park Avenue where Bangor Premier Inn is found around halfway to the top on the left-hand side. The hotel also offers free parking for overnight guests as well as a 3-hour limit for customers of the Thyme restaurant and bar.
Self Check-In
We haven’t yet stayed at the hotel, as we do live around the corner from the Premier Inn Bangor, but we do plan to update this when cheap rooms/discounted rates come about (it’s normally around £70 a night). But I’m guessing the rooms are very similar to those of other Premier Inns, only newer. So we did go poking around anyway and found the self check-in terminals to be something we could get behind, given we support anything that rids of unnecessary human interaction. And in the front foyer there are two self check-in terminals where you simply input your booking reference or credit card, before scanning a keycard to activate it. A simple enough process, although there is always staff floating around at the on-site Thyme Restaurant and Bar just opposite. If needed.
Thyme Restaurant
The on-site Thyme Restaurant is a Premier Inn brand “serving up everything from classics to gourmet meals” (menu found here). So it is obviously a well-established menu found at Premier Inns throughout the country. But we may have jumped in early on the first week of opening when they were ironing out obvious teething troubles. And it became a somewhat comical service where half the menu wasn’t available. But even after listing what was missing on the menu; “okay, we’ll have the oyster mushroom…” – “Actually we don’t have mushrooms”… “I’ll go with the sirloin…” – “Oh, we only have rump…”. “Onion rings?” “Sorry, we’re all out of onions”. So this was actually my parents celebrating their anniversary dinner at the Thyme Restaurant, where they were surprisingly pleased with everything they salvaged from the menu despite obvious supply issues. And the staff even gifted them a free bottle of wine for their troubles.
Bar and Beer Garden
“What beers have you on tap?” – “Carlsberg and Guinness” – “Two Carlsberg please” – “Sorry we’re all out of Carlsberg…”. “Guinness then, I guess”. It’s still the first week. So the bar at the Bangor Premier Inn is open to walk-in customers (not just overnight guests at the hotel) and there is a decent list for a well-stocked bar. Prices are also relatively inexpensive with pints of Guinness at around £4 and decent cocktails at £6 (Fanfan was on the Gordon’s Pink Spritz). So there’s more than enough to play with at the bar, and, for a more relaxed session, there’s always the “beer garden” (or “patio” as it would be better described) out front. A nice place to kick back on Bangor’s sometimes sunny days.
Castle Park and Town Hall
The Premier Inn Bangor is found pretty much opposite Castle Park and Bangor Castle which host most of the main tourist attractions in Bangor Town Centre (away from the seafront). This includes Bangor Museum found in the back annexes of Bangor Castle (Town Hall), the Victorian Walled Garden which is more of a Spring/Summer attraction, and the heritage trail to Bangor Abbey. But Castle Park itself is just a nice wooded park area to explore through the colours of the contrasting seasons (list of central Bangor attractions here). It’s then just a short walk (0.5km) from Bangor Premier Inn, following a straight line down the main street, to reach all the tourist attractions along the Seafront of Bangor (our tourist guide here).
