Girls' Night Away in Historic Chester

It’s hard to organise a group of busy mums for a night away, so this trip has been a long time coming. Finally my friends and I managed to block out a weekend in our diaries for a girls-only night away in Chester. We picked the perfect weekend for it as the weather was lovely for March so we were able to stroll between shops, bars, along the walls, and along the river bank during our short time away from our usually action-packed weekends full of ferrying the kids all over the place.

We picked Chester, having been there before for various hen weekends and special birthday celebrations in the past. It’s only an hour on the train from Manchester so easy and cheap for us to get to. The train journey was filled with chatter, excitement and prosecco, and we were certainly not the only group of ladies on the train with the same ideas in mind!

We stayed in the Macdonald New Blossoms hotel, where we’ve all stayed before, as it is about as central as you can get to the shops, restaurants and bars. It's perfectly located for a short trip to Chester. Our rooms were spacious, not overly luxurious, but nice enough for what we needed. The hotel itself is not grand from the outside but is on the inside, with a very traditional 4* feel and a wide staircase running through the centre of the hotel up to the rooms (a small lift is also available).

Our room rate included bar vouchers so we enjoyed a couple of drinks during happy hour before heading out for the evening. We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Oddfellows, a quirky boutique hotel, where the food and wine went down very well with everyone, especially the rump of lamb which more than one of us would highly recommend. Excellent service and atmosphere too, with a lively bar for post dinner drinks.

The dining room in the MacDonald Hotel had been renovated since last time we were there and is very light, spacious, airy and modern but still blends well with the rest of the hotel. The hotel is also very close to the river, so after a great full breakfast (The Full Macdonald!), we were able to check out and go for a lovely Sunday morning stroll in the sunshine to blow away the cobwebs before collecting our bags and heading home.

On the train journey home the conversation was mostly about where and when we should go next….so watch this space!