Weekend in Scarborough and Royal Hotel Scarborough review

It’s taken me a while to get round to writing this about my line dancing weekend in Scarborough. As it was a line dancing weekend we didn’t get up to much outside the hotel other than a couple of brief walks around the town to get lunch and a touch of sea air. 

As it was an organised line dance weekend, I was interested to see how it would compare to the huge weekenders I’ve been to in the past for Ceroc. This was only a small one organised by our teacher and her niece, but it was a good way to ease my way into trying one out.

I’d booked last minute because I ended up having the Friday booked as annual leave from work, so I was lucky to get a single occupancy room. And even luckier to car share with a friend who was already going. 

Royal Hotel Scarborough

The Royal Hotel is one of those hotels in a British seaside town which was obviously reasonably grand in its history. But now it looks a bit dated and tired. 

From the outside it doesn’t look like anything much, but the lobby shows its glorious architectural past. It has a beautiful staircase leading up to the first floor, and looking up you see the columns and mirrors further up to the higher floors. It’s quite spectacular. 

There’s a nice enough bar/lounge area, then a small ballroom function area which is obviously a newer addition. You can sit and look out with lovely views across to the sea. 

As I walked around the various corridors, there were other suites and rooms which looked lovely when I walked past. These presumably are used for meetings, weddings and parties.

The restaurant is nice enough decor wise with plenty of seating outside of the areas we were able to use if more people are staying or it’s being used for events. There’s also a reasonable sized ballroom with a seating/bar area you can hire out for events. This was where we were largely based for the weekend.

I didn’t use it, but there’s also a spa and pool, so there’s a good amount of facilities if that’s what you want in a hotel.

Unfortunately once off the ground floor things weren’t so great. The rooms and state of the corridors really let the rest of the hotel down (this seemed to have not been the case previously for friends who’d stayed before, so I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times and hospitality venues having to tighten their belts with cleaning staff. But it wasn’t good enough).

Bedrooms 

I seemed to be lucky compared with others I’d spoken to.  My double room was at the end of a corridor so it avoided any noise from others (although there was a bit of noise from people going past on the path outside overnight).

It was a reasonable sized room with plenty of wardrobe space, drawers, tv, tub chair and desk with chair.

The heat was the only real issue. Thankfully my window did open, but it wouldn’t stay up, so I had to jam it open with a coat hanger. Otherwise the heat would have been unbearable. 

Hotels are so often too hot and rarely have air conditioning especially in old hotels. But this one had the radiator on. Even though I turned it off as soon as I arrived, it still kept pumping out heat. The only time it was off, was when I arrived back late at night…but then by morning it was back on again. What’s the point of having a dial if it doesn’t work?

Facilities wise, there were a couple of fans in the wardrobe, iron and other ‘useful’ items if you needed them. For what we tend to need nowadays, there were limited plug sockets but workable with only one person in the room.  The double bed was comfortable enough, with  2 bedside tables, but bizarrely only one side light.

I’m not a hot drink person (there’s very rarely any hot chocolate so I never expect to see that), but there was only tea, no coffee on the refreshments tray. 

My ensuite bathroom was clean, and the shower pressure was decent once I could work out how to get the temperature I wanted.

To get the tv to work as Freeview you needed a lot of guesswork or luck. I can’t understand why the hotel didn’t have an information sheet/file saying all the information needed

The restaurant

I don’t know whether it was normally all buffet in the hotel, but both breakfast and dinner were.

Breakfast was pretty standard and tasted fine. I generally had cereal, fruit, pastries, and then scrambled eggs (when it finally turned up) on toast. Of course the toaster was like in all hotels – with toast either burnt or underdone. I also tried a sausage on the second morning which was ok. 

If you wanted anything to drink other than water, then you ordered at the bar before going into eat. But with a big group of us wanting to eat, the bar was not well organised.  It’s card only, and the barman got really stroppy when some in our group didn’t know this. With only 1 person behind the bar who had appalling customer service, the hotel really should have provided some extra staff at busy times. 

The evening meals we all piled in together and sat in groups. There were 3 hot meal options for main – with a roast, then something like cottage pie, sea bass, and a vegetarian option (which I think you probably had to request, as it wasn’t clear on the counter).  

There were also cold items which were probably meant as starters – the chicken balls were really delicious. Then there were various oriental/indian pastries, salad bits. A bit of a pick and mix which was random but generally tasted fine.

The desserts were the best though. I could have tried most of them given the chance. There was a hot offering (apple crumble and custard the first night), but most of us opted for the cheesecakes or patisserie type cake options. I had a really delicious chocolate mousse type cake one night, and a couple of options the second night. 

Location

The Royal Hotel’s location is excellent. It overlooks the beach and harbour area in the distance, and you only need to walk round the corner to reach the town’s shopping areas. 

It’s a walk down the various steps to get down to the promenade for a wander along the sea front. And during the day a cheap £1.50 trip back up the cliff via the funicular railway to rest your legs.

While we were away, we did walk down to the front, and along the prom to explore around to the harbour, checking out the boats, the shops, the cafes and the sculptures. Before getting to Scarborough, I had been quite keen to check out the castle, but my friend had mentioned it wasn’t worth the walk up there for some small ruins.

There’s a small fairground for young children to enjoy, and plenty of the usual souvenir and beach shops. The beach looked nice enough to walk and sit on, but I’m not too sure about the North Sea. There weren’t many people in, but in March it probably would have been way too cold, even if the sea was clean enough.

The shops are typical, slightly run down British high street style. Although we did go to The Vaults and the indoor market. The market was great – more of those should be built in UK towns! A lovely historic building with independent quirky sellers (although not every shop was open). In the middle was the seating area for those buying food – a delicious looking deli with amazing cakes although we decided to hold off buying given we weren’t done with our walk.  

Downstairs in the Vaults were more random shopkeepers. It was a shame so many were empty or closed, and not many of the shops interested us, because that could also have been a really nice place to shop. From what I’d read beforehand I was expecting The Vaults to be more vintage and funky clothing, records type of shops. But it was all a bit homemade and frumpy. The market was definitely the high point!

We walked back along the front towards the Scarborough Spa which is an entertainment theatre venue now. It’s a shame it didn’t seem to be open to be able to have a nosy inside. 

If you’re after a classic short break to enjoy the seaside town then you could do worse than staying in the Royal Hotel.

Would I stay again at the Royal Hotel Scarborough? 

For a dance weekend where I can car share and it’s not important to expect a lot for the bargain price we paid, yes I would (and hope the hotel had sorted out its issues next time).

For a personal short break/holiday. Nope. For me I want parking on site, not a 10 minute walk away. I could probably get better for the money from a Premier Inn or similar if I timed it right.