My collagues and I have been staying almost every week at the Golden Lion since October 2010 and we finished in St Ives last week. The Hotel is in the centre of St Ives and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. Having read the other reviews on here I recognise some of the comments but not others. It's true that some rooms are better than others. I was usually towards the front of the hotel and had a large comfportable bedroom, amazingly powerful bath and shower and a super-comfy bed with thick duvet. The room had a flat screen TV with over 40 digital TV stations; some of the smaller rooms had portable TVs with just 4 or 5 channels. This has to change soon as the area goes fully digital in the next few weeks so the old TVs will have to be replaced or given boxes so they, too, can get the digital TV offerings.
The bar is lively and friendly so it can be noisy up to midnight but it's a great place to mingle and to meet the natives and we found the ambiance in the bar to be welcoming, even for the single women in our group. The staff at the hotel, without exception, could not do enough for us. Always a smile, always wanting to make sure we were happy even to the extent of going out in the late evening to a local supermarket to ensure that there would be skimmed milk for one of our number. Breakfast is cooked to order and is of a good quality and there is plenty of cereal and yoghurts to be had as well.
Food in the hotel is much better than your normal pub grub. Their specials board changes several times a week and their home-made fishcakes are brilliant. If the cajun prawn fishcakes are on the menu when you visit, I throughly recommend them!
Parking is either outside the hotel on the street or at the nearby long-stay car park - £2 for 23 hours. The car park has won safe car park awards, is very well lit and we never experienced any problems during out 5 months in St Ives.
- Golden Lion Huntingdon
