The best thing about arranging a birthday celebration involving an overnight stay is that you know the date of the big day well in advance – so it's easy to take advantage of special offer prices. We booked our March stay at the Cameron Toll Travelodge nearly seven months in advance, which meant that we paid just £12 a night! We'd not stayed here before, but our Travelodge experience just the previous week hadn't been brilliant, so we didn't have high hopes when we left home – but all that soon changed when we got there. First of all, there is a car park and it's free. Next, we had our best Travelodge check-in experience. Friendly and helpful is always a good start. Next our room, which was on the ground floor and at the end of a corridor. It was clean, compact but not so small that My Other Half (MOH), who is a little larger than me, couldn't move around comfortably. And then we spotted that we had two pillows each. Now our smiles were as wide as the receptionist's! Our red and white-tiled bathroom was clean and smelled fresh, there were two towels and of course the small bar of soap. For anyone who forgot to bring toiletries, the vending machine next to reception had a small overnight pack, as well as the usual drinks and snacks selection. (There is also a shopping centre just across the road.) The other half of our party had a room on the top floor and were very happy with it too. After watching the news on the flat screen TV, we decided to head out for dinner. The receptionist had warned us that the car park gets very busy and latecomers sometimes have to park in nearby streets, so we decided to walk to the restaurant, which took about 30 minutes. If it had been raining we'd have had no trouble catching a bus into the city centre as there is a stop across the road and a frequent service. There is a hot drinks vending machine next to reception and when we got back we decided to have some coffee to drink in the restaurant area. Only problem, we didn't have the right change. When we asked at reception, they brought us complimentary coffees from the kitchen. At this point, if we'd had a gold star we would have presented it to the staff on the spot! The beds were comfortable and none of us were kept awake by noises from neighbouring rooms or outside, which meant that even Edinburgh's drizzle the following morning couldn't dampen our spirits. We didn't stay for breakfast as we were heading out for brunch, but there were plenty of people eating and it did look like a good selection. Would I stay here again? Definitely. Especially if we can book ahead at a bargain price. The two rooms together cost less than our weekend parking bill when we stayed in a city centre hotel a couple of years ago!
