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| Worldwide Hotels > Oceania > Ireland > Bray > The Royal Hotel and Leisure Centre Bay | Facilities & pricing | ||
The Royal Hotel & Leisure Centre overlooks the Dargle river in the heart of the coastal resort of Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. Located just 30 minutes south of Dublin city via an electric train system, Bray is also the 'gateway' to the lakes, mountains and friendly villages of the beautiful county of Wicklow - the Garden County of Ireland.  Here you can explore the village of Enniskerry, the splendid Gardens of Usher, stately Powerscourt estate, and the ancient monastic settlement of Glendalough, which is situated in a glaciated valley. The hotel itself has 98 bedrooms, an extensive Leisure Centre, 14m swimming pool - and Bray on the doorstep. It's family friendly, combining classical spaciousness with comfort and practicality. Fine Wicklow food is served in the Heritage Restaurant and in Quinn's Bar, with entertainment taking place in the bar every weekend. Already popular for conferences, weddings and other special occasions, the hotel's Powerscourt Suite has been extended for launch and can now cater for up to 350 people. Only 20 minute drive to the newly built Dundrum Town Centre. Dundrum Town Centre brings the biggests names that the world has to offer. The premium calibre of numerous boutiques and stores will deliver a fashion district that is second to none both in Ireland and mainland Europe. |
| Rooms Recommended by the AA, the RAC and Bord Fáilte (The Irish Tourist Board), Bray's three star Royal Hotel and Leisure Centre is one of the largest hotels in County Wicklow. Accommodation consists of 98 stylishly decorated and equipped bedrooms spread over four floors. Twin, double, triple, and family rooms (one double and two singles) are all available.  All accommodation is en suite, with high quality furnishings and colour co-ordinated fabrics. Direct dial telephone, hairdryers, and tea/coffee making facilities are standard features throughout the hotel. Hot food can be served to your room from 7.00am. to 9.30pm. each day, while tea, coffee, and sandwiches are available through room service 24 hours a day. Multi-channel T.V. is standard throughout the hotel's accommodation, with an in-house video for children screened each evening at 6pm, followed by videos for the grown-ups at 7.30pm., and again at 9pm. Laundry facilities are available from Monday through Friday. On Request: Most of the en suites feature shower over bath. Some of the hotel rooms, however, have showers only, for ease of access for guests whose mobility is restricted. An elevator carries guests to all floors, and all the hotel's public areas are accessible to disabled guests. Modem connections are available in some bedrooms, on request, and a fax facility is available at reception. The Hotel has smoking and non-smoking rooms. |
| Location: The standard of excellence and the size of this Co. Wicklow hotel puts it comfortably on a par with the larger hotels in nearby Dublin city. Views over the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, however - particularly from the third and fourth floors of the hotel - and foreground views of the town's busy main street and its tranquil river and park, leave no doubt as to Bray's advantages for location. |
| The Heritage Restaurant Classic and contemporary describe both the décor and the food in the 120 seater Heritage Restaurant. Glass bricked walls, softly lit ceiling panels and elegant pillars provide a bright airy background to formal table settings where fine food is well presented.  The Chef's Special offers an excellent chance to try this lovely restaurant for dinner. On offer Sunday through Friday, the Chef's Special dinner menu offers starter, main course and dessert - each from a choice of three - at only 25 euro per person. If a party of four choose this menu, they receive a bottle of wine free as well... Service is friendly, but discreet, a superior wine list compliments an extensive a la carte and table d'hote menus, for those who aren't indulging in the Chef's Special. Head Chef, Derrick Cooling, insists that only the finest ingredients are used in his kitchen, where in season home-grown vegetables are prepared whenever possible. As all main courses are freshly prepared (and the desserts are deliciously home-made). Food here is meant to be savoured... The relaxing ambience and elegant surroundings of this lovely restaurant lend itself also to special occasions, such as weddings, christenings, birthdays, anniversaries, or more formal corporate dinners. |
| Quinn's Bar If you don't feel like sitting down to a formal meal an excellent bar food menu is available in Quinn's Bar each day, starting with fresh home-made scones with fruit jam from the moment the bar opens at 10.30am.! Popular with both locals and hotel residents, the main part of Quinn's Bar echoes the high classical ceilings and spacious architecture of the hotel foyer, while a cosy section with bricked walls, open fire and beamed ceiling provides a more intimate alternative. People watchers will enjoy the changing parade of lunch time business people, coffee sipping housewives, fans of the hotel's regular evening entertainment and customers who simply enjoy 'a good pint'! The 'good pint' - along with good wine and good spirits - is available from 10.30am. to 11.30pm. Monday through Thursday; Fridays and Saturdays from 10.30am. to midnight; and on Sunday from 12 noon till 11pm. Live entertainment is provided most nights in the bar. |
| Leisure Centre Even the rain doesn't matter in a hotel equipped with a leisure centre that has its own 14m swimming pool, fully equipped gymnasium, jacuzzi, whirlpool, sauna, steam room, children's pool, and creche. An excellent massage and beauty clinic is also located within the Leisure Centre. Residents at the hotel have free use of the swimming pool, jacuzzi, whirlpool, sauna, and steam room. If you are already a member of a fitness club, you can keep up your level of fitness while away from home by working out with local members in our fully equipped gymnasium - also free of charge. The gym will not be affected by this maintenance project.  At this family friendly hotel, a children's fun pool forms an off-shoot of the main pool and children are welcome there up to 7pm. There's also a 'Mad Hatter's Creche' where fully qualified staff will look after the little ones from age 2 to 7 years. The first hour at the creche is free for residents using the Leisure Centre facilities, with a charge of €3.20 per hour per child applicable thereafter. For residents not using the Leisure Centre facilities, but wishing to leave the building for personal reasons, there's a charge of €3.80 per hour per child.  Opening hours for the Mad Hatter's Creche are 9am. to 1pm., Monday to Friday. For guests who want to relax, rewind and re-energise (before, after or instead of a work-out!), the Massage and Beauty Clinic located within the Leisure Centre offers anything from a Swiss Skin Clear Facial through Sun Bed sessions to an Indian Head Massage. The clinic is run independently of the Royal Hotel & Leisure Centre by highly experience therapists who have been working in the field of health and beauty for years. Opening hours for the Leisure Centre are from 7am. to 10pm., Monday to Friday, 8am. to 9pm. on Saturdays, 8am. to 8pm. on Sundays, and 9am. to 8pm. on Bank Holidays. |
| Weddings Our Powerscourt Suite has been popular for weddings for many years now - which is why we decided to make this elegant ballroom even more spacious. The newly renovated and extended Powerscourt Suite can now host up to 350 guests, banquet style, at a wedding. We still, of course, cater for intimate parties of ten guests upwards, because we're good at weddings at the Royal Hotel.  Every one of these unique celebrations is prepared for here as if there has never been another one before, and never will be another one again. So our guests get the best of both worlds - the benefit of experienced staff and customised surroundings, along with the freshness and good wishes that we bring to each new wedding day at our hotel. ...Not to mention our great value Wedding Package... Weddings are not the only special occasions we cater for here, of course. Birthdays, anniversaries, and retirement parties are among some of the other Big Days we have helped to celebrate with joy and laughter, good food and careful, cheerful service. The Powerscourt Suite is our largest banqueting suite. Fully air-conditioned, and now with a bigger dance floor and two bars, it is decorated to a high standard in pastel shades with ornate chandeliers, providing a warm and relaxing atmosphere for you and your guests to enjoy. Over the past few years, hotel management and staff have put tremendous thought, effort and every attention to detail to make your Big Day the day you have always dreamed of... All special occasions are personally supervised by our Management Team, ensuring that the highest standard of food, service and warm hospitality are offered to you and all of your guests. A member of our Management Team would be more than delighted to show you around our banqueting suites. We can also offer our assistance and advice on various aspects of your celebration. |
| History of Bray's First Hotel Travellers leaving Dublin for Ireland's south east toward the end of the eighteenth century faced a beautiful but arduous journey by coach down along the coast and on through the Wicklow mountains. In 1666, a bridge had been built over the Dargle River, marking the border between Dublin city's outskirts and the mountains and lakes of County Wicklow. The Meath Arms Inn was built by the Quin family as a coaching inn overlooking this bridge in 1776, opposite the site where the first permanent settlement in Bray began. The town was served with a regular coach service from at least 1770, and a mail coach service from 1790. It became fashionable for parties from Dublin to drive out to Bray and spend the day there, while people travelling from Dublin to Wicklow and Wexford in their own carriages generally stopped a night at Quin's. It was chiefly through the hotel on the bridge that Bray became known to the wider world. In 1843, the English poet, Thackeray, claimed that: "Quin's dinner was the best in Ireland'. It's a boast this hotel still tries to live up to... In 1858, the hotel was sold to William Dargan, the engineer and entrepreneur who had brought the railway to Bray four years earlier. He renamed it Quin's Hotel, and then set about constructing a road from the Railway Station to the Main Street, calling this, too, after the founders of the hotel - Quinsborough. Quin's Hotel was sold again in 1866, and was re-named the Royal Hotel in 1867. It was purchased by the McGettigan family in 1981 as part of the Regency Hotel Group, and its subsequent extensive development included the building of a very modern Leisure Centre in 1993. So today Quinn's Hotel has become the Royal Hotel & Leisure Centre, and visitors come by plane and car or ferry and touring bus, rather than horse and coach. Dublin city is a thriving European capital, but the Wicklow mountains on the other side retain their wild, peaceful beauty. ...And the hotel on the bridge between Dublin and Wicklow continues to span the best of both worlds. Why not visit the Royal Hotel home page? |
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