Our Mini Break to The King’s Head in Cirencester

We’ve just returned from a mini break road trip, leaving the five-year-old with her grandparents for three nights. We’ve had a stressful few months in the Perry household, so this break was exactly what we needed to recharge the batteries and to press pause on real life. Any fears that our daughter might be sad to see us go, for a few days, were laid to rest when she waved us off from the doorstep, and ran straight back indoors to carry on colouring in, before we’d even started the car engine.

Our first stop was The King’s Head in Cirencester. I’ve been to the Cotswolds a few times, but never visited this particular area before. And phew, it didn’t disappoint. The town has lots of winding streets with antique shops, old-fashioned stores and businesses that have clearly been there for years, and lots of little alleys to explore.

The King’s Head is on Market Place, a wide street with candy coloured buildings along one side (and what’s possibly the smallest House of Fraser in the UK). The hotel is a lovely mix of modern and traditional décor – there are artefacts dotted around the place and the owners found a section of old Roman road underneath the building, which they’ve turned into a feature in the reception area. Exposed brickwork on the walls and an amazing vaulted cellar give the impression that The King’s Head owners value the building’s heritage.

Our room was huge – a four-poster bed, sofa, a second seating area and a large bathroom with roll-top bath and walk-in shower. Oh and one of the comfiest beds I’ve ever slept on.

A brilliant thing about The King’s Head is that every guest room is different – so even if you return again and again, it’s likely you’ll get a very different room each time. We were given a little peek into the room next door to ours, and LOVED the copper bath in the bedroom area.

The hotel has comfy sofa areas next to fireplaces that just beg you to curl up with a book, which we did do, but not before having a wander around Cirencester and *cliché klaxon* buying some Annie Sloan wax from a gift shop nearby.

Dinner was a cosy affair, in the dimly-lit restaurant with walls lined with framed paintings, photos and pictures. If I was a local, this would be somewhere I’d come on a date night. The food was fantastic – we both had steak which was importantly cooked to perfection. (I’m not very tolerant of a badly cooked steak.) I was all set to have the cheeseboard but I was too full, so I watched Mr P enjoy his crème brulee instead.

After a lovely lie in (Yes! Five mini break points to us!) we did that classic thing of arriving for breakfast at the last possible moment. The staff didn’t seem to mind that or Mr P asking for various substitutions on his cooked brekkie. I was well behaved and just ordered the eggs benedict as it came.

What struck us about The King’s Head was that, while we were there for a child-free getaway, it would be just as good for a family break too. In fact, there was a family with a little boy, aged around 5, there at the same time as us, and they seemed to be looked after very well by the staff.

Our next mini-break destination was Cornwall – read that post here.

Rooms at The King’s Head in Cirencester start at £120 based on two sharing per night, on a bed and breakfast basis. Book at kingshead-hotel.co.uk. Big thanks to The King’s Head for inviting us to stay, for the purpose of this review – all views are my own, as always.