Liam Stebbingvisits Whites of Wexford
"WOW," SAY our daughters as we walk into our glass-fronted room on the fourth floor of Whites. The sun is streaming into the hotel over Wexford Harbour, where a jet-skier is ripping back and forth across the glinting water. On the other side of the headland, Curracloe Beach is thick with sunbathers. Wow, on a glorious bank-holiday weekend, is right. But that's not what they're looking at, it turns out: if you're pretty much a hotel first-timer, then it's the frills that catch the eye. "These soaps are so cool," say the girls.
To be fair, they are pretty eye-catching: an assortment of Gilchrist & Soames soap, shampoo and shower gel, laid out just so in the bathroom. "And look at the TV," they say, pointing to the large LCD television on the wall.
We are more interested in the air conditioning - unexpectedly a godsend on a warm day - and in the fact that, although the room isn't huge, it is only one of two we have booked for the night.
Through a door next to the dressing table is our second family room, for the girls to sleep in. It is a mirror image of the first, also with a double bed, a single bed, an LCD TV and, joy of joys, their very own set of toiletries. The pair of rooms is costing only a little more than one would have on its own, €266 against €240.
The beach was warm earlier this afternoon, but we didn't go in the sea, as the water was still on the chilly side of cool, so we decide to swim in the hotel pool. Following the signs takes us in two lifts and around three of the hotel's four sides, but we make it to the leisure centre at last - and see that we have ended up just a few beats of a crow's wings from where we started our journey, a 20-second walk across the hotel courtyard. Still, at least we are nicely warmed up for our swim.
At 6.30pm we go over to the restaurant for an early-bird meal, slightly alarmed after being told at reception that children aren't allowed in the restaurant after 7.30pm. What will we do for the rest of our family night away?
We needn't have booked a table. The restaurant is only a quarter-full so early in the evening. No doubt many people are still on the beach, as our waitress turns out to have been a little earlier, too. We tell her that we found Curracloe strand crowded. Had we walked a bit farther, she says, we could have had the beach to ourselves.
The early-bird menu is good value - €28 for three courses - and the €10.95 children's menu offers a lot more than the standard sausage and chips. Our younger daughter chooses nachos, pasta and jelly and ice cream from it. Our elder daughter can't decide between the menus; luckily, the hotel is happy for her to mix and match courses from the two menus, so she gets the best of both worlds.
The food is decent, on a par with what you might rustle up for a dinner party at home. We try a plate of smoked and fresh salmon, plus a goat's cheese salad, followed by thickly sliced roast beef, all of which is good. The sticky toffee pudding seems to lack both toffee and stickiness - it's more of a steamed sponge with custard - but it goes down well all the same.
Thankfully, nobody seems bothered when we're still at our table, kids and all, at 9pm. The restaurant is still only half-full, and perhaps the staff would have hurried us on a busier night, but with the slowly setting sun coming in from the courtyard it's all too easy to pass the evening here.
We're tempted, when we go back to our room, to pay to watch a children's film, but we can't work out how to use the service. It's mentioned in the welcome pack, but there's no sign of pay TV when we play around with the remote control. Perhaps, like the fact that our minibars are switched on but empty, that's to stop children running up their parents' bills.
Whites fills up for Wexford Festival Opera, each October, when it charges a premium for its rooms, but it clearly doesn't try to capitalise on every sales opportunity.
Perhaps we should have worked that out earlier from the fact that, although it follows many other hotels in, annoyingly, requiring a two-night stay if you arrive on a Friday or Saturday, Whites was one of the very few places we could find that doesn't also apply the rule to bank-holiday Sundays.
A family night at a hotel is never cheap, but we have enough left in the budget for a trip to the spa, which offers a 30-minute massage for €35 - an affordable luxury, in other words, rather than a rare splurge. A bit like Whites overall.
WhereWhites of Wexford, Abbey Street, Wexford, 053-9122311, www.whitesofwexford.ie.
WhatFour-star hotel, redeveloped two years ago on the site of the original inn. Standard Celtic Tiger interior, with plenty of black leather sofas, fibre-optic chandeliers and sleek surfaces.
Rooms157, including executive, family and nonsmoking rooms.
Best rateTwo nights' B&B with one dinner €199 per person sharing midweek in July and August. Book by June 30th.
AmenitiesFree use of 20m swimming pool, sauna, steam room and gym. Spa, thermal suite and cryotherapy clinic for additional fees.
Bars and restaurantsTerrace Restaurant, the bookless Library Bar, La Speranza cafe, nightclub.
AccessAll bedrooms are wheelchair-accessible; eight also have wheelchair- accessible bathrooms.
ParkingFree underground car park for residents.
Child-friendlinessPlenty of family rooms, and good pool, but restaurant may not welcome kids after 7.30pm.