The Holiday Inn at Manchester Airport is the newest hotel at Manchester International Airport. It’s conveniently right located opposite Terminal 2 and within easy walking distance to the airport station with direct trains to Manchester centre taking just 20 minutes. It’s also really not a long walk to Terminals 1 or 3 either.

There are airport parking offers available to guests although parking right on site is limited.

We live about an hour away from Manchester airport so don’t often use an airport hotel as it can feel frivolous. However with some recent stressful mornings at the airport, involving long queues at both check in and security, we decided to stay before our 6am flight to Kalkan for October half term.

The main reason for wanting to stay at the airport the night before was to take advantage of Jet2.com’s twilight check in service. Something that I’ll definitely be using again if we have a crazy early flight.

We arrived at the airport around 7pm, Matt dropped us and our hand luggage off at the hotel and then parked the car. He then took our checked bag over to Jet2’s free twilight check in and it was all done in less than 5 minutes as there was no-one else there.

Matt then made his way back to the hotel, where I had checked in with the girls.

Check in at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport Terminal 2

Check in at 7pm on the Saturday night of half term was really quite busy. I did wonder if there would be an option to do an online or digital check in as it’s a brand new hotel but that option wasn’t available.

The check in staff did seem fairly harassed and we didn’t receive much information about breakfast times or some of the other food options. This was however available in the room and it was easy to find out.

Rooms at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport Terminal 2

Offering 280 modern bedrooms all with free Wi-Fi across six floors, the contemporary, spacious bedrooms feature floor to ceiling windows. They have a range of double, twin, family, executive, and accessible rooms.

We had two double rooms opposite each other with the second double bedroom having a put up bed for our third child. This hadn’t been made up when we checked in, but was within 15 minutes of us asking.

There was loads of sockets for charging devices, a large TV on which we watched the rugby (room one) Strictly Come Dancing (room 2) and a desk. There was free tea and coffee-making facilities.

The rooms were also totally soundproofed with blackout curtains, we didn’t hear one aeroplane whilst we were in the room which given its location was impressive.

The bathroom within both rooms was small and compact but we had the option of both a very powerful shower or a bath, with nice products too which was a relief as I had checked in all our liquids!

I also thought the sign, suggesting you just ask for complimentary products you might have forgotten, a nice touch.

Food at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport Terminal 2

We’d already eaten dinner when we arrived to check in so didn’t sample any of the menu at the hotel, but the main restaurant at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport T2 is Firin, which offers Turkish food. If you’d prefer more classic UK dishes, you can select from the Open Lobby Menu. Kids under 12 eat free with an adult.

We also didn’t manage to get breakfast either. Despite our room rate including breakfast we couldn’t have this as breakfast didn’t start until 5am. With lots of flights starting at 6am from Manchester meaning lots of guests were up and about at 4am or earlier there was sadly no option to get anything from the buffet at that point.

I think the time breakfast starts is one thing that it would be great if Holiday Inn could reconsider, even if its only cereal and perhaps hot drinks people could grab on their way out.

Good Nights Sleep

We loved our stay at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport Terminal 2. The fact we could walk across the road at 4.30am, rather than leave our house at 3am, and just walk through security in the morning was a delight. It made the start to our week away a pleasure and not an ordeal. We all agreed that with a really early flight we would factor in an airport hotel again, especially if we can use twilight check in!

Featured Image Photo Credit: Travelynn Family (main image)