Hotel for Leeds Festival – Leeds Park Plaza

Leeds is the only festival where I’m lucky enough to stay at a hotel instead of on site, primarily because boutique camping is miles away at Leeds.
Last year, we stayed at the Ramada Wetherby which is where the organisers and NME lot stay, although I was a little underwhelmed and spent a small fortune getting a taxi on and off site – £25 each way. So this year, I booked us in to the Leeds Park Plaza just opposite Leeds station so we could use the shuttle bus to the festival site.
The shuttle bus wristband (the bright orange one) for the full weekend costs £17, the journey takes 1/2 hour and they run really frequently until about 1am. I never waited more than 5 mins for a bus.
Anyway back to the hotel, as well as being very conveniently located – near the station, shops and shuttle buses – it makes a good first impression, attraction reception area and friendly staff.
I booked 5 rooms in total and paid less than I would for a travellodge so when I entered my room on the 11th floor I was more than a little impressed at the size of the bed (I could roll over like 6 times and not fall off), the size of the room, decoration and shiny clean bathroom.
It is bright, clean, modern and stylish and everything is generous in size from the bed to the bathroom.
I stayed four nights and grew to love the cleaning fairy who worked her magic on my room as well as tidied up my belongings every day – apologies for taking all my pictures after I’d messed it all up again!
The room came equipped with all the usual things extras needed for an extended stay, iron/ironing board, hairdryer, minibar, TV, Internet/WIFI plus we had 24 hour room service.
My only grievence was the hotel had overbooked and one of our party, despite dropping his bags off at 1pm, when he went to check in at midnight was told the hotel was fully booked and he had to catch a cab to a sister hotel at his own expense.
All in all the Leeds Park Plaza is an incredibly good value hotel and ideal for those festivaling at Leeds due to its central location and ease of access to the shuttle bus service.