AD | This post is in partnership with No1 Lounges
There are holidays with children, and then there are holidays without children. And I can confirm that the airport experience is very different when you’re only responsible for your own passport (and maybe your husband’s in my case)!
We recently escaped to Spain for a long weekend, just the two of us. We were flying from Gatwick South to Barcelona before heading down the coast to Sitges, and with an 8am flight, it was always going to be an early start.
Usually an early flight means grabbing a coffee, wandering around the terminal half awake and counting down until boarding. This time, though, we started our holiday at Clubrooms by No1 Lounges, their adults-only lounge at Gatwick South.
And I think it might have ruined normal airport mornings and airport trips in general for us forever.
Starting our child-free weekend at Clubrooms
Our flight wasn’t until 8am, but Clubrooms opens at 6am, so we headed in pretty much as it opened.
The first thing I noticed was just how calm it felt compared with the main terminal. Clubrooms has much more of a boutique hotel feel than the airport lounges I’d experienced before, with comfortable seating, smaller spaces and views out towards the planes.
And, as someone who could happily spend far too long watching planes at an airport, the latter was a bonus.
The biggest difference for us, though, was that Clubrooms is adults-only.
We have three children and most of our travel is family travel, which we love, but this was a rare weekend away just the two of us so sitting down somewhere quiet with absolutely nobody asking me where their iPad/snack/passport/water bottle was felt like a very appropriate way to begin.
Breakfast, coffee… and champagne at 6am
Rather than a buffet-style breakfast, Clubrooms offers hosted table service, so we could sit down and order breakfast before our flight.
The food felt much more like having breakfast in a restaurant than grabbing something quickly at the airport, and there was good coffee too. The food was delicious and it was so quick, I had time to sit and read by book.
There’s also a premium bar included.
Was 6am slightly early for champagne? Probably.
Did being child-free make us considerably more willing to overlook that fact? Also yes.
There was something very lovely about having nowhere else to be for an hour other than sitting down, eating breakfast and watching the planes before our flight.
It changed the start of the holiday
This was probably the thing I hadn’t appreciated before we went.
An airport lounge isn’t only about having somewhere nicer to eat or getting a drink included. For us, it completely changed the feeling of that first morning.
Normally an early flight feels like something you have to get through before the holiday starts. This time, once we’d made it through security and walked into Clubrooms, the holiday had already started.
We had breakfast, drank our coffee, sat watching the planes started books we had been meaning to read for years and properly switched off before we’d even boarded.
And because this was such a rare trip without the children, having that little bit of calm at the beginning made it feel even more like a grown-up weekend away.
Fed, caffeinated and feeling considerably more civilised than we usually do at an airport, we eventually left Clubrooms and headed to our gate for Barcelona.
Where we were heading
Barcelona wasn’t actually our final destination this time.
After landing, we headed south along the coast towards Sitges and Port Ginesta, where we were spending the next three nights staying on our friends’ boat.
Yes, a boat.
And no, we hadn’t made a wildly impulsive purchase after one child-free airport lounge.
It was such a different trip for us: no children, no hotel and a few days of sunshine, good food, rosé and exploring this part of the Catalan coast.
Starting it at Clubrooms somehow fitted the whole weekend perfectly.
Is Clubrooms at Gatwick worth it?
For the right trip, I think it absolutely can be.
If you’re travelling as adults, particularly for a couples’ weekend, girls’ trip or one of those very rare child-free escapes, Clubrooms feels noticeably more special than simply waiting in the terminal.
I’d especially consider it when you’ve got an early flight. Instead of thinking of those first couple of hours as the inconvenient bit before your holiday, you can have breakfast, coffee, somewhere comfortable to sit and actually start enjoying yourself.
And yes, potentially champagne before most sensible people have eaten their Weetabix.
One useful thing to know is that if you book directly with No1 Lounges, they offer advance pricing, free delay cover and flexible booking, which is worth factoring in when you’re comparing prices.
For us, though, the best part was much simpler: for an hour or so before our flight, there was nowhere we needed to rush to and nobody we needed to look after.
And that felt like a pretty perfect way to start a child-free weekend.
Clubrooms by No1 Lounges is located in Gatwick South Terminal and is an adults-only lounge.
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