Duke St, Liverpool, Merseyside
We arrived at The Halyard to an army of dog fans ready to greet us, I can't even explain how friendly and helpful the staff are here. They all took a huge liking to Rosie, so much so, the restaurant manager took her for a little walk to meet the rest of the team whilst the concierge shown us up to our room. As you can probably imagine, Rosie was treated like a VIP for our whole visit. The staff really couldn't do enough for us, it's honestly a massive help when team members offer to carry our luggage, because usually I'm trying to juggle several suitcases, bags, and a crate whilst holding the dogs lead, in the hope that she doesn't pull me over.
We stayed in one of the top floor King Suites with a city view. The room was very spacious and had everything we needed for a comfortable stay, especially for Rosie, a soft bed, bowls and treats waiting for her. This always helps us to distinguish if a hotel 'tolerates' dogs or truly is as they say 'dog friendly'. The Halyard is of course very dog friendly, if you hadn't already guessed. We had a balcony with outdoor seating, a seperate living space to the bedroom and a private bathroom with a fantastic shower. You can really travel light here, as there are bathrobes, slippers, towels, toiletries, hair dryer, coffee machine, safe, everything you could possibly need other than clothes.
We settled in, took some photos and unpacked before receiving a call from the concierge asking if we'd like a tour of the rest of the hotel. We had a look around the fitness suite, rooftop terrace and a few of the empty rooms to see the comparison in size. The Queen & King rooms were very spacious and were all decorated tastefully around the Liverpool heritage with great views of the city. We had a drink down in the bar before venturing out for a walk around the Albert Dock, we seen some great sites then returned to the room to get ready for our evening meal.
We were blown away with the food in The Voyagers restaurant. If you like small sharing dishes, you will love it here! I think I may have got a little carried away not realising how big the dishes were and ordered 4 to myself when in essence you probably only need 4/5 to share between 2. I had the char grilled tiger prawns, chorizo in red wine, tenderstem broccoli and chantenay carrots. They complimented each other really well. There was also a seperate children's menu so my son had pizza and fries which they upgraded to salt and pepper fries for him. He loved his meal and personally thanked the chef! I'm not a drinker or one for late nights, I'm quite happy to get snug in bed after a meal so that's exactly we did and watched a film in the room.
Breakfast was served until 10am so we had a little lie in and went down around 9am. The coninental buffet was fantastic with a variety of meats, cheeses, pastries and fruit along with fresh bread for toasting, cereal and yoghurts. They then also had a menu to order a fresh hot breakfast, with meals such as full english, eggs benedict, omelette, porridge, avo on toast etc. We were certainly full afterwards and didn't need to have any lunch!
After breakfast we ventured off to Sefton Park which is only about a 10 minute drive away from the hotel. We are pretty local to the area ourselves so have visited Sefton Park quite a few times before, it's a very large park with a lake at one side, including a cafe serving coffee and ice creams. We fed the ducks, bought an ice cream and walked the whole length of the park which is a good 5km so a great flat walk for dogs. It's also home to the famous Palm house, which isn't dog friendly unfortunately but it's still nice to look at from the outside. Right next to Sefton park is Lark Lane, which is well known for its amazing restaurants and cafes, if you weren't too full after breakfast, here would be a great place to grab some lunch or maybe tea & cake!
On our way back to the hotel we decided to detour to Otterspool promenade, for another little walk along the prom with great views of the River Mersey! We had to make room for all of the food we were about to indulge in back at The Voyagers. We had another outstanding meal, this time I went for the sticky glazed short rib, which let me tell you.... is UNBELIEVABLE!! Accompanied with the Nduja scotch egg and char grilled asparagus. Another 11/10 meal! I will definitely be returning here. The restaurant is also completely dog friendly so you don't need to worry about leaving your dogs in the room, the staff will also provide you with a water bowl for them.
The next day we had breakfast, checked out and took a drive to one of our favourite beaches 'Formby beach' which is part of the National Trust. This is a lovely beach with a great walk down to the waterfront over lots of sand dunes. Rosie loves running up and down the dunes, feeling the sand beneath her paws! The beach is very dog friendly and also has a forest walk right next to it called the Red Squirrel Reserve.
Overall we had a fabulous stay at The Halyard, it really is the best dog friendly city break we've experienced. I couldn't recommend it enough to all of our furry friends and their humans!
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