If you have to stay over somewhere before your flight from Cardiff airport then you are well advised to choose the Holiday Inn Express. It is a standard Holiday Inn express with all the things you expect. It is clean and efficient and the staff are very helpful both during the day and at night. Breakfast is better than you would expect for such a low price; they have even added scrambled eggs and sausage to the standard cold buffet. In the rooms there is fair trade tea, coffee and one dispenser with multi purpose soap which you can use either for your hands or as a substitute for shower gel (if you have forgotten some). Although there are limited hot drinks in the rooms, there are vending machines with sachets that can be purchased that offer a much wider variety.

The only real issue is the parking. It is first come first served – pay at the machine (have a lot of one and two pound coins) or at the desk and they hand write a ticket. People seemed to entirely ignore the blue badge signs so if you need an accessible space perhaps call in advance. Once the car park is full people park in non spaces in the car park and then down the lane next to all the no parking signs. Strictly speaking, this shouldn’t be done as the spaces are needed for deliveries, but there are some people who are always going to take a few risks!