We love escaping the city for a weekend away down in the South West but the drive back to London can be long, long, long, so having a pit-stop in your back pocket is a smart move. Mollie’s Motel & Diner just off the M5 outside Bristol is the perfect spot.
Mollie’s is the affordable hotel concept from Soho House, with rooms starting from £70, and you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. The Bristol motel has 123 rooms, across double, twin, bunk, connecting and accessible options, with simple but chic Conran furniture and lighting, oak-lined walls, Hypnos mattresses, Dyson and GHD hair appliances, and rain showers and Cowshed products in the bathroom.
There are also 50-inch smart TVs in the rooms and you can cast to them from your phone, so you can stream all the shows and songs you’re obsessed with from your Netflix, Amazon and Spotify accounts. In fact everything at Mollie’s is digital-led; you can check in, access your room, book an electric vehicle charging bay, and order food in the diner all via the app, making it a totally seamless experience, which is precisely what you want after hours on the road.
Tea and coffee are provided in the room with hot and cold water taps in the hallways, so you don’t have to faff about with kettles, and there’s more free self-service tea and coffee in the reception area. There’s also a General Store stocked with snacks and toiletries for when the munchies strike or you realise you’ve forgotten your toothpaste, a bar and lounge, and a space to work.
Mollie’s Diner is just next door to the motel, so you can pop in for a bite even if you’re not sleeping over, and like the motel, it’s all very slick. The vibe is mid-century modern meets Americana; all the hallmarks of a diner are there – chrome-edged tables, booth seating, and patterned flooring – but they’ve been Soho House-ified, the classic red and white swapped for teal and forest green.
It’s a contemporary American menu full of crowd pleasers, with waffles, pancakes, fry-ups and eggs on in the morning, unlimited filter coffee, and everything from burgers and ribs to salads and ice cream sundaes available all day. The quality of the food is as good as you’d find in any Soho House joint, the service is friendly and it’s decent value too, so you can feed the family here without breaking the bank.
We used Mollie’s as a stop-off to break up a long journey home to London but if you need a base round Bristol way it works a treat, especially as it’s a significant step up from a Premier Inn whilst coming in at a similar price point. With a Mollie’s in Oxfordshire and one on the way to Manchester, we’re already planning our next road trip.
Cribbs Causeway, Bristol BS10 7TL
mollies.com