Strange how the time just flies sometimes.

When we’d first visited Warner Leisure Hotel Lakeside back in 2022 we’d realised it made for an easy option for a weekend break for us, being close enough to drive to on a Friday night and drive back early on a Monday morning. We visited the place twice in that year and told ourselves that this would be something we could see ourselves doing more of. And then three years passed.

Trying to fill a gap between two cruises with something to break up work, we spotted a cheap weekend break back at Lakeside on Hayling Island billed as a “ska and reggae weekend.” Now, to be fair, it wasn’t the ska and reggae bit that attracted us but rather the cheap bit. The deal was such that for about £113 per night we’d get an upgraded room, breakfast, dinner, daytime activities, and nighttime entertainment. The upgraded room offer meant a woodland lodge for the price of the basic room, and we’d stayed in a woodland lodge before (you can see photos of the interior of the Lakeside woodland lodges here: Warner Lakeside, Hayling Island Seafront Walk). We booked it, as you can probably tell from the fact you’re reading about it now.

Our accommodation was exactly as we remembered it and, in fact, we were in the room right next door to where we’d stayed three years earlier. I’d mentioned in the write-up of the first visit that the room could get cold in wintry conditions, but while it was decidedly nippy outside on this stay our room stayed nice and warm this time around. The only issue we had with the room was that the “night light” in the bathroom was extremely bright and, with the bathroom door facing into the room, this meant it was impossible to use the toilet at night without waking your partner up from a dream where they’d just been looking along a rail track as the glaring light of a train thundered down on them.

A look here at the programme of events for the ska and reggae weekend break at Lakeside. As I said, ska and reggae wasn’t the draw for us. To be brutally honest, reggae isn’t our sort of music at all, but we thought it would be good to see Dennis Seaton, formerly of Musical Youth. This guide, though, shows you the sort of things you can get up to during the day at one of these Warner Leisure Hotels.

I could post photos of all the breakfasts and dinners we ate during this weekend but I’ll restrain myself and limit it to just the first evening’s meal for now. There was a change here from when we’d visited Lakeside in 2022, and that was that starters, dessert, and specials were brought to the table by the staff, but the main meal was set up in a buffet style, allowing people to go up and pick their own food. Not a problem, as such, but it did catch us by surprise. Food was perfectly good, though; you’re not going to get five-star meals at a place like this, but you’re not paying five-star prices. We had absolutely no complaints about the options or the portion sizes or quality.

The first evening’s entertainment came from two short sets by the resident band, Central Park (lead singer in some fabulously sparkly outfits), sandwiching Dennis Seaton singing over a backing track of records. Everyone’s voices were great, everyone’s banter was great, and people were up and dancing. We even enjoyed the reggae tunes simply because they were largely the ones that have appeared in the UK charts over the decades or they were reggae versions of classic songs.

We’re not terribly active people because it’s easy to be lazy, but one of the other appeals of Lakeside was that it would give us a chance to have a swim. Lakeside has a large swimming pool with sauna and steam room, and we used it on both the Saturday and Sunday of our stay. A member of staff is tasked with sitting and acting as lifeguard while you’re swimming, and a more thankless or boring task we can’t imagine.

On the Saturday we grabbed a few photos of the hotel area – there’s not a lot to see because it’s mainly accommodation blocks – and headed off, past the lake that gives the hotel its name, and down to the seafront. It was bitterly cold and we decided quickly that it wasn’t the best of conditions for a long walk so we switched to Option B instead, which was to visit the pub. Fine, it was really Option A, and we ended up in three pubs, in fact. We had a nice lunch and a pint in the Olive Leaf, then shivered a bit in the cold interior of the Lifeboat Inn for another pint simply because a family with a screaming child had decided to sit next to us in the first establishment, then made a quick stop in a cramped and noisy Bar 18 for a cocktail. Drinks in all the pubs were lovely. Olive Leaf wins out for staff friendliness, atmosphere pre-screaming-child, and the fact it does food.

Saturday evening’s entertainment was a single 90-minute set from Ska Britannia and they were excellent. It’s a music form that’s easy to bounce up and down to and it had many of Lakeside’s guests doing just that. Nice banter, great musicians, and all the Madness, Specials, Beat, etc. hits you can think of were covered.

Far nicer but no warmer weather conditions greeted us on Sunday so a few more photos of Warner Lakeside are in order just to show you how the place looks under clear blue skies and sunshine.

With it being a Sunday we decided to have more of a relaxing day around the hotel rather than head out. We also had something booked for the afternoon so after an hour of playing Stranger Things Trivial Pursuit then another 45-minute swim and a bit of reading we made our way to the piano bar where we’d asked them to set up Afternoon Tea for us. This was so that we could also take part in the pub quiz, which we did, failing to put ourselves in a tie-breaker with the winning team by just one point.

To the Afternoon Tea itself, then. The sandwiches were huge. We’re used to daintier, but they were very tasty and we had no problems polishing them off. The scones were different to any we’ve had before, but not in a bad way. Bigger, darker, but also moister. We liked these a lot. And the sweet dishes were all delicious too.

We’d have liked a choice of teas and perhaps slightly smaller sandwiches, but it was otherwise great, and unsurprisingly filling. In fact, we’d only eat starters during dinner because that on top of the afternoon’s dining was more than enough for us.

For this final, more subdued evening at Warner Lakeside on Hayling Island – a noticeable portion of guests had gone home on the Sunday so the overall volume of people and energy from the crowd was slightly down – there were another couple of sets from the house band, but this time either side of a show called Rock of Stages by the Warner Theatre Company dancers and singers. This was a medley of songs and choreography from a load of musicals – Rent, We Will Rock You, Les Miserables, Back to the Future, and more – and I have to say I was genuinely very impressed. We are not musicals people and the West End shows have never held any attraction whatsoever, but there was a lot of great talent and impressive energy on show from the small number of men and women performing. Great voices, great skill in negotiating the small stages to race around each other and the audience. When we cruise we never watch the production shows because they’re not our thing so we don’t really know how this group at Warner would rate against those who often perform on the ships, but compared to some of the bands alone that we’ve seen these Warner performers were right up there at the top; better voices, better range. Very good indeed.

So, another lovely weekend break at Warner Leisure Hotel Lakeside completed, and as we said the last time we came, we’ll have to come back again. Perhaps we’ll do so with less than a three-year gap next time.

One last thing to mention was that the hotel offered a system to order drinks to the table. Scan a QR code, hit the web, register details, confirm the table location and hotel, pick some drinks, order. Service for these drinks was superb. But the ordering process itself could do with some work. Every time I went to order I had to log in, then wait for a code to be sent to my email address, enter it, then select the hotel, then select the table, then find the drinks to order. We overheard someone moaning about how awkward it was and giving up, but we did it a few times over the weekend. Yes, it was a pain in the backside, and there’s a reasonably easy fix that Warner should get their people to implement. It just needs a little tweak to extend the cookies timespan and keep people logged in for 24 hours or so and to remember the hotel in order to eliminate the tiresome first steps.

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