After spending 3 nights at ‘Rick Steins’ Bannisters Lodge in somewhat sumptuous surroundings we packed the car and headed off to Nowra for 2 nights at the Pleasant Way Motel in Pleasant Way Parade.
We had been looking for a couple of day’s accommodation as we moved up the South Coast but with Mothers Day during that period we were finding it hard to find anything available. We wanted to stay in Nowra and the only hotel available that met all our requirements was the Pleasant Way Motel in Nowra.
It also wasn’t particularly cheap at $150 per night but with Mothers Day that weekend that could have been the reason.
Getting to the hotel was easy enough. It runs directly off the Princes Highway and is in a pretty good position, assuming you have a car.
We arrived way too early to book in so headed across the road to the information centre to see what was available in the sightseeing department.
We then headed into the main centre of town to visit the local shopping area where we found a Mitre 10 shop that had cookware pieces that we wanted to buy. I also picked up a very reasonable priced Emile Henry Tagine, another item I have been wanting for a while.
Since we still had plenty of time before checking in, we had lunch at the Returned Services Club in Junction Rd. This consists of a reasonably priced buffet – $13.50 each, and a variety of tasty oriental dishes, roast meat and vegetables, salads, fish and desserts. Apart from the roast meat that was a tad dry, everything else was moist and tasty.
Soon it was time to head back to the hotel and book in.
Pleasant Way Motel
Well it was certainly a come down from our room at the Bannisters Lodge in Mollymook, but it is a typical, basic motel room, that although dated looking, is very clean and tidy.
There is a queen bed, a single bed, a small flat screen TV, table and 2 chairs, a wardrobe and some drawers. Paula is once again disappointed that there is no bath, only a shower.
The décor is quite dated but the room and bathroom look as if they have recently been painted.
There is plenty of light in the room and lots of power points, both of which is a plus when you want to plug in laptops, phones etc.
Another big plus is the laundry. This gives us a chance to wash all the clothes that we were unable to wash previously, and at $3 a load it is very cheap. The dryer is free but unfortunately it takes forever to dry the clothes so much so that in the end we head off back to the RSL for dinner and leave the clothes drying.
The motel has a barbecue area which is handy if you want to cook up a meal.
There is a kitchenette with a sink for washing up, but no microwave so we are unable to cook up the Quinoa that we brought with us to have for breakfast.
The beds are comfortable and there is extra bedding and pillows provided.
In the wardrobe is an iron and ironing board.
There is no safe provided. This is always an inconvenience as we travel with electrical equipment that we don’t want to leave in the car when we go shopping or sightseeing.
The shower is a glass enclosure with a shower curtain, the water pressure is excellent and there is plenty of hot water. The proprietors have also provided plenty of small soaps and conditioning shampoo.
The towels are thick and reasonably soft. The TV has both free to air channels and Foxtel available.
The Motel guide is very basic, in fact there isn’t anything that tells you how to tune the TV to the Foxtel channels. It turns out that you need to press ‘Source’ on the remote and select ATV. Something I found after pressing every button on the remote. To change back to the free to air channels you once again select ‘Source and select DTV and the large button in the centre of the remote.
There is also nothing to tell you where the guest laundry is or what the conditions are for using the barbecue. The guide only talks about the local eateries. Basic information about a hotel/motel is something that is important for guests and this manual certainly needs to be updated.
There is a broken clock radio device that has definitely reached its use by date. This hotel definitely needs an upgrade.
There is a large mirror with a shelf that is large enough to work on with the laptop, and a chair. There is also a hatch for where breakfast can be served if you order it from the motel. We found the delivery time to be way too early for us to order breakfast. But the prices are reasonable if you want an early morning call.
The breakfast menu consists of choices of juice, fruit, cereal, toast and light meals and range from $2.50 for the juice to $7.50 for the light meals. Hot dishes such as eggs, bacon etc range in price from $.50 to $11.90 for the country cook – sausage, bacon, eggs and tomato.
The room is quite cold which means we have to turn on the heating to take the chill off the air. The air conditioning unit is very noisy so we have to turn it off when we decide to settle in for the night.
One thing we do have is a wifi internet connection which costs $15 for 12 hours, however you can purchase a block of one or three hours. We have taken the 12 hours so we can keep up with our affiliate business.
The room has a mini bar and the prices are very reasonable. Soft drink 2.00, light beer 3.00.
There are also mugs glasses, tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits provided, a tea towel, toaster, and jug. So you can make some tea and toast before setting out for the day.
The luggage holder is large enough to hold both our suitcases, but we travel with small cases. If you have a large suitcase it will probably only hold one case.
Location
The Pleasant Way Motel is across the road from the Nowra Tourist Information Centre and there is also a restaurant across the road. It is a short drive to K-Mart Shopping Centre and also to the Nowra CBD.
Overall Opinion
This motel is okay for a short stay but it really is in need of an upgrade. It just didn’t have a good feel about it. We didn’t feel happy there and would try and spend as much time out of the room as possible. At $150 a night it is definitely not good value for money and we wouldn’t really recommend it.
Views of the Pleasant Way Motel:
Leave a Reply