Brooklands Hotel

Brooklands Hotel sits on Brooklands Drive in Weybridge, on the edge of the site that gave the road its name. The old Brooklands motor racing circuit and Mercedes-Benz World are its immediate neighbours, and the hotel does not pretend otherwise, it is a contemporary, design-led building that leans into where it stands rather than trying to look older than it is. The rooms are described as sleek; the restaurant is a brasserie serving British food. Anyone expecting oak beams and a coaching-inn atmosphere should adjust their expectations before arriving.

The £££ price band puts it in the upper-middle bracket rather than the very top. That signals a proper hotel with a proper kitchen attached, the sort of place where dinner is an occasion but not a once-a-year one. It is more expensive than a high-street chain and less than a country-house estate. For a reader weighing up where to spend, that is a useful middle position: you are paying for design, location and service standards, not for acreage or history.

Who is it for? Most obviously, motorsport enthusiasts. If someone in your party is going to Mercedes-Benz World or the Brooklands site, staying or eating here removes any transport question entirely. Beyond that, it suits the modern-luxury crowd, people who want a contemporary room and a good dinner without a long drive back. Its position near the M25 and Weybridge's general accessibility make it plausible for business overnights and for meeting people halfway, though you should check your own route rather than take that on trust.

The brasserie is the reason non-residents would come. British cooking in a brasserie format usually means a broad menu and a reasonably relaxed room, but the facts here do not extend to what is actually on it. Menus at hotels of this kind change with the season, so ring or check online before travelling if you have someone with dietary requirements or a fixed idea of what they want to eat.

A few practical points. Hotels sharing a site with a major visitor attraction can be busy at predictable times, event weekends at Brooklands and Mercedes-Benz World will affect both room availability and how full the restaurant is. If you want a quiet dinner, it is worth asking what is on at the neighbouring sites when you book. The opposite applies too: if the appeal is the motorsport connection, an event weekend might be exactly what you want.

Weybridge has no shortage of places to eat, and plenty of them are older and more conventionally pretty. Brooklands Hotel offers something different, a modern hotel with a specific sense of place, tied to one of the more significant pieces of motoring history in the county. That combination is not easily found elsewhere in the area, and it is the honest reason to choose it.