Hotel Sofitel Gatwick

In my mind, going on holiday should be fun from the moment you sling your cases in the back of the car and double lock your front door. Unfortunately, nobody has told the flight schedulers - as for the past six years the start of our holiday has meant getting to Gatwick for 4am. Being forced to get up at some ungodly time of the night and then drive around the M25, while wiping sleep from your eyes, is bad enough. Factor in the two hours or so you then spend queuing to get through check-in and security, and it's no wonder that by the time the steward starts the safety demonstration my husband and I are no longer speaking. (I'm too busy; fantasizing about tying my life jacket's straps in a double bow - tightly - around his neck.)

So this year, for the sake of family unity, we decided to do things differently. Determined to start our holiday the minute we got into the car, we booked into Sofitel, Gatwick for the night before our flight. Talk about a contrast - we were so relaxed we drove straight past the Gatwick turn-off...; and actually laughed about it.

When we did finally get to Gatwick we whacked our car straight into Sofitel's car park (they do a rate that includes a week's car parking), trundled our bags into reception, checked in, left the suitcases with the concierge, dumped our coats in our (rather swanky) family suite, went back down to the lobby, retrieved our suitcases and trundled them through Sofitel's walkway straight into Gatwick North's terminal. Quite a few airlines now provide "night before"; check-ins for early flights, and within twenty minutes of getting out of the car we were in Thomson's "early check-in queue";, which consisted of one other family. (Bizarrely, they were going to Periyali, Zakynthos, based on our Mumsnet recommendations!) Five minutes later we'd got our boarding passes, ditched our suitcases and were back in the hotel, having a celebratory cocktail in Sofitel's Kua bar. Now that's the way to do it. (If you do have an early flight and are planning to stay the night at Gatwick do check to see if your airline provides a "night before"; check-in. If they do, use it!)

Sofitel Gatwick's billed as a four-star luxury hotel...; and for an airport hotel it's blooming marvellous. It's very swish - think massive atrium, glass lifts, clean lines etc etc - and the staff couldn't be friendlier. We had, what by any standards, was a good meal (sea bass and a superb steak) in the brasserie (there's also a Ken Hom oriental restaurant and a cafÉ and terrace offering lighter snacks.) Small boy chose from the well priced kids' menu - it has all the usuals plus things like grilled Scottish salmon and boiled egg and soldiers - but quality is very good, so you get strips of juicy chicken breast rather than nuggets and a proper "Jamie O style" burger for your money. Plus kids can build their own ice-cream sundae - which is always going to go down well. By the time we got around to pudding we were all shattered - but they sounded to good to forego, so we had them sent up to our room. It might not be your cup of tea, but snuggled up in our pj's and hotel dressing gowns, watching Match of the Day (as you do) and over-indulging on chocolate soufflÉs was the perfect end to the day. As small boy put it, "This is the life.";

We'd booked a family room - but somehow we ended up with a double room connecting through to a vast corner room with twin beds and sofa bed. Both rooms had a big TV and nice touches included comp' big bottles of mineral water, chocolates, and snuggly dressing gowns. Great for large families, our rooms would have slept six in comfort - and I mean comfort. Chain hotels can be dire when it comes to getting a good night's kip, but Sofitel's beds are Über comfortable (quality linen, too) and we all slept brilliantly. The rooms are triple glazed, so even though you're right on the airport you can't hear a thing from outside.

If we'd been checking-in that morning, we'd have had to leave home at around 3am. Instead we slept through until about five, then jumped in the shower (nice smellies, by the way), whacked our overnight stuff in the bags, handed over our early-check-out slip at reception and walked over to the terminal and straight through to the departure lounge. It was simplicity itself. And do you know what made it even better? Seeing the horrendous lines of people waiting to check-in - and knowing that we didn't have to join them. (Obviously, we felt sorry for them - we're nice like that - but we couldn't help but feel horribly smug.) Plus, when we eventually arrived in Corsica, we were awake enough to a) not get lost on the drive to the villa; b) remember to drive on the other side of the road and c) enjoy our first day instead of it being a write-off.

Sofitel has rooms from around £129 that can accommodate three people, while just over £200 will get you a Sofitel suite sleeping four. Is it worth it? Depends what price you put on family harmony - but we're sold. From now on, we're starting our holiday a day early.