Serenity Suites

Every front window at Serenity Suites faces the water. It is a guest house on Marathon Terrace on the Douglas seafront, and the sea is the reason to stay.

Above the bistro

The building is part of a run of tall terraces on the front, with a bistro at street level and the rooms on the floors above, reached by stairs. It is the interiors and the outlook that have had the money spent on them rather than the frontage.

Bay windows and the tide

The sea-view rooms are built around deep bay windows, with the sand and the curve of the bay filling the glass. Several have their own seating set into the bay, a pair of grey armchairs in one, a sofa in another, so you can sit and watch the water instead of perching on the end of the bed. Walls are white or carry hand-painted murals of rock, tree and sea, and soft grey carpet runs throughout.

The rooms and their bathrooms

Doubles, twins, triples and larger king rooms, some with a sofa bed alongside the main one. Every room has its own bathroom, and these are the newest thing in the house: full-height marble-veined panels, frameless glass walk-in showers, heated towel rails and floating basins. Rooms come with a flat-screen television, a kettle, a wardrobe or clothes rack, linen, towels and sockets by the bed.

Out on the front

Marathon Terrace is on the seafront in Douglas, with the beach across the road and the promenade running from the door in both directions, towards the harbour one way and the town the other.

Best for

Anyone who wants the sea in front of them the moment the blind goes up. Ask for one of the sea-view or deluxe rooms when you book, and note the upper floors are reached by stairs only.