My mom and I just got back from a wonderful weekend at the spa celebrating her birthday. We stayed…read moreone night at the Inn, enjoyed massages and the spa facilities, and ate at both Kensington's restaurant and the pub (in our white bathrobes mostly, ha!). We also did the afternoon tea, which was absolutely lovely and a good value. Our hotel room was clean, comfy, modern, and spacious. The spa facilities were also extremely clean and well kept, with the ladies locker room stocked with everything you could ever need. Every staff person we dealt with from the hotel to the restaurants to the spa was friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed the hot tub/sauna/steam room area.. yes, it was crowded a few times but I noticed that crowds in both the pool and hot tub areas tended to clear quickly and several times I had both to myself! I especially appreciated the thoughtful little touches everywhere, like cold washcloths available for post-sauna cooldowns and fresh flowers all over the place. The vibe was extremely relaxed and I appreciated that when staying in the hotel you get full use of the spa facilities even on check-out day. We had breakfast and lunch at Kensington's and also had the afternoon tea. Everything was delicious!! Good cocktails too. I wished the indoor pool had been larger to better accommodate busy times, and the spa treatments are definitely on the pricey side, but those are about the only two criticisms I can come up with about this place! We are hoping to make it an annual tradition!

Update: I usually come once a year for a special treat around my birthday, but I haven't been for a…read morewhile. We finally came back today to use my gift cards and sadly, our whole spa experience wasn't the 5 star of yesteryear... Firstly, this is what went right: Yes, it's still very pretty and the staff are terrific as always. The spa itself is just lovely New England charm. We were greeted well and given our itinerary. We went to our respective locker rooms for comfy robes and slippers. I had a nice swim before our massages. We both loved our massage therapists, mine was Kisbel, hubby's was Alexis. All good there! Secondly, what went wrong? We were saddened to see that the fun activities that were always included are either MIA entirely like the wine tasting, or are being up-charged tremendously like the formerly complimentary tea and scones! Really?! Bummer!! Also, when I booked online, I saw that my go-to all-inclusive personal day package is no longer offered. No decent pick two services like a massage & pedicure with included lunch plus fitness class to round out your spa day. After our massages, we chilled out in the relaxation room, no reading materials provided anymore, but they still do have loungers and comfy blankets. As there was nothing else of interest included to do anymore, we made a reservation for dinner out with plenty of time after we check out. Not a bad experience up to this point, just slightly disappointing to be wanting to leave so much earlier than in the past. Now here's where things went terribly awry---the operator of the check out process "Anashelly" could NOT process my gift cards! It was $300 in gift cards, leaving a balance of $97.30, a hefty total of $397.30 for only two 50 minute massages. Finally she phoned a higher up and explained the system wasn't working correctly. MUCH time passed and the line is now out the door behind me! Worse than that, we will miss our special dinner and I'm also so embarrassed! Finally I say we are leaving and we can handle it later over the phone. I paid $397.30 and I left a ball of stress after looking forward to this for over a year. I have come here with friends & family for almost 27 years now, but I will decidedly NOT BE RETURNING. PS Adding insult to injury, they also stopped sending me my usual birthday coupon years ago. Having to report all this?? Spa at Norwich Inn you break my spa loving heart!