Very nice indeed, but the spa was much too busy. We went on a Sunday. We did the overnight spa…read moredeal which was rather good for £89 each if sharing a room, which includes B&B, buffet lunch, 3 course dinner and a 25 minutes treatment. A single supplement is a whopping £60.
It's a large hotel with a very strange system of room numbering and a maze of corridors on two floors. If you expect your room starting with a '4' to be on the fourth floor, then you will not find it as there is no fourth floor, it is all on the second floor, and the numbers do not go in any order, luckily the number signage is very good or you would end up all night going round and round!
The Whisper Area with hanging chairs and water beds was a lovely area to relax in, except it was spoilt by the heavy footfall and people laughing and talking as the spa was much too busy. The Heat and Ice was an experience, although did not see anyone doing the Ice experience! Again this area is too busy, the jacuzzi was packed and you had to wait for everything like the hot seat, the stone bed (didn't do anything for me), the foot spa, and the sauna, steam, crystal rooms were all very full and felt quite uncomfortable with too many bodies. I did not go to the pool area which was on a different level, as it was jammed packed with bodies.
The treatment waiting area was much, much nicer, as less people and quiet. I had the body massage which was excellent.
The buffet lunch was average, salads and cold meats. We had the last sitting at 2pm so the food was not as fresh as if you had the first sitting and mostly had ran out.
The dinner was much better, waiter service and I absolutely loved my Orzo Pasta starter with sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, red pepper coulis. It was absolutely delicious. Wish they did it as a main as it was just not enough. For mains I had the braised brisket of beef, which came as a large block, looks weird and it was much too salty. It came with herb crushed baby potatoes which was perfect and delicious, roast shallot, a couple of leaves of kale and red wine jus. I had to ask for more kale since it was very bland, it helped me to eat the very salty beef otherwise, I would not have been able to eat it! For dessert, I had the maple and pecan sponge, tonka bean ice cream. Alas, the small scoop of ice cream was almost liquid by the time it came, and the maple syrup was much too sweet for my taste. So a very hit and miss meal.
The buffet breakfast was very good, with plenty of choices, from black pudding to hash browns, scrambled eggs, the whole works for the hot choices, and Continental for the cold.
All in all a relaxing time spent for a friend's special birthday. Missed the little details though in the rooms, no little bottles of body lotion or shower cap. If you forget to bring, these are really useful, and I had to buy flip flops for the spa, as I forgot my own! But it came with a nice holdall.
May be visit again during week days when it is less busy and go out to eat!
