Goodwood Hotel - Chichester - Sept 2012

We stayed at the Goodwood Hotel for the last night of our honeymoon road-trip. The Goodwood Estate is home of Lord March and hosts the Festival of Speed, the Goodwood Revival and Glorious Goodwood. None of these events were on while we were there though!

The staff were very efficient and friendly and we were checked in straight away. There was some refurbishment going on while we were there, but nothing that disturbed us. Our room was beautifully furnished, very classy and comfortable. The sheets were very soft and the bed very comfy.

We ate in the Bar & Grill in the evening which had a good choice of food and cocktails. Our meals were delicious and the service very attentive.

Breakfast the next morning was a bit more of a hassle. The breakfast room was full with guests from a wedding the day before and the room was very noisy. The buffet selection was a big meagre, but hot food was available to order which is what we did. The staff seemed a bit rushed of their feet, but all were helpful and pleasant and the food was tasty.

We had a very comfortable stay at the Goodwood Hotel and would recommend it to anyone.

The Scarlet - Mawgan Porth - Sept 2012

This was the next part of our road-trip honeymoon in Cornwall. The Scarlett is a luxury hotel in Cornwall which has won many awards, and was very expensive but we treated ourselves for our honeymoon.

It was easy enough to find with our sat nav, although the winding Cornish roads were a bit of a nightmare! It is located on a cliff overlooking the bay of Mawgan Porth. The car park didn't seem to have many spaces and you have to block people in and leave your keys with reception.

On arriving, we found there was no reception! We hung around the entrance hall and someone came out to greet us and sat us down and checked us in. We found out that they don't have a reception because they 'want you to feel like you're staying at a friends house' although it is actually quite a big hotel, so if you needed the staff you just had the do the waiting around the hall bit for someone to come out. We got the keys to our room and went to have a look.

The room was very nice and luxurious, modern with designer fittings. There was an ensuite toilet with wet-room shower, and then the bath and sink were part of the main room with a half wall behind the bed. There was a balcony overlooking the courtyard garden and the beach. The sheets and towels were very soft and sumptuous.

We found the staff helpfull and efficient although not very 'warm'. I think after the first class service we experienced at Ragdale Hall, we found it all a bit sterile.

The food in the restaurant for dinner and breakfast was very tasty. We had a three course meal on one of the nights and the food was delicious and fairly priced. Breakfast service was very relaxed and the view of the bay was very calming.

We found nearby Padstow very pretentous and it was this same feeling that we got at The Scarlett. Although it is an eco, ethical hotel, we found the sheer scale of the hotel and the expensive furniture and fittings jarred a bit with this ethos.

Overall we didn't really enjoy The Scarlett or Cornwall, I can't really fault the staff or the hotel, it was just a general feeling we had that meant we didn't enjoy it. It was a big expense for our honeymoon and we'd rather have stayed at Ragdale Hall, but at least we've now tried a posh Mr & Mrs Smith hotel which I've wanted to try for ages!

Ragdale Hall - Melton Mowbray - Sept 2012

Our honeymoon! For the first part of our honeymoon, we returned to the Wyndham Grand Chelsea Harbour hotel in London, reviewed previously, for a few nights in London and fabulous food at Gordon Ramsay's at Claridges and Rhodes W1.

Then it was on to Ragdale Hall spa hotel in Leicestershire. We stayed for 7 nights here which included one treatment each per day and breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ragdale Hall in an idependantly owned health spa which has won many awards. We discovered that most people staying there were returning guests which just goes to show how good it is. They don't seem to advertise much as they must get so much repeat business!

As soon as we arrived, the porters helped us with our luggage and parked our car for us. Check-in was very smooth running with lots of staff on hand for the many guests arriving. We were taken through to the garden room to fill in our health forms for the spa, and we were given our timetable detailing all our spa treatments and lunch and dinner times. We were then given a tour of the ground floor, the staff are all very friendly and welcoming. We were given our room key, and the porters delivered our luggage up for us. We were advised to change straight into our towelling robes and to start relaxing!

We had booked a superior room and we were not dissapointed with the turret room overlooking the pool to the rear. It is a good sized room, with a superking size bed and a beautful modern ensuite bathroom.

We changed into our robes (slippers not provided), and went downstairs to decide what to do. There is the garden room cafe in the centre, with a conservatory overlooking the outdoor pool. There are lots of relaxing lounge areas, including a quiet lounge at the front of the house, where you will find Rags the friendly resident cat! There is the swimming area, with a main pool, an exercise pool where all the aqua classes take place, and a jacuzzi. Then you have the steam area with 6 different steam and sauna rooms to choose from with different temperatures, lighting and fragrance. There is also a candle pool which is like an underground pool, and also the pool that leads outside. There are a fair amount of sunloungers and chairs around these areas, although you do find the usual trouble of people reserving them all day with their towels!

The beauty area is at the other side of the building with, I would guess, near on a hundred treatment rooms! The waiting area has plenty of magazines to choose from, you never have long to wait though as the treatment times are very well devised. There is a seperate nail bar, and also a new Beauty Express room with no appointment needed treatments. The reception staff and all the therapists are really great, friendly and helpful. All the treatments I tried were amazing, especially the Reflexology.

There is also a gym and two fitness class rooms with a very thorough programme of classes. We only tried the gym though as we were on a relaxing honeymoon!

On to the food. As I said, you get a timetable with your mealtimes on which ensures the dining room never gets too busy, we found we had a lot of early dinners scheduled, but staff are happy to change times if you ask. Lunch is a choice of 2 starters served to your table, followed by a buffet lunch and then a choice of puddings. The menu's are labelled with a score of 3 regarding how calorific each option is, 1 being the low calorie option, 3 being the highest. Dinner is all served at your table with a bigger choice of usually 3 starters, 5 mains and 4 desserts. Breakfast we didn't find quite as enjoyable as it is served in your room from 7.45am, so no lay ins! Also there is no choice of a cooked breakfast, there is an extensive menu, see pic attached, and we tried many options, but a nice rack of hot toast would have been marvelous! I can understand why they do it like this as hot food would go cold with so many rooms to deliver to.

We cannot rate the staff highly enough, everyone we encountered was happy, helpful and proffesional. When you check-out at the end of your stay there is an optional service charge which you can make and we were very happy to do that for the exceptional service we recieved. The check-out process is just as smooth running as the check-in, with the porters collecting our luggage for us and loading it into our car. There is the option to stay on in the spa area until later in the day if you so wish, even though check-out is at 11am.

We would recommend Ragdale Hall to anyone. It is the perfect relaxing break in the UK where weather is not a factor as you can sit by the pool and pretend you are by the mediterranean! Every need is catered for so you don't need to lift a finger. You can spend all day in your robes if you wish, even for dinner so you don't even need to do much packing! Just to prove how good it is, we have already returned once and are going back again for our wedding anniversary!

Greenwoods Hotel and Spa - Stock - Sept 2012

Our wedding venue! We stayed overnight after our wedding here and I also stayed the night before with my bridesmaids.

Greenwoods is a lovely old manor house in the village of Stock in Essex, with a spa attached. The staff are all really lovely and helpful and our wedding went very smoothly and was the most wonderful day, lucky with the weather too!

As far as the hotel is concerned, we had the honeymoon suite in the old part of the building which overlooked the gardens at the rear. It is a lovely large room, quite traditional in decor with dark wood furniture and a victorian ensuite bathroom.

Breakfast is in the restaurant downstairs and includes a buffet and the option of a hot breakfast to order. The service in the restaurant does tend to be slow, but the food is lovely and there are plenty of juices and drinks to help yourselves to. On our wedding morning we had breakfast in our room which was much better!

The price you pay to stay here includes the use of the spa, so it is quite good value for money if you do intend to use it and get your money's worth out of the spa! There is a heated indoor pool and jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The treatments are quite expensive although on a par with most spas. The spa area is very nice and relaxing, you get your complementary robes and slippers and use of the changing rooms. All the staff are very good and very friendly.

All in all, we had the most wonderful wedding at Greenwoods and cannot thank the staff enough, especially Amy for making it the day it was!

Center Parcs - Elveden Forest - June 2012

We stayed at Center Parcs, Elveden Forest for a 5-day week in June. We had many family holidays here and at Sherwood forest when I was a teenager and I was most looking forward to the swimming dome. I was quite surprised to find it had barely changed since I was last there almost 20 years ago! The main dissapointment was how noisy it was in there, to be expected when it's full of screaming kids but last time I was there I was one of them so it didn't occur to me that it wouldn't be a relaxing place to sit and read a book! Anyhow, the rapids were as good as I remember them, the best bit, and all the slides etc would make it a fab place to keep kids entertained all day.

We had a 2 bedroom villa not far from the main centre so that was handy and meant we didn't need to hire bikes. The villas have been decorated recently and everything was nice and clean and modern with everything we needed.

There is lots to do at Center Parcs, obviously, and plenty of places to eat. We particularly liked the Foresters Inn because it was a bit further away and therefore a bit quieter. The service was also very good everywhere.

I would recommend it more for families as that's more who it is aimed towards, but it still had plenty to offer adults and you could never get bored with everything they have to offer!

Wyboston Lakes - Bedford - May 2012

We stayed at Wyboston Lakes for a friends wedding nearby, and what a wonderful wedding it was! It is very much a business and golf hotel, actually alongside the A1 and mostly aimed at corporate guests and events. It looks like a motel from the outside, indeed our room was in a seperate building to the main reception.

The room was nicely furnished, and the bathroom was quite modern with a shower over bath and plenty of storage room.

We really liked the sports bar where we had dinner, again very modern in it's decor with big windows over looking the lakes. The menu was typical pub fare and the service was very friendly. Breakfast in the sports bar the next morning was also good, we had a cooked breakfast and service was very quick.

Coombe Abbey - Warwickshire - Jan 2012

This was a Christmas present treat and we were lucky to get away with all the snow we had! Coombe Abbey is a beautiful old abbey still keeping a very medieval feel. Our room had a 4-poster bed, and a wonderful view of the moat around the front. The abbey is well set in acres of parkland with an impressive long drive, so you really feel like you are staying in an old country house.

Our room was very warm with a surprisingly large bathroom, quite old victorian style fittings which makes a nice change from all the modern hotel bathrooms we've been used to! Our room was at the end of corridor in the oldest part of the building, think big staircase, wide corridors and creaky floorboards! But it was very quiet and we hardly saw any other guests even though I believe it was quite full.

We had dinner in the restaurant in the evening. The restaurant is in a conservatory/garden room and it was a bit cold but dinner was lovely and the service was great, very friendly and proffessional. Breakfast in the morning was a choice of a continental buffet and/or a cooked breakfast. The buffet was one of the smallest selections I have encountered, but I prefer a cooked breakfast anyway.

We then took a very pleasent walk around the grounds. This was a Sunday and the park is open to the public and as it was a beautiful blue sky day, there were lots of families and dog walkers around, the locals must really treasure this place as it is so beautiful and well maintained. There are many footpaths you can take through the woods and all around, a wonderful way to while away a few hours on a Sunday.