My partner booked this hotel for my birthday. I was so impressed by the wonderful service and quality of fine food served. The bedroom was decorated very tasteful. We enjoyed the swimming pool however quite small but still enjoyable to relax.
The staff are very attentive and well dressed. Car parking very ample. One thing to mention is the hotel is located on a hill therefore if you have any mobility problems take your car. We cannot praise his hotel enough.More
we went before Easter to see the new refurb, it is stunning, the staff are amazing, every member of staff we saw, acknowledged us, the chef certainly knows his food, amazing
if you go to Windermere go to the Hillwaite you wont be dissapointed
I love your short but very sweet review. It is wonderful to hear that you came to see the new renovations, and were not disappointed. They have certainly added to the overall feel of the property, providing even more spaces to sit, relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery that surrounds us. Thank-you mostly for your recommendation to other readers! Warmest regards and best wishes. All the Hillthwaite Team.
I booked direct with the hotel and got a fabulous deal and paid extra for an £20.00 for an upgrade. The hotel has just had a substantial refurbishment and it looks fabulous. The photos on the website at my time of booking were the old ones and I hope they change them as it is so much better than was shown. What was even nicer, I got a call offering a further free upgrade to a lake view. The room smelt new, huge bed, lovely linen, double ended free standing bath, dressing gowns, slipper, quality bathroom accessories and great view of the mountains. they had even gone to effort of a card wishing my partner "happy birthday" and a complimentary box of delicious truffles!
I was very disappointed not to use the pool facilities as we arrived later than expected due to the road being closed, but they looked very inviting.
Staff, from reception to waiting on, were very attentive without being overbearing and a credit to the Hotel.
The evening meal and breakfast were to a high standard, although the dessert was not a well presented as in the photographs on the site, which was a tiny bit disappointing.
Although it did not affect us, the hotel is situated on a high promontory, and the drive and the overflow car park has very steep access, but if it wasn't high up, you wouldn't have such stunning views from the outside terrace or from the bar and restaurant rooms.
We may not be able to stay again but we will definitely visit for lunch, afternoon tea, evening meal or even just a drink when we are in the area.
Highly recommended and I am fussy but this was right up there with some of the best I've stayed in.
Hello Susan, thank-you for posting your review and for booking direct, by doing so i am really glad to hear you got such a great deal for your birthday celebration. It really is always best to book directly with ourselves - so thanks again for doing that. It is lovely to hear you had an enjoyable stay, although a shame to hear that you had what sounded like a difficult journey. Hopefully next time you will have more time to make use of the hotels leisure pool and sauna. I will ensure to pass on all your many positive comments to the team, and i am sure they will be as happy as i was to read your review. The location of the hotel does provide us with spectacular lake and fell views, so i think you are right in saying that the drive up the hill is worth-it in the end. Many thanks again and kind regards. E.Myers. House Manager.
We had been to The Lakes before but stayed at another country house hotel but were not disappointed with our choice this time. We booked the Fizz and Stay promotion and were given two lake view rooms - what a view!! The spacious rooms were clean and well serviced. Excellent breakfasts and evening meals were served by friendly and efficient staff who made our stay enjoyable. The hotel is perfectly situated within walking distance of both Windemere and Bowness. Will certainly stay again.
Dear Michael M, thank you for taking the time to post your 5 star review of Hillthwaite on TripAdvisor. It is always nice for guests to take the time to share their experiences and it is a real delight to hear that you had such a great time. As i have mentioned in other responses we really are very lucky to have such a great team, combined with a beautiful property and to have this acknowledged by guests makes for a good start to my day. We all very much look forward to welcoming you back, please take advantage of our direct offers and promotions and do come see us again. Kindest Regards. E.Myers. House Manager
After our first enjoyable visit two years ago, we returned with high hopes. In part, these were fulfilled, not least by the improvements to the hotel. A new entrance and reception really do enhance the initial impression. A ‘through’ fire now heats both the lounge and the ‘old’ conservatory, the latter having shed it’s previous old folks home guise. Both are now thoroughly modern, contemporarily furnished and decorated and extremely pleasant rooms to sit and have a drink, chat or just read a book.
We were booked in to an ‘occasion’ room, the ‘Wordsworth’ which is situated in an annexe. This has been recently refurbished in line with the rest of the hotel. The beds are comfortable and the bathroom nicely presented with calming colours, quality tiling, a stand-alone bath and large walk in shower. Add mood lighting and there is even a tv on the wall to watch whilst you enjoy your relaxing bath! This room also has quite a large balcony that gives a lovely view of the lake and in the summer will be a real sun trap. Unfortunately, the bath in the ‘Wordsworth’ room leaked and the hotel offered us a switch to the ‘Coleridge’ suite across the corridor. Again, the same facilities and a really nice room which also had a lounge.
Now for the difficult part of the review and it really does pain me to have write this. Before I say anything else, the staff are lovely and can’t do enough for you. So what are the problems? Undoubtedly when we visited a couple of years ago, the food impressed. During our latest visit it was very disappointing and not helped by the disarray at breakfast times. On our first day, we arrived just after half way through service to find no cereal bowls available and the orange juice almost ‘dry’. Our ‘cooked to order’ breakfast arrived (very quickly) and we sent this back because the bacon, sausage and black pudding were all dried up they had obviously been sitting under a heating lamp for some considerable time) and lukewarm beans. Our second day, we decided to eat a little earlier, the cooked breakfast was better but unfortunately, half way through service, no cereal bowls (again), the orange juice had run out again and there was no fruit salad. Bowls then arrived red hot from the dishwasher which is not satisfactory when eating cold milk and cereal from them. No real problem but the extra coffee we ordered never turned up.
This does however lead me on to comments regarding overall table service. A pet hate of mine is sitting down to a meal and being rushed through this. Main course plate taken with one hand, sweet menu handed with the other. Unfortunately, we did experience this. If service is between set times, then it’s quite unprofessional to be rushing people through to close the restaurant as soon as possible. This happened at both breakfast and dinner and whilst I know the servers work long hours this just doesn’t sit well with the paying guest. I wonder whether this happening in the evening contributes to the lack of apparent organisation at breakfast? Come on guys this is basic organisation, preparation and service.
On our second evening, we decided to order fillet steak. One rare and one medium rare. These arrived as medium to well done and well done. The restaurant was busy so we weren’t asked how our meals were so we did actually eat the steaks. I did save a little to show to our server since I never want to leave a restaurant without letting them know if there is a problem. We were refunded the ‘supplement’ and word came from the kitchen that the chef was ‘very,very sorry’. Unfortunately, it was the ruination of two very nice pieces of meat. Again, this is basic cooking, rare to medium rare can be excused but rare to medium well done is unacceptable. Worthy of mention though is the dessert menu, this is the highlight of the food and absolutely no problem here!
Minor niggles, we were offered a morning paper, this never turned up. A couple of basic items out of stock, no ham for sandwiches on Monday lunchtime, no Bacardi for cocktails on a Wednesday.
Overall impression, loved the refurbishments to the hotel, really does enhance the experience. If this could have been teamed with the quality of the food from our first visit to the hotel the result would have been a very pleasant experience. The current food offering particularly and to a slightly lesser extent the service problems we experienced at breakfast have coloured our opinion of Hillthwaite and regrettably we are unlikely to return.
Dear R55DRG, thank you for taking the time to share your detailed feedback regarding your recent stay at Hillthwaite. I am sorry that the overall experience was tarnished by the issues your had during breakfast, and some cooking issues during dinner. We are always wanting to improve what we offer to all our guests, and despite your comment that you wont be returning i would hope that you will change your mind, allowing the hard working team to improve and take note of your comments.
No feedback goes unnoticed at Hillthwaite and we will do our very best to rectify the problems you experienced. Since your visit we have taken on an exceptional Breakfast Supervisor who has the service running like clock-work, i just wish she had been here during your visit. However, i do feel that this is not the usual service and it could have been a number of one-off problems on that particular couple of days for which i am very sorry. I will certainly be passing on your comments to both the head chef and the restaurant manager and between us we will make changes to ensure a relaxing, not rushed experience is had by all. The friendly team here at Hillthwaite are always happy to go the extra mile, even popping down to the shops to grab a missing newspaper had they known. I hope you choose to return to Hillthwaite and are not put off entirely, we will make sure these issues do not happen again. Kindest Regards. E.Myers, House Manager.
Its not rocket science if you wan't a top of the range first class luxury bedroom you will have to dig deep.
We upgraded to a "Superior Room" at £150 per night which included a three course top class dinner for two people & very good cooked breakfast.
Ok i realise everybody is keen to save money but as we were celebrating our Wedding Anniversary & being together for 25 years sometimes we just say
"why Not"? its only money & you can't take it with you.
It all worked out as you would hope it would.
The room was perfect. The breakfast & evening Dinner was perfect. All the staff were on top form & very pleasant etc. We could not ask for more & yes it was worth paying more to get a better room etc in my book.
Pros: Top quality matrass & bedroom, top quality food & service all set in luxurious & opulent day rooms & grounds.
Cons.
The cheapest bottle of wine was £21.95.
Parking is hard work as the hotel in on a hill & parking is almost an after thought.
We prefer to sleep in a cool room, It is difficult to turn the heating of altogether.
The sauna was set to 60c which wasn't hot enough to raise a swet.
All in all we will definatly come back to this hotel & recommend it to our friends, family
& you.
Thank you Simon for sharing your review. I am very pleased to hear that you decided to celebrate such a special occasion at Hillthwaite, and i wish you a belated but very happy 25th Wedding Anniversary. We always feel that if coming away for a special occasion it is well worth splashing out that little bit extra for one of our Occasion or Signature double rooms. Although with a number of our classic bedrooms having been recently refurbished these too offer a lovely night away and i am very glad to hear that you will be planning to come back to the hotel.
We are now running a variety of wine promotions and will be looking to offer a cheaper alternative house wine following your review. In addition we are planning on building an additional car park (to the current three we already have) to provide further ease of parking on guest arrival. As you can tell we always take feedback on board, and continue to find ways of improving what we offer to all our guests. So please feel free to come back any time and hopefully we will continue to provide you with a comfortable and enjoyable stay. Kindest Regards. E.Myers. House Manager.
