The Credentials:
Bowood Hotel & Spa, opened in 2009, has 43 rooms nestled within the 2,000-acre Bowood House Estate. A mile or so up the road is Bowood House itself, a gem of a building sitting among beautifully laid out Capability Brown gardens. The house is full of treasures (mostly works of art) collected from all over the world by the Lansdowne family, who have lived at Bowood for more than 250 years.
Dine:
The food is very, very good. And that opening sentence is in no way linked to us having been loosened up by expertly concocted cocktails before being escorted to our table. Service is exemplary; attentive and friendly without being fawning. A high-ceilinged room felt a little cheerless but it was hard to build atmosphere with only two couples in the room. The lack of bodies on a Friday night was puzzling, given the quality on offer. However, the thing that really matters, the grub, is top notch. Gamey pigeon was nicely offset by a white bean and tomato salad dressed with cinnamon and the bubble and squeak ‘cake’ (something like a croquette) was a thoughtful accompaniment to the scallops. Guinea fowl worked well with a sherry velouté too. The wine list is also very decent, with several tasty bottles at prices that won’t make your eyes water.
Sleep:
You know that slight feeling of excitement you get when you put the card in the door of your hotel room and you open the door and feel pretty chuffed at what you got? We didn’t get that. It all just felt a bit wrong in the way it had been put together. The window was small and consequently the squeeze of light on the taupe-coloured walls made the room feel drab. Lamps helped but with everything beige and sand-coloured, what it really needed were some colourful furnishings. The flat screen was on the mean side size-wise too and I’m not even that bothered about a telly in the bedroom. It was just on such a vast expanse of wall that it looked odd not to have something bigger. What was this category again? Oh yeah, sleep. The bed was the best thing here – very big and extremely comfortable.
Who Goes There?
Golfers in the main, as there is a great-looking championship course that surrounds the hotel. And maybe people that want to take their time over Bowood House, which is certainly worth taking your time over. It’s a half-hour walk from the hotel. Also people that just want to get away from the world. The spa is appropriately relaxing and you’re on a 2000-acre estate so there’s no shops or pubs around.
Out & About:
Avebury stone circle is close, not as famous as Stonehenge but better preserved and just as mysterious. There’s also Lacock 11 miles up the road, the kind of classically picturesque English village that Americans go nuts over and the setting for all sorts of televisual and cinematic delights, most notably Harry Potter. Beautiful Bath is only 20 miles away.
The Best Thing:
Apart from the food, the service at the hotel, whether it was the lovely chaps that looked after us over dinner, the smiling lady that came to turn down our room or the bursting with vitality young ‘uns at the spa, was second to none. The massage I had in the spa was pretty dreamy too.
The Worst Thing:
The look of the place from the outside. Bowood House is amazingly beautiful so whose idea was it to employ an architect who had obviously never got over the options he had as a child when playing with lego? The resulting beige, blocky building with sharp angles badly needs a gardener with a knack for encouraging colourful wall-climbing plants to cover it up a bit. Not being so tight with the window budget would have helped no end too.
The Details:
£149 for a double room per night at Bowood Hotel with bed and breakfast included, subject to availability. This includes use of spa facilities and entrance to Bowood House and Gardens during the open season (beginning of April to end of October).
For details of a selection of special breaks available at Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort visit www.bowood-hotel.co.uk/special_breaks
For further information and reservations contact 01249 822228; www.bowood.org
