Hellidon Lakes Hotel

We booked a 2 day break with 'Great Little Breaks'. We booked a superior room which included a 25 minute spa treatment, 3 course meal on the first night and breakfast on both days. We were given a room on the first floor but unfortunately both lifts were broken, we were just about to haul our luggage to our room when the manageress and a colleague offered to help us which was very welcoming.. The 'superior' room we were given was very dated with no views, the carpets were threadbare in some places, the furniture was dated, the television was tiny and the beds were old and far too soft for us. The plumbing in the hotel is so old you had to start running a bath about half an hour before any hot water came through and then when it did there wasn't much of it. I had a shower on the first night but the shower head was broken and floppy so it was a bit difficult. We booked a shoulder, neck and head massage for our spa experience which was very nice, we sat in the steam room for a while but some of the other rooms didn't seem to be working, we didn't bother going in the pool. We went down to breakfast on the first morning at 9am (breakfast is served until 9.30am) but there were items missing from the buffet, there was no fruit in the bowl so we asked the young breakfast waitress if it could be refilled, she took the bowl away but it was taking so long we decided to start with the cooked breakfast first, I ordered a portion of scrambled egg to go with my breakfast as there were only 2 fried eggs left on the buffet, as I was waiting for this my hubby went first to the servery , unfortunately he had the last bacon and tomato. I again asked the waitress if the bacon and tomatoes could be replenished, in the meantime my scrambled egg arrived, I waited 20 minutes for the food to be replenished (still no tomatoes) and when it eventually arrived my scrambled egg was cold. The young waitress was very sullen, hardly spoke and didn't apologise for the wait The evening set meal was delicious and the waiting staff were lovely, a big shout out for Karen and Izzy, who were great, we had planned to eat out at a local pub the following night but Karen persuaded us to eat there, which we did, and enjoyed another delicious meal. When we went down to breakfast on our second day we were pleased that an older lady was on duty, she was very friendly and bubbly, the food didn't run out on the buffet and she couldn't do enough for us. The views from the restaurant over the rolling countryside were lovely but unfortunately not from our room. On check out we discussed the shortcomings of the hotel with the receptionist and she told us they had refurbised some parts but were waiting for the go ahead to refurbish the rest. We wouldn't stay here again at present.

We upgraded to a superior double room which gave us a lovely view over the golf course and a very large, comfortable bed. The food was lovely and all the staff were friendly and helpful. We didn't make use of the golf course but enjoyed an hour or so in the thermal suite. The hotel is in the middle of lovely countryside so you have to travel if you want shops or entertainment. We hope to return again for another visit.

Great hotel with lots of good things going on eg spa, golf, lovely restaurant etc. Our only criticism is the signage around the hotel and spa is severely lacking - we had no idea which type of steam room we were in or even how to get to the spa. From certain directions there is NO signage at all to the spa. Also there was no information that n the room at all.

We enjoyed the spa and dinner was great, lovely fod and the staff were very friendly and attentive in particular Vicky and Jax who were very helpful and friendly. All in all a lovely experience. Thank you

Stayed on a TravelZoo offer, our rooms were very clean, with an extremely comfortable bed, we had views over the golf course which was lovely. All of the staff were very helpful, polite and professional. We very much enjoyed our time in the Spa and felt that the TravelZoo voucher offered good value for money. We would have liked the option to upgrade the set meal choices under the terms of the voucher, however understand why this isn't possible.