Another Place, The Lake — Hotel in Great Britain

Room|We were in a “Better Room” as part of a bed, breakfast and dinner package. Our room was situated in the Georgian half of the hotel. The room was well appointed, maintained its character, and had a great view of the lake. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, water and tea cakes were all provided in the room. Unfortunately, our room did not have air con and did get very warm. For the price of the stay, this was particularly disappointing. I would highly recommend checking if your room comes with air conditioning if this is of concern to you as it was rather uncomfortable! Maybe opt for the Contemporary wing if you are worried about this.||Food|There was a good selection of breakfast food. Hot food included a typical full English spread: bacon, sausage, eggs, beans, mushrooms etc. (but no hashbrowns!). There were also fruit, pastries, cereal and a waffle making machine available. Whilst the food was good quality, what was meant to be the hot food was sadly stone cold. ||Dinner at the Rampsbeck was very mixed. We had a great meal on our first night. The food was delicious (particularly the seared turbot and the lamb risotto). The food was good quality and beautifully presented. The menu is on the smaller side but the options all sounded appetising so it was easy to choose something different each night. ||Unfortunately our dinner experience on our second night was less positive. The food was decent, with exception of the smoked haddock rarebit starter which was congealed and very disappointing. The service however was extremely poor. Our drinks arrived after our starters, we weren’t given bread like the other tables, we were given side plates to eat our steak meal from, each course took a very long time to arrive (our cheese plate took over half an hour to come), and the staff were extremely difficult to track down. |There definitely needs to be some work done to improve the dinner experience - we left feeling frustrated and as if it wasn’t very good value for money. ||Facilities|Another Place has a great pool with a lovely outlook onto the lake and surrounding hills. It was however often crowded with young children so it wasn’t always a very peaceful experience (more on this later). Adult-only swim times are early mornings or late evenings which means it is like this for the majority of the day.||We both had a massage at the spa. The full body massage was divine! I would highly recommend booking yourself in for a treatment as this was a highlight of our stay.||There are a multitude of water activities available here. We hired a tandem kayak at £15pp for an hour. This was a lot of fun and we thought it was well worth the price. Wetsuits are also free to hire so you can dip in the lake at ease. ||Location|The location is perfect if you’re after views of the lake, access to walks and a remote setting. There is a pub in walking distance but we didn’t feel the need to venture here as there was a bar in the hotel. You also aren’t far from the towns of Keswick or Penrith so it is easy to pay a visit.||General |Another Place is well appointed, has good facilities and boasts spectacular views over Ullswater Lake. ||We had a nice stay here at Another Place. Upon arriving we wondered how this could possibly be a 3 star and not a 4 star hotel, but after staying we do believe that it fits more in the 3 star bracket. ||The atmosphere and service does not match the luxury of the surroundings, which led to the hotel feeling disjointed. We felt that Another Place was trying to appeal to too many demographics (families with children, couples, those after a peaceful escape etc.) and felt it would be better if there was a clearer distinction in who this hotel was targeted at. As a duo without children, it didn’t work for us as a relaxing escape to the lakes. For a family, it might be...

When reviewing stays, I always think about value for money. You can’t expect a lot unless you’re paying a lot. Now this stay was certainly a lot of money - we stayed in Willow Cottage (bed and breakfast) and it worked out to be £535 per night off peak (family of 4 with 2 kids ages 6 and 1) There were a lot of wonderful things about this hotel but I also felt it lacked going the extra mile - again, taking into account the cost.

Let’s start with the pros! The cottage, oh my goodness, the interior design is beautiful, I’m now planning on decorating my entire house like this. Very spacious, much larger than I thought it would be and very comfortable beds! The pre stay communication was excellent from the team, managed to organise for childcare and kayaking with no issues. The kids club was fabulous, such friendly staff and my kids thoroughly enjoyed their time there. No complaints. Breakfast selection was great, loved the waffles. The poached eggs always perfectly cooked. We also ate in the Rampsbeck and Living Room restaurants for dinner almost every night (probably would’ve made sense to buy the dinner package too as it wasn’t cheap). The food was a very high standard and very enjoyable. There were wellies we could borrow for walks with very easy to follow walking maps. The scenery was just wonderful - most definitely got my dose of fresh air. The stay itself was really nice… but value for money, I wouldn’t return. Here are things that just didn’t do it for me…

The borrowed wellies had holes in so my feet soon became soaked on my walk The floor of the Rampsbeck during breakfast still had food from the night before on it. (A large amount of grated cheese and chips - not something easily missed) I had to ask at reception multiple times if there were any update about the kayaking taking place that morning due to rain and winds. Was never offered to be contacted as soon as they had information, I was expected to just come back every 10min (again, when paying this much, I expect staff to go the extra mile) The shampoos and conditions provided I believe to be sub par BUT very aware that this may be a ‘me’ thing only Curtains in accommodation had come off their hooks and were draping down. For 2 days it was left like this with house keeping not fixing/noticing. I ended up fixing it myself The hallway light was blown Large glass shards all over the pebbled and path There is a kitchenette but no plates, cutlery etc… so essentially a coffee station with a large fridge The family changing rooms were soaking wet everywhere - quite stressful to try and get changed in. Very small too. The free coffee in the library - wonderful idea but no clean cups - just dirty ones left around - had to go get my own clean cup from the bar It was my husband’s birthday and upon booking the restaurant that evening I had requested a candle in the dessert if possible - nothing.

These are all relatively minor things and the stay was lovely, and the staff were friendly, the view was wonderful. It was all very pleasant, just not the bill at the end. It just didn’t feel that ‘special’. I’m happy to pay for high quality, high standard experiences but this time, I left feeling ripped off. A good 4/5...

This is in a great location in terms of being near the Ullswater lake with mesmerizing lake and mountains/hill view. The room was very beautiful and clean, and we loved the view from the balcony, although we did want the family shepherd’s hut but it wasn’t available at the time of booking. Nevertheless we loved the accommodation, it was big to fit 4 people. It was also a lovely and warm feeling to have the added touches and treats in the room as welcomed.

The staff were very helpful and friendly, a lovely gentleman helped us and took our luggage to our room.

The place itself is absolutely beautiful, relaxing and calm, very aesthetic with amazing lake views and grass area. You can have a swim in the lake, with natural beauty surrounding. There is a sheep shed with swim suits available for free and changing facilities with showers. They also have a good range of water sports available

There are few things that need improvement Although the room was nice, It never had mixer taps in the basin, needs updating. one of adult twin bed had mattress topper and the other never had a mattress topper so my daughter never got a comfortable night sleep due to the terrible uncomfortable cheap mattress.

The breakfast wasn’t great either, it was a buffet, not a lot of options available. We had the traditional vegetarian breakfast which also wasn’t warm. The waffle was the only thing we enjoyed a little, could do with more warmer options. The service in the breakfast room wasn’t great either. The variety and options of food is not good in the restaurants, hence we decided to eat out for lunch and dinner, which was also inconvenient as we didn’t have a car. We did try the pizza in the glass house, which tasted nice and fresh and wasn’t bad in terms of price or quality.

The swimming pool and spa is too exposed and no privacy as it’s glass all around. I get it the view from the pool is fantastic but there has to be another way around this to balance it out. The timetable is absolutely ridiculous, that needs to be looked into. Women’s only pool or women’s only time slot would greatly facilitate and meet the needs of those that wanted this and highly benefit the hotel . The sheep shed only has one shower.

This place would definitely benefit from a taxi service and guide tour as the bus and taxi service in penrith is terrible, so facilitating this kind of service would definitely give a better experience.

Although we visited off peak, it was expensive. The package was overpriced taking into consideration all the facilities, the food, and the cheap mattresses.

We found the food and stay was much better in another hotel, where we stayed after, at almost half the price,...