Kielder Waterside and Lodges — Hotel in Great Britain

We stayed in one of the newer lodges and, while the furnishings and cleanliness were mostly excellent, we did have a number of broken items, foot prints on the wall and a bundle of disconnected cables for the TV.

A board game is provided and more games and DVDs can be hired from reception.

The hot tub offered no privacy whatsoever. The lodge we were in meant you could be watched from the neighbouring lodges and we had a lot of people walking and cycling past. Our lodge was near to one of the access roads so we had a fair amount of traffic. Some of the more central lodges we noticed had screens around, as did one near to where we stayed, but we had no privacy at all, whether we wanted to eat outside or use the hot tub.

This was made worse by neighbouring lodge visitors parking outside our lodge/dining area instead of usu6ng the car parks provided.

I am 6ft+ and really struggled in the bed. I kept hurting my ankles on the bar at the bottom as it was not big enough for me. There is plenty of wardrobe space, drawers and the bathrooms were plenty big enough.

Phone signal is non-existant but you do get a phone in the lodge for dialing out which is a nice touch. There is also WiFi in some cabins. The TV was connected to an internet TV box that provided a small range of channels. Not as many as Freeview, but your basic BBC, ITV, C4, Film4 and some kids channels. Our lodge also had a PS4, that had been disconnected and had a broken, unusable controller. Some games can be borrowed from reception.

Speaking of reception. The shop/booking/reception desk appears woefully understaffed. With long queues to book swimming, activities, buy groceries, etc. The shop is fairly well stocked for general goods, which is good as there isn't many nearby shops. My advice though is to get Tesco to deliver. It is far cheaper and a much bigger range of food options.

Speaking of food, KW was a problem for people with food allergies. There was nothing in the shop other than some cakes that catered for people with food allergies. The menu at the on-site bar/restaurant though appeared good at first glance. However, the menu says they have many gluten free options but they do not use separate fryers or it seems use any effort to prevent cross contamination. So for people avoiding gluten for medical reasons the fish, chips, etc are not gluten free unlike how it states on the menu.

The bar closes for food at 8.30pm and completely at 10pm. This may be due to the sites commitment to reducing light pollution for watching the night skies. If you want to go to the observatory you will likely need to book well in advance of your visit as it is often fully booked.

There are plenty of activities throughout the week, a number of which are free to young children. There are a couple of play areas, mini golf and the pool and gym all being free for guests is excellent. The spa treatments seem reasonably priced. The views are great, the place is very quiet.

There a fair few paid activities that are probably worth it. Book early though as they can get filled up fast and will only be on a couple of times a week. Archery, for example, was popular and well worth £15.

Make sure to bring midge repellent, although some is provided in lodges. Good for bike rides,...

We booked a pitch for use with an awning which needs pegging (they were aware of this when we booked and paid in full to secure our pitch) however had to go around all the free pitches trying to see where we could get pegs in.....its impossible! They never once mentioned that pegging could be an issue which I believe would have been the polite thing to do in view of good customer service. Especially now I know that they do have just a couple of suitable pitches for pegging however had given these away first come first served despite us booking and paying in full as they had asked. Toilets and showers not very clean compared to others I've been to. One toilet even had toilet paper with poo on the floor and poo up the wall, and one of the showers had a used sanitary towel on the floor. The type of people there just have no kind of consideration for anybody else and leave all the facilities in a state. I have never been to another caravan site which is as poorly kept as this. The dishwashing facilities where never clean and to have clean plates you had to clean the sinks first. Also only one washer and one dryer....considering there is about 100 pitches there that is not good at all. We had to either go at stupid o'clock at night or try and beat others to the machines. Plus they are super expensive even though you pay an awful lot just to stay in this horrid place. Not a place you want to go to if you get bitten by midges, absolutely vicious here to the point that they actually hurt when they bite. I wouldn't recommend this campsite in a million years. It would be great as a day visit just to do some activities but I wouldn't go anywhere near it for overnight stays. We were booked for a week but went home early. Also if you do book it bring a hoover otherwise you will find pine needles everywhere and you will get stressed out about the sheer amount of them....they have not tried to maintain the pitches much so the floor of each is carpeted with pine needles and sludgey mud which ruins everything. Good luck to anyone who books it, personally I would look at one of the many better (and cheaper) ones...

This was our second stay at Kielder, returning because we had liked it so much last year. Again we booked an Otterstone Spa lodge, this time being allocated No.4, which was better this time as we had a bigger decked area to the rear, with a view across to the lake.|The welcoming prosecco was again appreciated, and the lodge was pretty much the same as we had experienced the previous May in No.7.||Since our first visit these lodges now have a combined TV and gas-effect heater unit built into the end wall of the living room- overall this is good, but the heater is very noisy when running- the TV needs turning up to be heard over it and you definitely couldn't use it if someone was trying to sleep on the other side of the wall.||A minus point- generally the lodge appeared immaculate, but the wooden top of the bedstead was thick- and I mean, thick- with dust. Likewise, the wall clock in the living room was filthy- this was a great shame to note. Another minus point were the absolutely ridiculous tripod-style bedside lights- great big ungainly things that don't really fit, and prevent you from easily using the actual bedside shelf. Who thought they were a good idea?! BIG fail!||Again the hot tub was serviced daily- we actually saw the chap checking water quality and adding chemicals, which was reassuring. We loved using that, and the view from it! We enjoyed two free sessions in the main swimming pool and also used the games room, but again we just took our own food so did not try out the on-site restaurant. The kitchen again had all the basics, but you need your own big frying pan to do a breakfast! Warning- the hot water 1, comes out VERY slowly and 2, is like MAGMA!||Overall we really enjoyed our stay; we did 3 nights, Friday--Sunday- and would come again, depending on the price. (We do not consider the experience to be worth a full season...