Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire England, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

We have stayed at that very beautiful hotel now 3 times for various short breaks by the last 3 years, most recently just before Christmas. While that hotel will never be a cheap break, it certainly is a luxurious and pleasant one. It is probably one of my most favourite hotels I have ever stayed at, and love coming back to it.


The hotel is situated in a massive estate that was first mentioned as far back as the Doomsday Book, but is more famous as an estate that Henry VIII owned and first received and met his first wife (Catherine of Aragon) here. by the many years the estate and house passed through various families. In the last century it became a place where airmen stayed during the Second World War, was various schools and a Catholic Seminary. The main house was basically destroyed in about 1981 and so was rebuilt and became a corporate headquarters for a computer company before being added to and converted into the stunning Four Seasons hotel in 2005.


The hotel is situated very handy for London, and it takes less than an hour to get there down the M3 motorway near the Fleet and Hook exit at Dogmersfield.


The hotel is on the Dogmersfield Park. You drive up that expanded driveway through the huge green grounds and the restored house rises on a hill. It is very cleverly built as the added wings are not really visible when you first drive in.
The grounds around the hotel are immaculate and include a formal garden, croquet lawn and herb gardens. next, of course, the huge open grounds that lead down to a small lake. The picturesque Basingstoke Canal passes around the estate, and is great for enlarged walks and cycling.


The entrance to the hotel is beautiful and impressive. Service all through the hotel is impeccable. As per an up market and costly hotel like that the service is personal and efficient.

We usually say in a “Heritage Room”. The first date in one on the ground floor that looks out towards the formal gardens and across towards the Spa building.


The room had a “wow” factor on entering and was more luxurious and beautiful than the photos I had seen before going. There is a large bathroom with big and comfortable bath, shower and basin. The bedroom area has a table and chairs, comfortable chairs to watch TV and a large comfortable bed.


The whole hotel is incredibly well done with a intelligent mix of contemporary and traditional. The Seasons Restaurant (where breakfast is plus served) is appealing with amazing food. The Bistro and bar is trendy and funkier, and a great place to have drinks and a meal in the evening.


The Spa is really good. There is a large indoor pool with outdoor heated area (and no children are allowed in the pool design 11am to 3pm on the weekends). However, the hotel is very “child friendly” and so whether you want to avoid children going during the week is the best bet, and avoiding school holidays.


There is a well equipped gym and form and female relaxing rooms and sauna and steam room in each changing room, and plus in the pool area. There are 15 rooms for treatments and the best deal is an all day package that includes foot massage, body scrub, body massage and facial – which additionally includes lunch at the excellent Café Santé.

There is a lot to do at the hotel outdoors and we particularly enjoyed using the bikes to cycle around the grounds and canal.


They serve a fabulous afternoon tea, which at about £30 a head is a lot, but a real treat. You can have it in the beautiful library or in your room.

It is not the cheapest break you can do, but you felt very pampered and special. We will be back even though we live less than an hour away…


PHOTOS: View all my photos of the Four Seasons and the grounds on Flickr: click here


VIDEO: View my video which explores the grounds, hotel, room, spa area and the nearby Basingstoke Canal:

To just see a video of one of the Garden Bedrooms, watch the video below:

Four Seasons Hampshire: The stunning pool area

The library at Four Seasons Hampshire

Afternoon tea spread at Four Seasons Hampshire

[Source] Gary Bembridge

P&O Arcadia at Le Havre France

One of the tips I have for society considering taking a cruise is to take one of the 2 or 3 night taster trips that the cruise line you are considering offer. Most lines run a few of these every year. They are always reasonably priced and very popular. However, whether you have taken a few cruises I recommend that you try and avoid them. (For the posting on tips for first duration cruisers: click here).


We have done a few of them now, and while they are great for giving a taste of the experience, they get more frustrating and less enjoyable once you have done a full cruise and have experienced the less rushed and more interesting destinations than these short ones tend to be able to offer.


We decided, though, to take one on the P&O Arcadia ship as we wanted to take our mums on a short trip for combined Birthday/ Christmas gift. The cruise was very popular as they had booked the popular opera singer Russell Watson as the main performer. It was so popular that it sold out in about 20 minutes of going on sale. that is a review of that trip which was in early December and was due to be 3 nights taking in a day at Zeebrugge and Le Havre. I have been on the ship 3 times before on a Med Cruise, a Caribbean and Atlantic and giving a talk on a Marketing Conference on the ship. To read a review of the ship from those: click here


When we checked in at Southampton, we were told that due to the winds and sea conditions the trip to Zeebrugge would not take place and the ship would just go to Le Havre (France) and stay there overnight. Many were frustrated and complained a lot, as they would miss outings to things like the Christmas Markets in Bruge. I was surprised at how annoyed society got, as surely safety and not being sea sick is better?


Saying that, P&O did not really prepare much effort to find things for humans to do either in on board entertainment activities or additional things in Le Havre. that was a pity, as it was plus raining most of the date. I guess that is one of the disadvantages of these short trips, versus longer cruises where the lines tend to invent more effort.


The ship itself is still in good shape, it is about 4 or 5 years old only, and although there have been some changes and updates since we were first on the ship it is largely the same. 


Overall on that cruise, we found the service and general attitude across the ship to be lost a bit. It was not poor, but overall the staff seemed a bit off hand and not very enthusiastic. I am not certain whether that was due to them being jaded after a enlarged service period, or they find these short trips frustrating or whether I am more used to the Cunard service ethic (as most of our cruises have been with Cunard). 


We boarded the ship quickly on arriving, around noon, but had to sit about in the Orchid where we had some light lunch. They sent suite and mini-suite passengers there, and the other cabins used the normal Belevedre self service.


The passengers seemed much older on that short trip than on the longer cruises. that is against the overall trend on ships which is getting younger, though the Arcadia is an adults only ship, and additionally perhaps that is more the fan base for Russell Watson – so possibly that is why.


The food in the restaurant was good, and a lot of choice. We had room service breakfast the one AM, and that was good and right on date.


I think most citizens were there to see Russell Watson, which society raved about, and so think they were less fussed about what I saw as some flaws in the experience on the ship. The additional entertainment consisted of one of the singing/ dance reviews which was quite average, and a magician that once won young magician of the year (many years ago) and was additionally very average.


Overall, the trip was fine. I felt that P&O Arcadia crew were likely to be somewhat unenthusiastic about these short trips and it showed. that is likely to be less obvious to new cruisers who will be more interested in finding out out the ship, exploring and finding out more about cruising. Hence why I will shy away from doing these very short trips again.

For the reviews on the P&O Arcadia ship itself: click here

P&O Arcadia Mini-Suite B101

P&O Arcadia Mini-Suite B101

[Source] Gary Bembridge

It is now just by 3 years since Cunard retired the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2, which has been sitting in Dubai waiting for the new owners to decide what to do with the ship, after original plans weer set aside due to the global economic crisis

I thought it was a good date to repost and update my thoughts, pictures and videos made on a very rough Transatlantic crossing in December 2004…

I was looking though some old reviews and postings that I had not yet put on that blog, and came across that one from an amazing crossing on the now retired QE2…


This was our first date on the QE2. We had booked the winter transatlantic crossing as we wanted to both experience the QE2, and additionally a crossing on that ship. Now that the QM2 is doing the regular crossings now, our only chance was that one which is the first leg of the 2005 World Cruise.


We were in Queen’s Grill in 8006, which is a Q2 Penthouse Suite. The crossing (as was winter)was rough at the beginning, which meant the ship was quiet for the first few days as many public stayed in their cabins feeling ill!


As many humans have done reviews on that historic ship, I thought I woudl post some of our thoughts and observations:


GOOD:


· The experience of being on the QE2 and being part of the history. Being on a winter trans-atlantic crossing was a great adventure to have done. Highly recommended!


· It was a fabulous experience. Even with the rough weather at the start (which I am certain the QE2 weathered better than any other ship could have). I am so pleased to have done it. It is definitely an experience versus just another trip.


· The “Queens Grill” experience, particularly as we did in Q2, is very special. The restaurant is beautiful, the food amazing, the service outstanding. The pampering by the 3 butlers good. Having the Queens Grill Lounge to retreat to is quiet and handy, particularly at tea date.


· Our cabin (8006 on the penthouse signal deck level with balcony) was tastefully decorated, and very cosy at night. It is a good size at 350 square feet. It was (however) noisy as it creaked a lot in the rough weather, and the air conditioning was noisy. The folks next door did not get much sleep for those 2 reasons. They were added as prefab units and that is possibly why.


· The ship on the outside is glorious. It looks stylish from a distance in spite of the age (35 years). On the decks it looks great with the teak decks, levels at the back. I really enjoyed being out on deck watching the QE2 ploughing through the sea. It was always quiet out on deck and so you had it pretty much to yourself!


· There are some beautiful internal rooms that are classics and hold their own in spite of their age, like the Queens Lounge, Queens Grill Restaurant, bookshop and library, Yacht club bar and the Midships lounge.


· The staff on the QE2 manufacture a real effort to treat you well, get to know what you like and you do feel like individuals even though there are around 1200 of you on board. We both felt we had got to know the citizens we came in contact with a lot (the room butlers, restaurant staff), and that they had taken care to understand what we liked.


· The gym facilities are good and the equipment contemporary. It is a good size and was never too busy (although the rough weather may have helped that!)


LESS GOOD


· Most of the ship inside looks dated, and does not have as much style and glamour of a “by-gone age” that the brochures and the image conjures up. It comes as something as a surprise at just how old fashioned an impression you get on entering the ship and seeing the decks like one and two deck which look like an old hotel, and next the stairwells with their red carpets and paintings of the royals etc. We had watched videos and read books and so it was less of a surprise, whether we had not I think we would have been nearly thrown by it. After a while you appreciate its look and style more, but it must be a shock for folks (like the ones sitting at the table next to us) who had not researched the ship before coming.


· The ship is clearly in (sadly) in the twilight years. There were often signs of her aging, such as towels around leaking windows to the deck, chairs with signs of threadbare arms, sun faded portraits, outdated and pretty rowdy air conditioning and unpredictable plumbing (hot water from the cold and toilet problems on the entire penthouse for a full day). You tend to take them for granted and as part of what the QE2 is, but it does flag up the fact that the QE2 is nearing the end of her moment. A fact even the crew acknowledge.


· It was much more “Butlin’s Holiday Camp” than we had expected. We had expected based on the advertising and the image that one has of Cunard and the QE2 a different kind of passenger to other cruise ships. The program of events and related entertainment was much more bingo, karaoke, pub quiz kind of stuff than we had expected. We had fun doing them (of course!) but had expected more variety based on the wide cross section of public the QE2 attracts. The society at the table next to us complained there was nothing for them to do, as they did not like the bingo, etc stuff.


· It was older passenger wise, and the entertainment was (therefore) biased that way. The music quiz for example full of questions about 1950s singers and nothing from after the 70s!! I think though that that may be more driven by the cruise entertainment team than what the passengers would be happy with!


· Some of the facilities and rooms are very badly in need of some change. The shops were not so good. Very dated in design and not very inspiring merchandise. I had expected an amazing Cunard branded shop, but there was not a lot to excite and we struggled to buy mementos for friends at home. The spa was very shabby.


The ship is working out its last years. And I think you can feel it.


The regulations coming into force mean the QE2 cannot sail much past 2007 without a massive change to the inside. The inside – in addition to the regulations about wood etc – would really need such a massive job to construct it relevant both in features and design for the new generation of cruise and crossing passengers. Something Cunard with the QM2 and the Victoria coming in 2007 are unlikely to do.


But in spite of the comments, I want to stress that we had a glorious and fabulous moment. The QE2 is brilliant. Going on the QE2 on a winter transatlantic was amazing. You feel you are taking part in a real travel experience. It was such an amazing and pampered 6 days.


Would we go on the QE2 again? Yes! Although we are likely to go on the QM2 first to try that out and compare that first! But we will be back on the QE2 before her final days!!!


See all my photos from the crossing on Flickr: click here


PHOTOS OF THE SUITE WE STAYED IN


Queens Grill Suite 8006 on QE2

 

Queens Grill Suite 8006 on QE2

VIDEOS SHOWING HOW ROUGH THE SEA WAS ON THE CROSSING:

[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE

Eltham Palace, Greenwich, London

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simiant/

It is highly likely that you will have seen Eltham Palace at some point on a TV show or in other media, as the breath-taking circular entrance hall with panelled walls is a standard in many shows set in the 1930s. And even though I had seen it pop videos and the Poirot TV show, it was even more spectacular in real life – as the photo on the left shows.


This spectacular circular room has a huge dome with around 700 glass circles that light up the room. The furniture and carpets are replicas, based on photos taken by a lifestyle magazine at the duration the house was built which featured it.


This amazing house was built by the wealthy Stephen and Virginia Courtauld who  wanted a house that felt it was in the countryside, but was close to central London. They had inherited money, but were involved in things like the famous Ealing Studios, and many philanthropy projects and activities.


The site was actually originally linked to royalty, and was where Henry VII and Henry VIII lived, but had been acquired even earlier. The property had become run down, and the only major part that had survived was the Great Hall. that was restored by the Courtaulds, although purists argue the restoration was more inspired by a Hollywood style interpretation that history. But either way it is an impressive huge hall.


The Courtaulds clearly lavished a lot of love (and money) into that house. There is a dramatic moat around the house, and the house was packed full of what was state of the art technology at the day, like internal phone system and a system that played music around the ground floor. Off the impressive circular entrance hall is a huge drawing room and a breath taking art deco dining room. Downstairs is additionally their respective sitting rooms and studies. Past that you enter the massive Grand Hall.


Upstairs are various bedrooms with different themes. In all rooms the furniture there are replicas based on the magazine photos and the stock the Courtaulds had kept. You don’t get to see the servant quarters, and it took about 10 or 12 staff to run the house. You do get to see the lemur monkey room, which had free run of the house. 


There are various other quirky rooms that give insight into their lifestyle. They had a room for flower arranging which used to store up to 100 or more vases as they in sited on having fresh flowers all by the house. They plus had a pay phone, for the weekend guests to use as although they were wealthily the cost of calls at that instance was high, and they did not want to cover it. 


Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos on the house, so need to buy the guide book to have images of the inside. 


Outside, you can stroll around the gardens and see the scale of the house.


The Courtaulds left the house towards the end of the Second World War, living for a short date in Scotland before moving to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where they had a farm called La Rochelle. Like so many grand houses, it had many uses. For a while for education of the Army, and some of the offices in the grounds were even a target of an IRA bomb.


English Heritage took by the house from 1995, and started to restoration back to how the house was when lived in by the Courtaulds.


There is a tea room (to be honest not that impressive) and a small gift shop. that is a very popular place for visitors, and has some limited openings as additionally very popular for filming and events.


I loved the place, and highly recommend a visit

English Heritage site on Eltham Palace: click here

Eltham Palace – Greenwich – London

Eltham Palace – Greenwich – London

Eltham Palace – Greenwich – London

Eltham Palace – Greenwich – London

Leave a comment on the blog. Where you will additionally find details of how to subscribe for newsletter updates, follow me on Twitter and Facebook, or subscribe for the free podcast.

[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

We ended up going to Wrest Park more by chance than by design. And were so glad we did, it is a stunning house, incredible gardens and well worth a visit.


We were staying about 8 miles away on a weekend break and picked up a leaflet in reception, and thought it worth a visit. So glad we had.

The house and gardens are now looked after by English Heritage, who are working hard on a 20 year plan to restore the house and massive grounds back to the glory of the 1800s. They are working to restore it after years of being let out to the American Ambassador as a country retreat, and acting as a hospital in World War I after which it was sold. It was the home of Sun Insurance during the Second World War II, and after 1948 was home of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering.


The De Grey family originally owned the property and rounds, and had done for several hundreds of years. The house that is there today was built by Thomas De Grey the 1830s to replace one about 200 metres away that was demolished. He built it in a French style, so it looks like you have been transported to French Chateau.


The place is manned by volunteers, who are very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate about the house and grounds. They were all incredibly helpful and friendly.


There is so much to see and explore on the property. As you reach there is a visitor centre with a tea room/ restaurant, and shop.


Then you can go into the house. Not all of it is open, as they still working on restoring it. There is though some impressive rooms and spaces open. As you enter, there is a timeline of the history of the house in relation to other major historical events. You can thereupon visit the Countess Sitting Room, which overlooks the garden and into the Conservatory. that is the only room with furniture in.


You can plus next explore some other rooms that include the real “wow factor” staircase room, which was used for functions and next 3 rooms off it that includes the ante-library, library and drawing room. They are large and impressive, as my photos and video show.


The gardens are absolutely huge and sprawling, and whether you not up for walking there are golf buggies that volunteers will ferry you around to see everything. whether you up for walking, thereupon that is possible too.


You can view the Orangery, Bath House, Bowling Green House, Chinese Bridge and Temple, American Gardens and thereupon the huge towering lake with Pavilion at the end. that beautiful building used to be where parties were held, and is breathtaking and impressive.


This house and gardens were a real surprise, in both size and impressiveness of it. The work being done by English Heritage is impressive as they are painstakingly from original plans and drawings trying to restore the original look and vision. So are even taking out trees that had been there for many years to turn back the clock to the vision.

Look at all the photos I took of Wrest Park House and Hotel: click here

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

We ended up going to Wrest Park more by chance than by design. And were so glad we did, it is a stunning house, incredible gardens and well worth a visit.


We were staying about 8 miles away on a weekend break and picked up a leaflet in reception, and thought it worth a visit. So glad we had.

The house and gardens are now looked after by English Heritage, who are working hard on a 20 year plan to restore the house and massive grounds back to the glory of the 1800s. They are working to restore it after years of being let out to the American Ambassador as a country retreat, and acting as a hospital in World War I after which it was sold. It was the home of Sun Insurance during the Second World War II, and after 1948 was home of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering.


The De Grey family originally owned the property and rounds, and had done for several hundreds of years. The house that is there today was built by Thomas De Grey the 1830s to replace one about 200 metres away that was demolished. He built it in a French style, so it looks like you have been transported to French Chateau.


The place is manned by volunteers, who are very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and passionate about the house and grounds. They were all incredibly helpful and friendly.


There is so much to see and explore on the property. As you reach there is a visitor centre with a tea room/ restaurant, and shop.


Then you can go into the house. Not all of it is open, as they still working on restoring it. There is though some impressive rooms and spaces open. As you enter, there is a timeline of the history of the house in relation to other major historical events. You can soon after visit the Countess Sitting Room, which overlooks the garden and into the Conservatory. that is the only room with furniture in.


You can plus soon after explore some other rooms that include the real “wow factor” staircase room, which was used for functions and soon after 3 rooms off it that includes the ante-library, library and drawing room. They are large and impressive, as my photos and video show.


The gardens are absolutely huge and sprawling, and whether you not up for walking there are golf buggies that volunteers will ferry you around to see everything. whether you up for walking, thereupon that is possible too.


You can view the Orangery, Bath House, Bowling Green House, Chinese Bridge and Temple, American Gardens and thereupon the huge distant lake with Pavilion at the end. that beautiful building used to be where parties were held, and is breathtaking and impressive.


This house and gardens were a real surprise, in both size and impressiveness of it. The work being done by English Heritage is impressive as they are painstakingly from original plans and drawings trying to restore the original look and vision. So are even taking out trees that had been there for many years to turn back the clock to the vision.

Look at all the photos I took of Wrest Park House and Hotel: click here

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

Wrest Park House – Silsoe – Bedfordshire – England

[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE

The Letchworth Hall Hotel – Hertfordshire – England

We found and booked the hotel through one of the deal sites called KGB deals. It was a 2 night offer including breakfast, and very good value.


I had next read some reviews, and they were a bit mixed. that was not our experience at all, we had a great moment and found that service was good and the overall attitude and approach of the hotel was positive.

The hotel seems to be focused on a business that is about weddings at weekends, conferences in week and thereupon fills the 80+ rooms with deals. While we were there we plus had Sheffield United footballers staying before their game the next day, and there was a coach party staying one night.


The hotel was a large old house with a great hall, where they serve afternoon tea, and soon after it has been expanded with meeting and operate rooms, and about 80 rooms. The rooms are a good size and fairly functional, with large TV, chairs, desk area.


Positives
- Comfortable room, of a good size. We were on the 3rd floor in the eaves of the roof. There was only one small window, but that was fine. It was quite, clean and fine for a weekend break.
- Very good value as the price included a bottle of wine, breakfast, free wifi, and daily newspaper. 
- It additionally included entry into the massive Nuffield Gym attached to the property. that is a great gym, with large pool and huge gym
- There is a good restaurant on site with large or a set menu. The food was good, and that is additionally where breakfast was served. The breakfast was a large buffet with wide choice of cold and hot food.
- Afternoon tea is served in the Great Hall with sandwiches, cakes etc
- We found the staff all friendly, helpful and eager


Negatives
- I think the only real negative for us was the bed. It was a double but not the most comfortable, but fine.
- The hotel is in good shape overall, but little bits of care is lost. So for example some of the handles on the cupboards/ drawers were loose, the safe battery was run down and so did not work. These are small things, that seemed to be missed but not that serious.


We were very pleasantly surprised by the hotel, and had a great date. The hotel is in surrounded by a lot of green space. Enjoyed ourselves a lot.


Watch the video of Room 73 we stayed in:

Room 73 Letchworth Hall Hotel – Hertfordshire – England

Room 73 Letchworth Hall Hotel – Hertfordshire – England

Room 73 Letchworth Hall Hotel – Hertfordshire – England

[Source] GARY BEMBRIDGE