A wonderful experience!

Everything was first class! Polite, friendly staff, inspired menus with wonderfully prepared food and beautifully appointed rooms. This magnificent hotel was set in beautiful countryside with lots of different signposted walks.

Mr

My main disapoitment was the restaurants, we booked both nights to eat in the restaurants but were disapointed at both venues. 1st night we ait in Samuals Restaurant, there were several problems that I wish to mention. 1) they did not have what we wanted to order from the menu available and so we had to take the second choice. 2) We did not order a starter but the main course took 1 hour 25 mins from ordering to receiving at the table, we thought that this was a very long time, we didn't bother to order a sweet due to the lengthy time for service. The second night we ait at the Terrace Restaurant, this is a Tapas type service but the price of the Tapas were very expensive e.g. 3 No. small pieces of Sanish sausage was 17 pounds. We had fish, chips and peas at 26 pounds, we thought this was very expensive. The pe-booked dinner allowance was 110 pounds per couple, we made up the difference with 2 No. takeaway burgers at 26 pounds each, also very expensive. the dining tables (furniture) was very poor quality and the overall experience was very disapointing. 3) We had to request for a breakdown of the bill for charged additional items. When we received it we saw a surcharge of 5% for service charge, this charge was not only for the additional items but also for the total cost of accommodations and restaurant charges. Due to our poor experience of certain aspects of our stay, I refused to pay the 5% surcharge and it was deducted. The receptionist should have asked us if we were agreeable to pay it before adding to the bill.

Stunning

We had a fabulous 2 night stay in the wonderful Swinton Park. There are no superlatives that do this place justice. Just go. Special thanks to the Terrace Restaurant staff and manager Nicolai for making our evening meals such a special experience.

Troubles in paradise

The 20,000-plus acre Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire undoubtedly lives up to its claim to provide an incredible feeling of space and tranquility in a truly natural environment. Our visit was an anniversary treat, and we were delighted to find the setting as stunning as the publicity promised. Our room was the essence of comfort, with uninterrupted views of the rolling countryside, probably the most comfortable bed we ve ever slept in, a stunning bathroom (more of which later), wardrobes with internal lights, a Nespresso machine and cosy sitting area.

Unfortunately, however, the fantasy started to unravel almost immediately. The bottle of champagne which was supposed to be in our room to greet us was missing. The bathwater was at best lukewarm, we couldn t get a picture on the TV (though as technophobes we accept that was probably our fault but an instruction manual could have solved the problem) and to crown it all we couldn t ring down to reception to complain because the phone in the room was dead.

We called at reception on our way to dinner to explain the problems and a very helpful member of staff said he would go and fix them immediately. The champagne, though, would not be delivered until the next morning.

Our table in The Terrace restaurant was booked for 7.30pm, and we ordered almost immediately. An hour later, however, we were still waiting for our food. One member of staff claimed it was probably because my husband had ordered his steak medium to well-done, and as it was a huge piece of meat, it took a long time to cook! I don t know whether he was joking, but when the rib-eye arrived it was no more than half an inch thick and so small that the stack of onion rings on top almost covered it. My husband said it lacked flavour, and at a menu price of 58, we felt the joke was on us! The two small plates I d ordered came five minutes after the steaks. My barbecued cauliflower was virtually raw and tough to eat, while the lamb rump was nothing more than OK.

When the supervisor asked how our meals were, we explained and she offered us a free drink each a coffee for me and half a lager for my other half. When we paid the bill, the manager again asked about our experience and seemed surprised when we said it had fallen far short of expectations. In the end, he said he would look into refunding the cost of the steak, and we would have to check with reception in the morning.

Come the morning, we had more reasons to check in with reception the newspaper we had ordered had not materialised, and when we eventually found how to get hot water in the shower it kept reverting to cold like with the bath, we were told it was a boiler problem due to heavy demand at certain times!

We had a lovely breakfast in Samuel s restaurant, but by the time we were ready to leave our room at 11am, the champagne had still not materialised. It was there when we returned at 2.30pm, but the room had not been made up, and we were told the cleaners would not be round until after check-in started at 3pm. That meant our plans for a long and lazy bath followed by a celebratory glass of fizz had to be shelved. We ended up bringing the champagne home.

That evening we dined in Sir Samuel s and had a wonderful meal. Our delightful waitress said that in view of the problems we d had there was a complimentary glass of champagne to start with, which set the stage for a meal that was memorable for all the right reasons.

Despite everything, we enjoyed our stay at Swinton, but it could have been so much better. I sincerely hope the problems we experienced were the exception rather than the norm.

A Great Stay

We were expecting a very nice hotel and what we found exceeded our expectations. The hotel is set in a deer park alongside beautiful gardens filled with flowers and birdsong, These lead up to the rolling countryside beyond meaning walkers don't need to drive anywhere. The Spa was a great place to unwind after a days walking whilst the 2 restaurants were excellent. .

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Everything about our stay was very special. The hotel manages to be grand but homely. The Spa is wonderful and restaurants very good. The grounds are lovely. And we appreciated the taster sessions put on each day for free! Great cocktail making tutorial!! Excellent value for money through Off Peak Luxury! We ll be back

A wonderful place to stay

Staff are amazing, rooms elegant and the spa wonderful. We ate in Samuel's as The Terrace isn't to my taste, food and service were superb. Cant wait to return

Fabulous Hotel and Estate

One of our favourite UK hotels
The estate is amazing- fabulous walks and many activities
Two restaurants- Samuel s is Top Class
Excellent rooms all finesse to a high standard
Coats and boots supplied
No extra cost to use the fantastic spa
Highly recommended