Gilpin Hotel & Lake House

“Incredible”

Wow wow wow ...what a stunning place for a luxurious break. The gardens and hotel are perfect blend of country manor and class. Every detail is of the highest quality from the food to the coffee to the gorgeous complimentary toiletries. All the staff are friendly and attentive and nothing was too m… more

Wow wow wow ...what a stunning place for a luxurious break. The gardens and hotel are perfect blend of country manor and class. Every detail is of the highest quality from the food to the coffee to the gorgeous complimentary toiletries. All the staff are friendly and attentive and nothing was too much trouble. We will definitely return.

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“A lovely hotel with warmth and comfort”

A wonderful luxury hotel that has a warmth and comfort to it that is welcoming and homely, not big and flashy. This was our third visit, we first stayed here many years ago for our mini moon. It has grown and expanded since then, yet retained that personal feel to it which was nice to experience.… more

A wonderful luxury hotel that has a warmth and comfort to it that is welcoming and homely, not big and flashy. This was our third visit, we first stayed here many years ago for our mini moon. It has grown and expanded since then, yet retained that personal feel to it which was nice to experience. We stayed in the main building in a room looking out to the front of the hotel with lovely views of the gardens at the front of the hotel and over to the fields. The room was spacious with plenty of storage. The in room tea and coffee were plenty, including fresh milk in the fridge and the homemade shortbreads were delicious. The bathroom was spacious with plenty of storage for toiletries etc. The lovely, natural products in the bathroom were made in the Lakes. We ate in both restaurants. Spice is a great addition (since we were last there some years ago), the food was good quality ingredients and full of flavour. It's a fairly large restaurant with a real buzz about it. The great thing is it being located in a separate building keeping the integrity of the main hotel and Source restaurant as a more intimate experience. We dined in Source for our celebration dinner. It was a wonderful culinary journey, served by attentive staff. Disappointingly, we were seated in a section of the restaurant that is a separate room to the main Source restaurant and has not yet been refurbished - or hadn't in March. This didn't spoil the culinary or service experience, however, it was disappointing, particularly as it was a special celebration dinner. You definitely felt you were in a different restaurant to the rest of what looked like to be a beautifully designed dining room. The lounge and bar area both have character and warmth to them. The hotel has a small spa, we enjoyed a couples massage using locally made products. The massages were of a high standard. The therapists did a great job working out some knots and making the whole massage experience very relaxing for my husband and I. The only downside to our stay was the service we received in the bar. There simply wasn't enough staff on. On arrival we were seated in the Lounge at a table with leftover food and crockery on it. No-one came to clean the table or take an order for tea or coffee. The barman was rushed off his feet. In the end we gave up and decided to head to our room that was now ready. The evening we chose to dine at Source, we again experienced an issue with service in the bar. The barman - who was very good at what he did - could not keep up, he needed additional staff to support him. A manager came in to help, took our order, the drinks never arrived. We chased them up, then when they finally did arrive - after the manager had been back in and seen we still hadn't been served - had to rush them as the waiter from the dining room had already been to take us to our table once and had needed to delay our seating. Overall, we very much enjoyed our experience back at Gilpin, however, the main issue was insufficient staff in the bar and lounge area which we experienced throughout our stay.

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“Good, with a poor ending”

We came here to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday. Overall it was a really nice experience. We stayed in a garden suite which was spacious and the terrace with hot tub was as expected. Staff were lovely and the standards of service are high. We used the spa and the treatments were excellent. Othe… more

We came here to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday. Overall it was a really nice experience. We stayed in a garden suite which was spacious and the terrace with hot tub was as expected. Staff were lovely and the standards of service are high. We used the spa and the treatments were excellent. Others have mentioned the ize of the outdoor portion and it is small. They also charge you extra if you want to use it which is annoying. We ate in both restaurants and they are excellent, both in terms of service and quality of food. A few issues we experienced: No temperature control in the rooms. Whilst there is a fan, for the cost of staying here, I really expected to be able to have the room at whatever temperature we wanted. Shower tray not draining. I reported this twice and it wasn't resolved. We had to have quick showers as a result to stop the shower overflowing. Again, not something that should be the case at a destination like this. Poor leaving experience. There was a mix up over a booking we had for the afternoon that as moved to the evening that lead to a much higher bill than expected. It wasn't the confusion that was the problem but the uncomfortable and passive aggressive approach that was taken by the colleague when we queried the bill upon leaving. We ended up having a discussion with them at the desk in the small reception in front of other guests, and the colleague who dealt with us was abrupt and we both left feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable. We then had a lengthy discussion in the car about how it soured the trip. To stress, it wasn't the outcome that was the problem, but the attitude to paying customers who spent thousands of pounds on a long weekend.

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“Very enjoyable, but why apply sneaky charges?”

Quirky hotel, wonderful, friendly staff, superb food at Spice, but very disappointing Spa. The Spa was an absolute joke, comprising of two outdoor hot tubs, each around 2 metres in diameter. What left a nasty taste, having paid £450 per night for B&B, was the sneaky Discretionary Accommodation Serv… more

Quirky hotel, wonderful, friendly staff, superb food at Spice, but very disappointing Spa. The Spa was an absolute joke, comprising of two outdoor hot tubs, each around 2 metres in diameter. What left a nasty taste, having paid £450 per night for B&B, was the sneaky Discretionary Accommodation Service Charge, of £27.97p, per night, added to the bill!!! Does this 5 star Hotel expect us to make our own beds, each morning?? Sorry, stayed at numerous locations in the Lake District, and won’t return to The Gilpin, and told all my pals about the “ripoff”

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