While we were away at the end of May, we booked through SpaSeekers.com to go to a spa hotel in Wetherby. It included use of the spa, dinner in the restaurant, and bed and breakfast. It was a little over budget but we decided to go for it. This was the 25th of May.
SIXTEEN days later, on the 10th of June, SpaSeekers.com emailed Lee to say that unfortunately the hotel we booked was no longer available. They offered us a voucher as replacement. Now, I think that doing this over two weeks after we made the booking is really shocking service. If it had been a couple of days or something I'd be like, okay fine, but over a fortnight later is just not on. This of course meant it was only sixteen days before our anniversary, which didn't leave us long to find something else. I think someone had either double booked us OR had forgotten about us entirely. We were disappointed.
Lee had a quick look on their website, but we couldn't find anything comparable in price, so we asked for a refund instead of a voucher. That took ten days to come through, which was annoying - they're quick enough to take it but drag their feet putting it back! We were disappointed as we've never used SpaSeekers.com before and won't bother again!
We both looked all over the place for something else to do, but Lee was pretty stuck on a hotel with a spa and eventually he found Craiglands Hotel in Ilkley. We got bed and breakfast for a good price, and use of the spa was £15 per person extra which I felt was acceptable. We decided to not eat in the restaurant as we weren't sure what veggie choices would be for me. Instead I did a recce of about fifteen restaurants in Ilkley and let Lee choose - he went for the French bistro because he wanted the roast chicken and chips!
Lee has been suffering from vertigo recently so I had to drive to Ilkley instead of him. Before that though, we took the kittens to my mum's house, where they were staying overnight, and my mum fed us lunch, which was nice, and also useful as we'd had nothing in the house. We could also make sure the kittens were settled before we left - and they were fine. I'm not sure who had most fun - them or my mum and stepdad.
We arrived around 2pm in Ilkley after a lovely drive over the moors. Our room was small but fine, and the bed was comfy. The bathroom was massive, and had a bath, which Lee was happy about as he likes a bath. We went down to the spa almost straight away. It was in the cellars of the building and was quite strange. There was a deep relaxation/quiet room, where we went for a bit and Lee went to sleep while I read my book. There were fancy showers and a sauna, and a steam room, and some nice deep seats. And there was a hydro pool, which was about two metres wide by four metres long. It had massage jet seats all down one side, and the water temperature was really warm. We spent most of our time in there. We had three hours to spend in the spa, and at some points we were alone in the pool which was lovely. It was just long enough for a tiny swim, and it was lovely to float in too.
We both really relaxed and it felt utterly lovely. We finally got out and headed upstairs where I had a shower and Lee had a bath before we went out for food. As I said we'd chosen Bistro Pierre. The food was nice and the price reasonable, but the service was a bit lacking. But, we had three nice courses each and then headed back to the hotel where we had a drink before bed!
I would go back to Craiglands - the spa is nice and for £15 I couldn't complain. Here's my photos:
Lee took this, there was no one else in the pool at this point
Me on the edge
Sitting against one of the massage jets
You can see how narrow the pool was in this photo
I liked this picture in the restaurant
This was a Rose Garden spritz, it was lovely
Deep fried Brie and chutney (Lee had hummus)
Halloumi burger and fries and coleslaw - not very French I'll give you, but I liked it. Lee had the half roast chicken and chips
Crepes with lemon sugar sauce and ice cream, they were lovely!
Some of the front of the hotel - our room was just to the left of the green canopy on the first floor
And what I wore to go out in - I got this dress from Simply Be a couple of years ago but have only worn it a couple of times. It was nice to wear out!
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