Waterhead Hotel

This hotel was awesome. Stayed here for three nights in mid-April. Found the hotel classy, clean, friendly, and in no way snobby. The room that we stayed in was excellent. It was clean and well stocked with goodies. The only minor problem was that our large (very comfortable) bed was actually two single beds pushed together. This could make anyone who likes to snuggle a bit annoyed when they end up in the crack. hehe. I don't know if this is the case for all the rooms, but I wouldn't let this stop me from staying here again. We ordered room service one night and ate at the restaurant another. Our food was really good, but the menu is not extensive by any means. So I wouldn't have wanted to eat there every night. It is worth noting that the room service menu is different. The chicken goujon was fantastic! Breakfast was fantastic. Come with an appetite! They know at this hotel that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! I would recommend this hotel to others, especially couples. It is romantic and comfortable. I wouldn't say this hotel is for people who are use to uptight and pretentious places, because they won't like it. It just won't be snobby enough for them. For us folks that usually stay at the average places, this is a real luxurious experience and will make you wish you can stay in places like this all the time.

The rooms and location are excellent but the hotel lets itself down badly with its dining. The service is good, but the food is completely lacking in flavour or interest. Depite the menu describing everything as "fellbred" or other words implying that it is uses all local produce, it looks and tastes as if it all comes from mass catering suppliers. The hotel is great for B&B only.

I just had to write to give my view on this hotel. Fantastic location, great views of Lake Windermere, lovely friendly staff, luxury room (including breakfast) with loads of special treats. Because of the reviews on the food we did not eat here for the first few nights but on the last night we decided to have dinner and we wished we had ate there for all nights as the food, atmosphere and staff could not have been better. I would recommend this hotel to anyone. I will return to this hotel for sure.

My highly enjoyable experience of this hotel started when I booked it - I got a good rate through laterooms but contacted English Lakes Hotels to see if they could match it. They couldn't, but after mentioning that we were visiting for an anniversary they offered to reserve me a house room with a partial lake view. Laterooms then claimed that they couldn't make the booking so I called the hotel back and they allowed me to book the discounted rate directly. I then received confirmation and a handy set of directions from my postcode to them which I thought was a lovely touch. Upon arrival I couldn't fault the place - staff incredibly friendly and helpful, beautiful room with all the touches mentioned in other reviews such as the biscuits and the dog on the bed, as well as a view of Windemere out of the beautiful bathroom window and breakfast fit for a king. Yes, this place is quite pricey but having stayed in London hotels for the same cost you get so much more for your money here. Having read other reviews we didn't eat at the hotel, but the stroll to Ambleside is not a long one and we had two delicious well priced meals there - one at Lucy's and one at Zefferelis. If you are looking for a hotel with some original touches that doesn't have a dull, chain feel to it I highly recommend this place...we loved it :)

We booked two rooms for two nights at the Waterhead Hotel. The actual accommodation is very good although the food is not great. Breakfast was fine but I would not recommend the dinner. We stayed here last year and found that the dinner has not improved since then which is a shame. We have stayed in many hotels in the Lake District and this one is rather good, pity about the dinner! If you don't eat here you can eat at the Waters Egde Hotel over the road but smoking is allowed which is not pleasant. (It's bar food served in the bar.) The Regent Hotel is close by and the food in there was ok. The other option is to walk into Ambleside but it is quite a trek back in the dark afterwards.

If you want a relaxing contemporary yet still breath taking break go here. I have never stayed somewhere where the staff have been so helpful, they couldn't do enough. The room was beautiful (with all mod cons)and had a view of the lake. Everything was clean, shiny and all worked! The food was rather tasty and again the service both in the restaurant and bar was well above average. Although not the cheapest place to stay, it's worth it.

Booked this at the last minute for our anniversary after reading reviews on tripadvisor. We weren't disappointed - was perfect! We stayed 2 nights in a room overlooking the lake, and woke up to a deep covering of snow on the Sunday morning - it was beautiful! Staff friendly and helpful, food excellent, rooms fantastic, location perfect! Can't wait to go back!

We booked a two night (Saturday & Sunday) stay at this hotel based on their website and reviews in TripAdvisor and were hugely disappointed. We booked a ‘luxury lake view room’ at almost £200 per night which is hugely expensive compared to other hotels in the area and so I expected something special. We arrived shortly after dark and were led downstairs through a bar area to our ‘lake view luxury room’. On entry it was apparent that room was of no great size and certainly not what I would consider ‘luxury’ for a four star hotel. Looking out of the window it was apparent that while Lake Windermere could indeed be seen from the room but the view was severely restricted by the large bar and restaurant. Worse if we drew the heavy net curtains so we could actually see what view their was of the lake everyone in the bar could see into our room! Bad enough you might think but a mirror had been so positioned that if those drinking in the bar chose to they could see into the bathroom! There were also outdoor dinning tables, which were fortunately not in use because of the inclement weather, positioned directly outside the room window. It was just as well then that the broken window sash hanging down made it impossible to open the window. Being tiered on the first night we decided to try the restaurant which had a limited menu which I generally don’t mind as long as the food is good – but it wasn’t. My steak was very tough and overcooked despite my request that it be cooked rare. This was in stark contrast to the food that we had during the rest of the trip which was without exception excellent. Breakfast was another novelty – where apparently they don’t provide bread of any sort just toast (although strangely they have a continental breakfast – I didn’t enquire how they managed to do a continental breakfast without providing bread.) On the final morning we had to leave very early and I had requested a 5am alarm call. Unsurprisingly this was forgotten and we did not receive any call. I was disgusted with the whole experience and was quite frankly left with the feeling that I had been ripped off. I would never chose to stay in any of the hotels run by this company again.

Booked a Saturday Night stay costing £210.00 for the room which is a bit on the expensive side so was expecting a touch of luxury. On arrival parked in the rear car park and after a little confusion found the reception which is located at the front of the building. Arrived just prior to 2pm but our room was ready so unloaded the car and found a rear entrance to the hotel. Our room which was one of the luxury rooms overlooked the lake and was a good size. Leather sofa, kingsize bed flat, screen wall mounted tv and DVD player and gorgeous bathroom with complimentary toiletries were just a few of the luxuries. We then walked into Ambleside which took us about 15mins and looked around the shops. When we got hungry we returned to the Waterhead but decided £30 a head was a bit on the steep side sp we went across the road to the Water Edge Inn where we found the food delicious and around £40 for the two of us. We would deffinately stay at this hotel again.

We spent just one night here on February 13th and it was great. The hotel staff were very efficient and helpful. The decor all round was lovely. The bed was a good size and incredibly comfy and the room wasn't too hot. Too many hotels seem to think turning the heating up to max is a good thing, but really it's not. We only had breakfast here, but I couldn't fault it. The hotel is an easy walk into Ambleside and has good views of the lake. We were very happy customers.