Aphrodites Themed Lodge Hotel

Booked online following a last minute decision to take a trip to the Lakes. Of the four rooms available we chose the swiss alps one. Arrived with a very laid back, open minded attitude and were very pleasantly surprised. We were greeted at reception, checked in and then given a brief tour of the ground floor before being shown to our room on the 1st floor. Very pleased with the room and the decor which was fun but not "over the top" or tacky. Walked into Bowness which took a good 15 minutes however would not recommend this after dark as there is no footpath on the hill to the hotel. Breakfast was nicely cooked and well presented, after cereals to start there was an adequate amount for us however others may expect larger portions. The pool and spa area looked great although we did not use it as we had our own hot tub which was lovely to use on a balmy night under the stars. The bed did creak a bit but then wooden framed beds tend to. Will definitely be returning to this hotel at some time in the future for some more light-hearted rest and relaxation in one of the most beautiful areas of England

1 reader found this review helpful

As part of my partner's birthday present I wanted to do something a bit different & fun, so after scouring the web I stumbled upon Aphrodite's Lodge. I booked a one night stay in the Flintstone's Suite as the website looked fantastic. It was £160.00 for a Sunday night - very expensive, but I figured that given the photos & what I had read it would be worth it. I really wish now that I had chosen another hotel & read reviews before hand.
The hotel was easy to find & there was ample parking, but overall I was less than impressed with my stay & felt the experience was below average. This is what their website says about the room...
'the flintstones suite offers guests a fun-filled cave-like room with imitation furs, flintstones memorabilia and a bedrock-themed interior. superb special features include an aqua spa massagebath for 2 people, an open-fire in winter, and a luxury bathroom with power shower.'
This is misleading to say the least. There is NO Flintstones memorabilia - I do not believe they have rights to advise this. It also said that it had a power shower & luxury bathroom - it did not.
The room was not very private, it overlooked the carpark & the bathroom did not even have misted glass. The interior was worn. We used the pool area, but my boyfriend felt uncomfortable because it felt like a swingers club, there were two other couples in the pool who appeared to be 'making out', which made us feel quite uncomfortable. The pool was not welcoming as was cold & there were no steps to get in/out so you looked very unglamourous clambering out! As for the 'hot tub' it was a tiny corner of the pool - enough for 2 people max & a wet **** would produce more bubbles. It was pointless, yet their advertising made it sound so amazing! The steam room & sauna were good & easy to use, but very small - only enough room for two again so it'd be tough to get to use them in the area was busy.
The bed was comfortable & the hotel was very clean, although we didn't look for dirt, but the bed squeaked badly & we could hear everything the people in the room above did. EVERYTHING. They also got up early in the morning, so we were woken up by floor boards squeaking & talking at 6am - not very romantic!
The reception was not manned well at all, on arriving we were greated by a nice member of staff but she appeared to be running the hotel, not just reception & I was left to linger frequently, when I wanted to do something. I also think £48 for a bottle of wine, 2 beefburgers & a cheese board very expensive room service. Cooked well, but pricy.
Breakfast was appauling. The sausage they served with the breakfast was basically a pepperami & was far from value for money. There was half a tomarto, about 6 tiny mushrooms, 1 piece of bacon & the pepperami...No explanation was provided in relation to how to get coffee etc or do toast, but the staff (who I could bearly understand) just stood there & gauped as you ate. Very uncomfortable.
Overall, very disappointing & I will be writing to them to request a refund! I would suggest if you revisit Windermere you try an alternative hotel - Beech Hill for example is outstanding & cheaper!!!!!

2 readers found this review helpful

when i was looking around for a fabulous hotel for my partners 40th this one stood out, the themed rooms were amazing looking on the website so i picked the parisian suite which i thought was all white, however isnt, and the pics on the website made the room look alot bigger than it was... it advertises satalite tv on the website, one sky channel does not constitute a satilite package... misleading. the wifi was down all weekend which the staff told me it would be back on the next day which i wasnt and made out it was all so much inconveinient for them which u dont really want to be told!! the payphone was out of service which is not good if u perposely leave your phone at home to have an undisturbed romantic weekend so i asked the reception if i could use the phone and the lad asked me how long i was gonna be!!!
the light fitting was hanging out in the bathroom in our room which the did fix, but there was a damp patch on the wall of the bed area which i informed staff of.
i expected the manager to hava a quick word with me over the subjects i had raised to the staff(which i raised them all!!) however he didnt and i left without an overall apology. dont get me wrong i had a nice 2days there but for £370 for 2 days it should have been amazing!!!!

We booked this 1 night break to the Aphrodites without reading reviews...when we had a look at the reviews we couldnt believe that we hadnt checked it out before we booked-we were dreading that the hotel would be awful and that we were about to waste our money on a break we were really looking forward to.
On arrival the grounds looked nice, when we went into reception we were greeted by a gentlemen on reception desk. He was keen to get us checked in and we were then shown around the 'dining room, bar and spa/pool areas'. The hotel is quite small but was clean and the pool area looked really nice.
We stayed in the Tuscany room, to which we had also read very poor reviews about. However, we were pleasantly suprised by the size of the room - my partner is 6ft and he was able to move around as normal (despite reviews saying it is tiny). It was quite warm in the room but not uncomfortably warm. The bathroom is very small though-well the toilet-but the spa bath is great.
We read the welcome pack and noticed that the favourite notices throughout were...'a further charge may apply' and 'approximately'!!
We made a consciencous thought to check what time the pool facilities closed 'approximately 8pm, last entrance to pool at 7.30pm' and then went into Bowness for something to eat. We made sure that we were back at the hotel for 6.30pm so we could get changed and go for a swim.
We went down to reception at 7pm in the thinking that we could have a 30 min swim.....HOWEVER, the 'lady' on reception advised us that as it was 7pm and the pool would be closing at 7.30pm that 20 mins is 'not that much time to have a swim, by the time you're in it will be time to get out'. This took us by suprise as we were under the assumption that the pool was open until 8pm (as per welcome pack states).
We were told to come back in the morning and she would open it especially for us at 8am - even though it says in the welcome pack thats the time it opens anyway!!! When we queried the time, were were told that due to "Health and Safety" the pool had to close as the lights were not working in the pool-if this was the case surely we would have been told this first-seems we were being'fobbed off'?!?!?! We were very dissapointed with this as the main reason we chose this hotel was for the spa and pool facilities.
In the morning we went for our "continental" breakfast-or in laymans terms...seeds, cornflakes, seeds, muesli, seeds, granola and oh yes more seeds. I suppose we could have always paid an extra £5.00 each for full English but as we had already paid a whopping £90 for just the use of our room, we decided not to!
Overall the Hotel is clean and tidy but the staff are not customer friendly (i think they get a manual of how to respond to all comments generically)and the Hotel is very over priced especially when the words 'approximately' is their get out plan for the use of their facilities.
If the Hotel was managed by friendly, helpful and comitted staff, and the food provided was more appetising then the Hotel would be a lovely place to stay and I would consider going back again but as this is not the case I dont think that we would return here.

We went for a family break in the Lakes and booked 2 nights at what looked to be from the website, a boutique upmarket hotel. At £120 per night we were expecting a lot more than recieved! The staff are barely competent, the food limited, very greasy breakfast and the rooms massively oversold. My advise would be book somewhere else!

hi, i have stayed at the aphrodites lodge a few times and each time has been the best looking forward to go back to
try a diffrent room as i am working my way around the hotel
every time i only stay 1 night but i am going to do 2 nighs
some time this mounth when i get home i work at sea so i stay in hotels all over the world and the aphrodites is the best.DAVE&ANGIE.

We came to Aphrodite’s with Unique Breaks. Stayed in the Tuscan room (sorry loft space) Boiling hot room, most squeaky bed we have ever laid in and you’re not even allowed to use the spa bath after 10:30.The toilet was too close to the towel rail, as in you had to stick your arm in to it to sit down. The ceilings were as you would expect in a roof space - hard work not to bang your head. The male Manager was nice enough and could hold a decent conversation. The female manager was like a Mrs. Fawlty in attitude and if she smiled the world might end, so she did not want to tempt fate. After an uncomfortable night in a very hot room (With no Fridge) breakfast was a very cramped affair with small tables all squeezed in to a small room. The Polish staff served us two eggs swimming in fat and two pieces of really hard toast. Coffee was fine. Swimming pool had been dug up and the fountain looked like it was sat in raw sewage. When we checked out had to argue about the complementary drinks on arrival that we had not had, as they charged us for 4 small bottles of coke (£1.50 each) which we needed, so we did not pass out in the heat of our sauna (roof space / room) This place is rubbish, end of chat. Poor service, unhappy staff, cramped rooms and stupid priced for a themed room, NOT.

Why can't this hotel see that their web site is misleading? IT IS MISLEADING. Everybody can see this so they should change their site. Every body is saying that the pool is not a short stroll away and the management say it is. WELL IT'S NOT and them keep saying it is wont make it any closer. On their main web site it shows a lovely large pool, this must give people the impression that they have a large lovely pool and they do not. We know that they are building one but that does not help. Continental breakfast does not mean nuts and muesli ( it means croissants ham, cheese, etc....). The conservatory is too small or has too many tables and my wife couldn't get in or out of the table when another couple sat at the table behind. Charging £5 extra for cooked breakfast is unbelievable you either have cooked breakfast or continental why would you want both? You have paid for a breakfast. The room was fine, apart from when you go to the french door you are looking down on two people in their hot tub. Now they are building a new pool the large building it's enclosed in blocks out any view at all and the web site says there is a view of garden and the fells - some imagination is required.

2 readers found this review helpful

My partner and i booked a `romantic` weekend stay for my birthday, the spa bath didnt work, we had to repeatedly for some assistance and ended up with a work man in our room for an hour, the following morning we left our room at 10am as requested for room service and returned at 3pm only to find the room untouched. The staff would only supply us with small drinking glasses not wine glasses unless we purchased over priced champagne from the house.The organic breakfast was inedible and to top it off the polish staff wouldnt listen to our queries regarding our faulty bath or let us speak to the proprietor, we had to write with our complaints and then only recieved a loose offer of a small yet unspecified discount if we booked again! Whilst we were checking out we discovered the couple in the next room had no heating in their room whatsoever. £500 for 2 nights wouldve been much better spent elsewhere!!! DONT GO, it isnt a luxury hotel, just mutton dressed as lamb with appalling service

We have just got back from a short break in aphrodites lodge it was great we stayed in the chic paris room and i loved every minute of it!! the steam room/ shower was just amazing you could listen to the radio and it was big enough for 2 with room to spare the bath was lovely with plenty of room for two and a built in tv in the wall which was great lying in the bath with the bubbles on watching my favourite programmes and the sauna was just luxury!! the whole room was just gorgeous the bed was amazing and the log burner was lovely and cozy we had full english breakfast in bed which was well worth the extra money very yummy!! Loved my stay will be returning soon and often!