Night away with children, Calcot Manor or somewhere else?

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I've promised ds a night with us in a hotel soon so wondered if anyone had any recommendations for somewhere family friendly near-ish Bristol. We're happy to drive for up to an hour and a half but I really want somewhere lovely when we get there. Any ideas? Calcot Manor looks great on the website but the mumsnet review is a year old so has anyone been recently? Or can anyone recommend somewhere else? We have ds aged 6.5 and dd, aged 5 months, so we need baby listening and plenty to do for us and ds during the day. I have a vision of lolling on a terrace with a cold spritzer while the children play and gurgle at our feet. Ha ha. Expensive is ok but family friendly is the most important thing (so I think Babington is too smart and will be full of childless people presumably).

surely someone has been to calcot? i can give you the lowdown on woolley grange if you're interested.

WWW, Woolley Grange is nice, friendly, cosy, good food, creche, games room, outdoor pool etc. We really enjoyed it.

Went to Babington as a couple, although 'smart' it works well for families too, lots of space, kids area, pool, more £ than Woolley, but we came away thinking, yes it was £, but we had a really great relaxing time.

Dont know if that helps!!?

Thanks bluesky and bk. Go on then, bk, tell me about Wooley Grange! It's near Bath isn't it? So not very far for us. Would really like to know if Calcot's worth the money though if anyone's been there, it's looking like close to 300 quid (sorry, no pound sign working) for a family room at the weekend so if it's crap I'd really like to know!

i know the Calcot very well and to be honest its a bit shabby, plus in a busy built up area and you would have to drive out to do stuff with the kids. Am busy at mo but will put some reccomemdations on asap for you. Plus we could meet up and ill take you to some places weather permitting.

WWW Can i just check, you do mean the Calcot just off the M4, about an hour away from Bristol?

I think Charlieplus3 has the wrong Calcot

Calcot Manor is near tetbury, in open countryside. My family used to live nearby and the hotel was very well thought of locally.

A friend went there a few months ago with her family and LOVED it - she is saving up for a repeat visit.

Her DKs are a bit older than yours (8 & 7) but I think, from her reports, terrace lolling would be in order!

Yes thats sounds alot nicer than the calcot i know. So ill quetly sneak out again was only trying to help

hi www

woolley grange is one of the "luxury family hotels" chain. it is a converted jacobean (?) manor house in smallish grounds. there's an outdoor pool and gardens. there's a playroom/nursery for children, so if you were happy to leave dd and ds there (and they were happy to stay) you and dp could get some time on your own. they don't have beauty rooms or a spa, but you can book massages and facials to have in your room. the decor is "traditional country house" - no trendy babington or cowley manor "wallpaper" style here. i've heard people describe it as shabby before - tbh i thought that was deliberate to maximise the doggy, muddy green wellie, roaring log fire, country house feel of the place! the rooms are all individual and vary quite a bit in terms of size and layout - i recommend discussing what you need with them before booking, e.g. if you wanted an interconnecting room for ds and dd to sleep with you. they supply cots, changing mats etc. there is baby listening available so you can eat with dp like proper grown ups in some style. ime, the food isn't superb but perfectly ok. it's about a mile from bradford-on-avon, so pretty easy from bristol, i'd have thought. i think you will find it meets your requirements for both family friendliness and adult comfort, but i'd worry that there's not quite enough to do on-site and i'm sure you've "done" the surrounding area lots before.

ps - the lfh hotels are doing a 10% discount via mumsnet this month, which should ease the financial pain.

please let me know if you have some any specific questions.

Hi www, I was there a couple of weeks ago and was very unimpressed. I had been a few years ago and it was very different IMO, very chaotic and much less caring, somehow. Some of the staff were great, and the food was generally very nice but the service was appalling. Crowds of workmen having a fag break just outside our window spoilt the atmosphere a bit. I would heartily recommend Woolley Grange, I greatly prefer it (going back for the 6th time this summer!)

Sorry, should have said that I was talking about Calcot Manor until the last bit!

Must reiterate all the comments about Woolley Grange.

My DH wouldn't leave the kids alone in the room while we went for dinner, so we went rather over board on room service and had a four course meal in our room - at no extra charge!

Really lovely place. Couldn't do enough for us.

Oh, and another point about both places is that the nannies who work in the creche also do babysitting if you don't want to rely on the baby-listening. It's a nice arrangement as it means you can have a familiar face.

Is Moonfleet manor close to you? (It is near Weymouth) If so, I would recommend that one! We went there last year and are going back this year.

I thought Babington is meant to be quite child friendly - but there is a huge waiting list I think, so you probably won't get in there for a while

Thank you everyone, I won't book Calcot Manor then I don't think. Maybe Wooley but it's a bit near and you're right bk, I can't think what we'd do during the day, except loll of course. Or stick the children in the creche and leg it back to our bed

you could try moonfleet manor. also part of lfh so you get the discount. not that you need it these days there was a thread on it recently.

if only our one would stay in the damn creche any time we go anywhere!

Fowey Hall (one of the Luxury Family Hotels group) is great. Also we went recently to Cowley Manor (near Cheltenham) and it was fantastic, best hotel I;ve been to for a long time. We didn't take our DDs but there were kids around and a lovely play room, plus DVD players in room, fantastic pool so I guess they are child friendly. No creche as such. Grounds were also lovely.