This year, everyone is seeking out the perfect 'staycation' location. If you like being by the water and indulging in a little bit of luxury, I think this is the hotel for you.
On arrival, the hotel has a magnificent first impression. Located on the popular Mudeford Quay, the hotel avoids the hustle and bustle of nearby Christchurch and Bournemouth. However, both of these are great places to spend the day, but more about that later! The hotel does have quite a small car park, which I imagine can get busy around lunch time, dinner time or if there is a wedding/event. However, the front desk staff double and triple checked that we had managed to find a space, so I am sure they would be able to suggest something if you are struggling. Check in time is 3pm, however we arrived much earlier than this which I think helped us to find a space. We alerted the reception that we were here and that we would go for a walk to pass the time until our room was ready.
Mudeford Quay is a short walk away from the hotel. Here you can relax on the beach, treat yourself to some traditional seaside snacks or try your hand at water-sports, crabbing or fishing. There is a really nice looking restaurant here called The Noisy Lobster, which we would like to go to another time. We walked back to the hotel at around 2pm, and our room was ready early! However, they can't guarantee this. We went to the room, which we were so impressed with! It was full of lots of luxuries, like a coffee machine, biscuits and a hairdryer. There is also a television and some books. The bathroom was sparkly clean and had some lovely toiletries on offer to use during your stay. After we had unpacked, we went to the garden area to enjoy the afternoon sun and have some gin! You can even try some of the locally made gin, which was delicious. There are also some snacks that you can order throughout the day too, these sounded amazing!
In the evening, we had dinner at the Upper Deck Bar and Restaurant (which you can see behind the glass in the picture above) as this was part of the deal with our room. We paid for a breakfast and dinner package. With the dinner package, we were entitled to £27.50 each to put towards our bill, drinks were not included in this. The other restaurant on site is called The Jetty, which looked to be the more up market of the two. The Upper Deck menu was varied and everything sounded yummy! To start, I had some bread and then I enjoyed the Coconut Curry for main, which you could chose to have with chicken, fish or more vegetables. At this time, we decided against a pudding as the portions were very filling. We were escorted through to a lounge area so that we could carry on having some drinks and later on in the evening we were ready for a pudding to share. Oh my goodness, the chocolate fondant with mint choc chip ice cream is a must! I can't tell you how delicious it was. For two starters, two mains and a shared pudding, we had just reached our dinner allowance. We were amazed, we expected to pay a lot more for the quality!
However, the real quality of the hotel comes with the staff! Everyone we spoke to was friendly and couldn't have been more helpful. Especially the staff in the Upper Deck restaurant who did everything they could to help us feel settled and answered any questions we had. They went out of their way to make sure we had a memorable and special time.
The hotel does have a spa, with relaxing areas to sit and lots of treatments available. There is also a swimming pool. At the moment you need to book a slot to use the spa as they are keeping track of numbers. The hotel is well set up to incorporate the Covid-19 requirements, you are encouraged to wear a mask in public areas and there are hand gel stations located throughout the busy parts of the hotel.
Breakfast is served in the Upper Deck restaurant and at the moment you have a menu to choose what you would like bought to your table.
We decided to explore Christchurch Quay on our second day. This is a fun, small seaside town perfect to spend a slow day exploring. You can hire a little boat to sail up and down the river which is great fun. If you are a history fan, you must take a stroll round the Priory and learn the fascinating reason how Christchurch got its name. In Christchurch there are also lots of cafes and takeaway fish and chip places. If you fancy a sit down meal, The Boathouse restaurant looks lovely too.
We had a great time staying at the Christchurch Harbour Hotel and Spa, we came away feeling so relaxed and happy! It was exactly the treat we needed this year and although there are some Covid-19 restrictions in place, we felt like we had a normal time.
Head to my Instagram, @wanderlustlibrary_ for more photos of our stay and find out where we are going next! I am so pleased that we can start travelling again!
I have not been paid or sponsored to write this post, I just wanted to share our great experience! For more detail about the Christchurch Harbour Hotel and Spa visit their website here. Also before you travel anywhere, be sure to read what they are doing to keep you safe during the Covid-19 pandemic and only choose to stay at locations that put your health and safety first!
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