The Wood Norton Hotel

On New Years Day, I was fortunate enough to be invited on a trip with my boyfriends family. To celebrate his dads birthday, we all went to The Wood Norton Hotel in the Cotswolds. I rarely do this sort of thing so I thought it would be nice to share my experience with you guys and give the hotel a quick review! 

As you can see, the exterior is beeaautiful! The hotel is set in such a lovely area, with stunning views over the Worcestershire countryside. Broadway, possibly the prettiest town in existence, is only about a 15 minute drive and well worth a visit if you get the chance! It has a lovely little selection of shops and boutiques, and plenty of places to stop for a bite to eat. 

Bar area.

Anyway back to the hotel! On arrival, our rooms were not quite ready so we sat in the lounge area and had a drink. When I say lounge area, there are more like 10 (small) lounges you can choose from; each with a roaring fire and ample seating. 

As it was my boyfriends dads birthday, he had (quite rightly) booked himself and his wife one of the main suites in the hotel. Obviously, this isn't cheap! So for the rest of us, our rooms were in another building situated just behind the main hotel.  Our room had a huuuge King sized bed which I honestly could have slept all day in. It was probably one of the comfiest mattresses I have ever slept in, and I don't usually rate hotel beds very highly! The en-suite had a bath with a small waterfall shower as well which was pretty powerful! 

My boyfriend and I met back up with his parents for a couple of drinks in the bar around 7pm. Now, I'm not a huge drinker and usually stick to cocktails or sweet drinks that don't really taste like alcohol. But be warned...all cocktails were £8.50. I guess that was to be expected in the area and type of hotel we were in but I still thought that was a bit extreme considering the usual size a cocktail is, and so instead opted for Southern Comfort with lemonade and lime (equally delicious!). Our table was booked for 8pm but we had to order what we wanted from the menu whilst in the bar. It was a five course meal, with quite unusual (for me anyway) dishes. My boyfriends younger brother and his friend who are 16,  couldn't find anything on the menu they really liked and so luckily they were allowed to order from the bar menu which had fish and chips etc. If you are planning on going to this hotel with children, the bar menu is muuuch more suited to you! 

Anyway, the amuse bouche was a shallot veloute (basically thick soup) which I thought was fairly nice. For a starter, I had pancetta wrapped monkfish with oxtail; quite an odd combination. I love monkfish but had never tried oxtail before so was quite intrigued. I did like it, but I wouldn't have put the two together, and you really only need a mouthful of oxtail as it is just so rich. Between the starter and main we had a lemon sorbet which was not very sorbet-like, but nonetheless very nice. For my main, I had a fillet of halibut with a haricot bean salad and celeriac puree. The halibut was unfortunately slightly dry but apart from that it was a tasty and nicely presented. Finally, for desert I had a lemon meringue parfait which I think was my favourite part of the meal. Definitely recommend this. All in all, the meal itself was nice but as a first timer in the five course meal business, I don't think all the fuss is quite necessary. The service however, was very good! The waiters we had, who were all quite young, were friendly and attentive and good meal without good service, is a meal not worth having in my opinion, so that made all the difference!

Before bed we ordered breakfast to our room. I wouldn't usually do this but breakfast shut at half 9 and I don't think anyone fancied being up and ready for then when our beds were so comfy. So anyway, I ordered a full English which had; 1 sausage, 1 piece of bacon, eggs of your choice (scrambled all the way!), black pudding, mushroom, tomato and baked beans. We also had a bakery basket with toast, mini croissants and pain au chocolate! It was really quite nice sitting in bed eating breakfast, which I never do at home, and I couldn't fault the breakfast. Although a full English isn't that hard really anyway is it? 

We had booked a later checkout at 12pm, rather than the usual 11am which gave us plenty of time to leisurely get ready and make the most of our lovely room. Although I have just remembered one last complaint... Our room was absolutely boiling, evening on a cold January day, so we had to leave our window open over night. That in itself is fine as it did the job, but the noise in the morning gave me such a headache. I woke up to the sound of what I think must has been bin or some kind of work men, shouting and going about their work at about half 7/8. I wouldn't usually mind, but you come to a place like this to relax and I was so looking forward to a lay-in in that bed. 

Anyway, overall I had a lovely time and am SO grateful I got to join them on this occasion. The hotel itself is lovely, I just had a couple of bad experiences which let it down slightly It's the perfect base to explore the Cotswolds as there is so much to see and do, and is lovely if you just want to relax and unwind. However, if you're looking for a family hotel, I do not think this is it. Couples, friends, business trips - yes! 

Sorry this post is very long and a bit boring so thank you if you stuck with me and read it all or even just parts of it! I unfortunately could not get my camera to work so the only photos I have are from my phone and pretty bad quality, so apologies for that also! 

Love & hugs,

Alex 

xxxx