Gilpin Hotel & Lake House

Beautiful location, lovely rooms, and excellent food at two onsite restaurants, including Michelin-rated "Source". The staff is very attentive and seeks to meet your every need.

We chose to stay at The Gilpin Lake House for our wedding anniversary. After driving for a couple of hours we found the main hotel and were then provided directions to get to the Lake House, a 6 min drive down a country lane. Through the automatic iron gates, then around to the lake house. This used to be a family house and has been converted into a luxury boutique hotel. On arrival we were greeted warmly and professionally from a member of the team. We sat in the lounge and had a sandwich and drink from the bar whilst we waited for our room. Afternoon tea was also being served in the small dining room. All rooms had a great view of the serene private lake. We were then informed that we had been given an upgrade to one of the Lake House Spa Suites. We were shown to our room, just 50 yards away from reception. It was a magnificent open plan space, with a huge balcony overlooking the private lake. The room had its own sauna, steam room and hot tub. Fantastic. (The shared hot tubs at the hotel are booked out in slots so you don’t have to share with other guests, which we don’t enjoy) There are several places to chill out in the grounds along with a boat house to chill out in whilst looking out across the lake. There are also two rowing boats if you fancy having a row on the lake.. We had dinner at the Spice restaurant as we didn’t want the Michelin star tasting menu. Food and service were excellent. After dinner we had a drink in the hotel bar. There is a complimentary private Porsche with a driver to get you from the lake house to the restaurant and back. Breakfast in the small dining room was fantastic, full a la carte menu to choose from. Really enjoyable. We’ve stayed at many 5 star hotels and this was quite different from the modern city hotels. It was fabulous and an utterly peaceful and relaxing stay. Highly recommend this if you just want to get away from the rat race! .

We arrived 2.45 and was offered tea and coffee before checking in time.which was 2pm. As we sat in the lounge..a good 25mins later..we wondered why no one had come to ask us..eventually we.went to look for someone to order tea and coffee. We have big suite in the main hotel.. first thing we noticed was hairs in the bathroom..and then hairs in the hot tub..it really did not give a good impression. We had dinner at Source and again staff attention was lacking..throughout the 9 course meal, water was.not poured. The last disappointment was at the end of the course, we were too full, we said we will take the petition fours to our room, the waiter came told us the petition fours which included 2 macaroons, and said they were all in the takeaway box. To our surprise, when we got back to the suite, we saw that there were no.macarons in the box!.such detail should never have happened. Finally, we were asking to see if the electric charger parking spot was available..and was told by staff that the "managers" had parked in the spots and someone should tell them they were for guests.. All in all, the end of stay was a disappointment. I am.giving it 3 stars which I feel is balanced in consideration of the food, location.

To start, we “enjoyed” our weekend, but my point is this is not a top notch 5* place nor Michelin * restaurant. We’ve eaten and stayed at many others and it just isn’t. - hotel and rooms tired - service lacking and not very attentive - numerous wrong orders and clumsy service elements in the source restaurant and the breakfasts - gardens and outsides not kept well - service charge added to EVERYTHING All in all very much first world problems but it’s good to get what you pay for. Not enough to complain about, but enough to go to a proper 5* next time. Shame.