This luxury family hotel is set above the Fowey Estuary, providing some stunning views for all hotel guests. It is thought that Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in the Willows, who spent a great deal of time here with his own family, may have based Toad Hall on Fowey Hall itself. Regardless of the accuracy of this claim, the hotel is impressive and its location is great to take your family to for some old fashioned outdoor fun with its perfectly manicured gardens and fantastic sea views.
As ever with hotels in the Luxury Family Hotels chain, making life easy for stressed out parents is at the forefront of everything they do. This means providing two hours of free childcare each day in the Ofsted registered creche, leaving adults time to spend in the luxury spa, exploring the outdoors or simply taking some time out to just be. Older children can make use of the Four Bears Den which holds art classes alongside some fun dressing up and storytelling activities. The Blue room also provides video games and the cinema Room shows all the latest movies. Outside there is a zip wire and trampoline as well as watersports available for those brave enough to step foot in the water. The hotel even tries to help take some of the stress out of packing before any visit, by providing some necessities that babies and children need these days. This means that they offer cots or bottle warmers for babies, or potties for slightly older children.
Flexible dining is also a valuable option at Fowey Hall. Children’s meals are served throughout the day so that you can eat whenever is best for you. They even offer children’s cocktails for the most discerning of toddlers. They and you will be wowed by the locally sourced food on offer in the family dining rooms or the 2 AA Rosette restaurant. Adults can make use of the free baby listening service run by the hotel so that parents can enjoy the Cornish fare safe in the knowledge that their children are sleeping like angels. Expect the freshest of seafood alongside Cornish beef finished with traditional ice cream and local cheese for dessert. Breakfast and lunch are also a highlight as well as afternoon tea served on the terrace. Children will be wowed by the view as well as the classic offering of cakes and scones alongside finger sandwiches – all beautifully displayed on an old fashioned tiered stand. Leaf tea is available for adults.
Finally, the family friendly spa is a must do with its extensive treatments list to help the most frazzled families relax. Relaxation follows through into the design of the hotel where the rich and warm palette of the original Victorian building meet contemporary, clean lined décor in the newer Garden Wing. Suites and interconnecting rooms are available for the biggest of families – and the dog is more than welcome too.
Fowey Hall Hotel, Fowey, Cornwall, PL23 1ET
Telephone: 01726 833866
Website: www.foweyhallhotel.co.uk
What TripAdvisor says
The character of the building is amazing, and this was evident in our sizeable family suite. It really felt like being in a Victorian period drama with authentic 19th century furniture including a large and comically creaky wardrobe! Comprising of two bedrooms, one for the kids with bunk beds and a cot, and a much larger room for us with a king-size bed, there was plenty of room for the four of us. Having a bathroom, complete with shower and roll top bath, plus another WC meant that we weren’t beholden to the children’s lengthy toilet visits!
Once the kids had been put to bed and we had had our dinner, it was great to retire to our room and relax on the sofa with a night-cap. Views over the Fowey Estuary from our room were mesmerising, both day and night.
The food was superb throughout our stay. Over the weekend the children’s High Tea typically consisted of a starter of breadsticks and crudités with humous for both our kids. On our first night, this was followed by fish goujons and, of course, toad in the hole! I always make a point of, ahem, ‘testing’ the kids food and this was on par with the adult standard of food…delicious! We found the childrens’ ‘Little Toads’ menu as comprehensive and diverse as the adult menu and included typical kids favourites such as pizza, roast chicken, pasta and fish fingers to name a few.
Every night we availed ourselves of the room listening service after the kids had had their High Tea and then put to bed, so we could go downstairs and enjoy an adult meal.
The Cornish mackerel and crab tian I had on the first night was outstanding. The Duo of Charlie Harris’s Beef that followed was also superb. Mrs H had the Driftwood goats cheese tart followed by Gelly farm organic free-range chicken breast and herb mash, and was as equally impressed as I was.
We are not wine drinkers, so we stuck to the lager and bitter on tap. I was particularly impressed with the Skinners Hops ‘n’ Honey bitter I quaffed.
We ended with a peanut butter and chocolate fondant for me and a sticky toffee pudding for Mrs H, both perfect ends to our meals. The food quality is most certainly of a 2 AA rosette standard and was consistently so during our stay.
If it wasn’t for the two instances of the children waking up and consequently alerting the listening staff, it would have been the perfect evening! However, that is exactly what this service is for and it always makes me smile when I think about the fact that you can enjoy this level of food, synonymous with all the best restaurants, knowing that your kids are being monitored.
Breakfast was excellent, I indulged in the full Cornish breakfast for two of the mornings but gave the salmon and scrambled egg a whirl on the final morning. I was so glad I did as, not only was it 'different' to my usual breakfast of choice, it was supremely tasty and proved once again that the food at Fowey Hall Hotel is superb at any time of the day. Often you will find a hotel that is great food and service wise at the prime dining times of lunch and dinner but, for some reason, falls flat at breakfast. Not so at Fowey Hall, they treat breakfast equally as serious as the later meals.
We (obviously!) made use of the free children’s creche, the Four Bears Den, which gave us two hours daily of child-free relaxation time. This gave me the oppurtunity to use the ample-sized swimming pool whilst Mrs H had a massage in the spa which she described as 'blissful'. We didn’t get around to using the outdoor hot tub as the weather wasn’t quite warm enough but I can imagine having a great time in it, admiring the views over the Fowey Estuary.
The outside of the hotel provided lots of fun for our children, fitting many different activities into the available space and enough so that we didn’t leave the hotel too much during our stay. When we did venture out we had the obvious look around Fowey and spent a delightful couple of hours in Readymoney cove where local celebrity Dawn French has a property.
I cannot recommend Fowey Hall Hotel highly enough and it receives a very deserving Editors' Choice award from us. It caters for everything you could want on a luxury family holiday: fine food, excellent childcare facilities, superb location, stunning views and amazing and caring staff. If the rest of the Luxury Family Hotels group are like this then it really is a winning formula!
