The Spa Hotel Review: Rudding Park, Harrogate, UK
Review: Yolanda McGinness
Rudding Park Hotel, Follifoot, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 1JH
Review: Yolanda McGinness
Rudding Park Hotel is an impressive, grand building, boasting a multi-award winning spa (recently with fabulous additions and expansion), 90 bedroom set over 2 wings (the Ribston Wing and the Follifoot Wing), and set in 300 acres of landscape gardens and woodland. A spa cafe offered informal dining (in spa robes if you wish), a 3 AA Rosette, fine-dining restaurant; Horto, and The Clocktower Restaurant for all day dining in style. The hotel rooms, walls and corridors are adorned with oil paintings and sculptures, and the Library is a room that deserves a special mention with its lavishly furnished interior.
Located near Harrogate, Leeds and York, this is a venue well-known for its duo of golf courses, popular Gold Academy and golf school – where both serious and amateur golfers flock to hone their game. The quaint chapel situated in the grounds and the decedent stately rooms also make for a gorgeous intimate wedding ceremony. There is a private cinema (offering ‘Dine and Cinema’ nights) and the recent addition of the new spa has already clocked up numerous industry awards and a loyal repeat client base, and with the very fabulous roof top spa garden it’s not hard to see why.
Our bedroom was a Spa Room with actual access to the spa from our terrace rather than having to walk back through the hotel. The layout was contemporary and spacious with Super-King bed, sofa, beautiful leather chair with a small table, a desk with that ‘all important’ mirror – perfectly placed for drying and straightening my hair (it’s surprising how many hotels get this so wrong!) There was a mini bar with complementary water and juice and snacks can also be purchased if you get peckish. The sleek bathroom had underfloor heating, ‘his and hers’ sinks and a separate shower with dual shower head. The ‘spa bath’ was enormous and fluffy bathrobes, slippers and Molton Brown toiletries were on-hand. High-tech lighting control stations ensured you are able to set your desired ambiance of each room.
The Spa here is super-luxe and followed the sleek, chic, contemporary feel of the rest of the hotel. We were greeted by Charles who took us around the entire spa and fully explained every feature which was really helpful. The Spa has an indoor pool which was injected with ozone rather than chlorine, and there were numerous areas to sit and relax and various saunas and steam room which we enjoyed, but the highlight for us was the new Roof Top Spa and Garden, with the Hydrotherapy Infinity Pool, Panoramic Sauna, Herbal Bath Steam Room, Luxury Steam Room, Spa Bath, Foot Spa, Sun Loungers, Herbal Steam Room and a Garden Sauna Cabin – the recent additions were nothing less than amazing! Great for the sunnier weather, the loungers on the sun-deck to make ease of dipping in and out of the pool with stretching views over the grounds from the roof.
I opted for the Carita Anti Age Holistic Facial and on entering the spa treatment area I was met by an attentive receptionist who asked me to complete a pre-treatment consultation form. i was collected by my beauty therapist Charlotte, who escorted me to the treatment room and talked me through the treatment step – by – step and as I settled down on the heated treatment bed I was immediately put at ease by Charlotte’s friendly but professional approach. Carita products were used which felt wonderful, and smelt divine. Charlotte was very attentive and paid particular attention to areas that I was concerned with, she geared the facial to my own needs.
In the evening we dined at Horto Restaurant, with a fine-dining menu inspired by nature and which incorporated fresh produce from its’ own Kitchen Garden. I ordered a Garden G&T Cocktail for a refreshing pre-dinner drink – which did in fact have herbs in from the garden! To start I opted for the Scottish Cod and my husband had the Whitby Crab. We both selected the Yorkshire Venison for main. The Yorkshire Strawberries tempted me for healthy dessert while my husband went all out with the Chocolate Tart, the dishes all had amazing attention to detail, all the dishes were cooked to perfection and packed with flavour.
Rudding Park Hotel | Follifoot | Harrogate | North Yorkshire | HG3 1JH
A one-night stay at Rudding Park starts from £172 per room per night or a one-night spa break starts from £177 per person per night including half board, a 50-minute treatment and access to the spa Access to the Roof Top Spa and Garden is £35 for two hours (01423 844 840; ruddingpark.co.uk).