Review: A Day at Bovey Castle in the Sunshine

Bovey Castle is a stunning place (or resort as they call it) nr North Bovey in the middle of Dartmoor National Park, Devon.  It is a hotel, golf course, spa plus bistro and restaurant.

We visited on a stunningly hot July day and made the most of it.  You can just see the edge of the Boules pit in the foreground of the photo above.  We spent a lot of the day on those two sun loungers that are almost out of the picture.  And yes, I did get sunburnt....! Grrrrr.

There are many public rooms where you can slurp a cuppa or read a magazine but we were really impressed with the bistro lunch.  There is a beautiful terrace where you can sit in the sun or shade and admire the stunning views.   Above you can see the Lemon Sole that I ordered and the homemade fishcakes that my partner devoured.

Thanks to the generosity of my Australian friend, I had a Spa Experience which meant my first time getting a Hot Stone Massage (this was fairly firm on my back and was preceded by a blissful foot scrub) and a Mini Facial which was exquisite.  The beautician was very skilled and made me feel lovely.  My partner used the gym and then we had the indoor pool and sauna to ourselves as we made the most of them.  There was also a steam room but I am  not a fan of them.  My only quibble was that the Ladies changing rooms had a rack of lockers but they were all locked and had no keys.  I would have liked to use one and the changing room was consequently rather cluttered with everyone's clothes and bags.

Day membership (which my partner used) was £25 which includes all activities and towels excl lunch and golf.  There are some good Groupon deals for the golf at the moment (July 15).  Overall I would highly recommend it.  They say that children are very welcome too - it was during the week and we saw none although we did see the Falconer heading out with his dog and birds.

The Lovely Lido Revisited!

We enjoyed Clifton lido so much in feb 2012 that we went back there in November.  We had lunch downstairs in the tapas bar, rather than upstairs in the restaurant. My personal favourite was the tortilla, Spanish omelette, and my partner was pleased to enjoy the scallops cooked in the wood oven, just like we had last time upstairs. The fresh bread, just still warm was incredible.


We also managed to do a few lengths in the pool, and spent a while in the sauna, steam room, shower and freezingcoldbucket area.

All exceptional!

I even met S. in the sauna who I was about to spend 48 hours with at the Penny Brohn Centre in Ham Green.  True coincidence.

The food was as yummy as I remember and the overall feel of the lido is very relaxed and quite luxurious at the same time.  I really like the new toiletries in the shower areas that are made by the Cowshed people but branded as Lido products. Nice smellies!