The Spa Hotel - Royal Tunbridge Wells

For one of my birthday gifts Joe got me a night for us at The Spa Hotel. I have been saying for ages that we need to book a weekend away for us somewhere to just chill and relax. So I guess he took the hints! Obviously because it was a gift I had no idea what the place was like and I didn't want to research beforehand.

Once we arrived the place looked amazing inside and out. I loved the pond at the front and the vines going up the building. Check in was quick and the receptionist was lovely giving us all the information we needed.

The Room

My favourite part about the room was the bathroom. Look at the marble. Bloggers heaven. I'm used to going to hotels with bathrooms you can barely swing a cat in. Off topic but can anyone tell me where the saying 'swing a cat in' came from?

I also loved the little tea cupboard up on the wall. Little things like that I love about hotels. You are giving bathrobes to use while at the hotel and spa but if you want to keep them it cost £20 each. The TV was pretty shit with most channels never having signal but we didn't come to watch TV. 

At night we didn't have to worry about the heat as the room has aircon.

The Spa

We were allowed free access to the gym, pool, sauna and steam room with our stay. We left it to late to book massages but they also do treatments, tanning and nails and a fee. 

The pool was within a glass window roof what I can imagine looks great on a clear night. They supplied loungers and foam floaters at the pool. I was so happy once I saw the floaters. I can swim however I haven't swam in 10 years so I'm not the strongest swimmer anymore. We had so much fun using these, having races, just enjoying ourselves having a laugh.

The steam room is unisex however the sauna had its own men and womens. I prefer saunas to steam rooms. I don't know why but I always get panicky in steam rooms and find it hard to breathe. Anyone else?

The Scenery

Before diner we decided to go for a walk around the hotel while it was still light out. The Spa Hotel hosts a lot of weddings here and I can see why. The place is beautiful. As we kept walking we found more cute things like a bridge over a mini lake where there was a family of ducks. There was a band stand that I can imagine would make great wedding photos with the views in the background. There was even a tennis court that you can use while at the hotel.

The Food

We didn't realise that we was actually meant to book a reservation for dinner but the waiter was more than helpful and found us a table. There was live jazz music to enjoy while eating. Joe wasn't keen to eat at the hotel as he says 'hotel food isn't always the best' but after having the food here I think he will be taking that statement back.

For starters I had the heritage tomatoes, burrata and basil. For something so simple I was surprised at how tasty this was. I really liked the basil pure/sauce.

For main I went for the smoked haddock, poached hen egg, buttered spinach and mustered sauce. Oh. My. God. This was heavenly. The sauce was sooooo good, I was trying to hold myself back from scoffing the whole thing within a few bites. My only criticism is that there wasn't enough! Joe got himself the fish and chips and said his fish was so flaky and cooked just right. He also got creamy potatoes on the side which I tried and it must of had cheese in it because I'm telling you now that is the way I'm going to make mash from now on!

Obviously for blogging reasons (not because I'm a pig or anything) I got a dessert, apple crumble with cinnamon ice cream. I've never had cinnamon ice cream before and now I'm confused to what stopped me from trying it sooner! Wasn't to sickling overall the pudding. Joe got the valrhona chocolate fondant with tahitian vanilla ice cream and yes it was gooey in the middle.

While having our meal I decided to order a long island ice tea cocktail. It's one of my favourites and always make it at home. It is risky to buy though as it can be pretty strong. Well, I took one sip of this and it felt like I had taken a shot! The barmen must of noticed I wasn't drinking my cocktail and asked if it was to strong and brought me a free bottle of coke the mix it with. I thought that was pretty sweet of him.

Food was all reasonably priced. Our meal came to about £60 including drinks.

Breakfast

For breakfast at The Spa Hotel you had a buffet choice of fruits, meats, cereal and pastries that you could go up multiple times. The pineapple, melon and watermelon was delicious. A waitress then asks what you would like from the menu. Here is a selection of the usual fry up choices. You basically make up your own fry up and she bring this to you. Breakfast was ok but I did find that it was to salty. I also would of liked to be able to go up more than once for my fry up.

Would I go back?

Overall I really enjoyed my stay here. The service and food at dinner is what sold it for me. I would happily come back to The Spa Hotel just for that. Since coming here it has made me realise that just spending that extra bit of money really does make a difference. You do get what you pay for!