World4Traveler

Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire England, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

We stayed at this very beautiful hotel for 4 nights as a short break. While this hotel will never be a cheap break, it certainly is a luxurious and pleasant one.

The hotel is situated in a massive estate that was first mentioned as far back as the Doomsday Book, but is more famous as an estate that Henry VIII owned and first received and met his first wife (Catherine of Aragon) here. Over the many years the estate and house passed through various families. In the last century it became a place where airmen stayed during the Second World War, was various schools and a Catholic Seminary. The main house was basically destroyed in about 1981 and was rebuilt and became a corporate headquarters for a computer company before being added to and converted into the stunning Four Seasons hotel in 2005.

The hotel is situated very handy for London, and it takes less than an hour to get there down the M3 motorway near the Fleet and Hook exit at Dogmersfield. The hotel is on the Dogmersfield Park. You drive up this long driveway through the huge green grounds and the restored house rises on a hill. It is very cleverly built as the added wings are not really visible when you first drive in.

The grounds around the hotel are immaculate and include a formal garden, croquet lawn and herb gardens. Then, of course, the huge open grounds that lead down to a small lake. The picturesque Basingstoke Canal passes around the estate, and is great for long walks and cycling.

The entrance to the hotel is beautiful and impressive. Service throughout the hotel is impeccable. As per an up market and costly hotel like this the service is personal ad efficient.
We stayed in a "Heritage Room" which looked out towards the formal gardens and across towards the Spa building. The room had a "wow" factor on entering and was more luxurious and beautiful than the photos I had seen before going. There is a large bathroom with big and comfortable bath, shower and basin. The bedroom area has a table and chairs, comfortable chairs to watch TV and a large comfortable bed.

The whole hotel is incredibly well done with a clever mix of modern and traditional. The Seasons Restaurant (where breakfast is also served) is attractive with amazing food. The Bistro and bar is trendy and funkier.

The Spa is really good. There is a large indoor pool with outdoor heated area (and no children are allowed in the pool form 11am to 3pm). A well equipped gym and make and female relaxing rooms and sauna and steam room in each changing room, and also in the pool area. There are 15 rooms for treatments and the best deal is an all day package that includes foot massage, body scrub, body massage and facial – which also includes lunch at the excellent Café Santé.
There is a lot to do at the hotel outdoors and we especially enjoyed using the bikes to cycle around the grounds and canal.

It was an expensive break, but you felt very pampered and special. We will be back even though we live less than an hour away…

PHOTOS: View all my photos of the Four Seasons and the grounds on Flickr: click here

VIDEO: View a video of the grounds, hotel, room, spa area and nearby Basingstoke Canal on the blog posting or on YouTube