This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa.
One rainy Friday evening in August we packed our bags and filled the car up and headed across the Pennines to a coastal town to stay at the Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa, Formby. It’s just north of Liverpool and south of Southport for anyone who wonders the geographical location of this place because I’m sure when you see the photos of it’s stunning, National Trust beach you will want to go! We had been kindly invited to spend a weekend away at Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa to give an honest account of of our time spent there. So lets delve in to our weekend away!
Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa,
Southport Old Road,
Formby,
Liverpool, L37 0AB
A Four Star, Luxury hotel with a golf course and spa
After a long drive in the rain and a smooth check-in, our room was a welcome sight before we made our way down to our 8.30pm dinner reservation.
We were lucky enough to be staying in one of the loft suites on the second floor. This area is exclusive and only allows those staying in the loft rooms access to it, so it feels really nice to have your own little area of the hotel to go to.
I think the main difference between the standard rooms and ours is that it is a much bigger room. We did think that we would have a separate bath as it does state this on the website for the loft room, but ours only had a rain shower – this isn’t a deal breaker for us but if you do like baths, you may want to speak with the hotel to see if there is a way of guaranteeing one of the loft suites with a bath if you are staying or decide to book a weekend away.
The rainfall shower was brilliant, powerful and very hot for our showers over the weekend. It took a little getting used to when turning it off, but I somehow had the “knack” that Mr C didn’t. Finally, something I can do that he can’t!
The other big bonus of the loft rooms are that it includes complimentary WiFi, ESPA products in the bathroom & a Nespresso machine for those all important morning coffee’s! You can read about all the different room types you can book here.
Our room looked out on to the lush, green golf course and had the local ducks as our morning wake up call (who needs the reception to do this for you when your feathered friends are outside) This was much better than that of the car park on the other side of the hotel, so we were grateful for the lovely view.
My favourite part of the room had to be the big, king-sized bed. Yep, we managed to find time for a couple of swift naps and spent two full nights each star fishing our own side because it was that huge and so darned comfy. It was quite a firm bed, and that is exactly how I like my beds to be – there’s nothing worse than sinking in to a bed that feels as if it is about to engulf you and swallow you hole. Two nights of pure, unadulterated sleep was precisely what I needed after a busy few weeks!
Our stay included buffet breakfast, a packed lunch during our bike ride (which I will get on to later) and our evening meals. Food is a huge part of my travels, purely because I’m a bit of a fiend and I’m always looking for my next meal but also because eating out is a bit of a treat to ourselves as well.
On our first morning we went down to breakfast, we gave our room number to the server. We were told to head to any table and that it was a buffet breakfast so to help ourselves. The offerings were pretty much what you would expect across the board; cereals, fruit and yoghurts, bread and toasting machine and hot cooked breakfast options. We plumped for the hot options and I’ll be honest, it was a typically standard buffet breakfast. That day they had smoked bacon and no hash browns, plus the poached eggs were hard, which sadly didn’t do it for me but Mr C said he enjoyed his more than I had.
That evening after our lovely waitress, Lizzie, asked for feedback from our stay so far and we explained that breakfast wasn’t our favourite. She mentioned that we should have been told about the “special menu.” This is a menu that has a couple of extra options that you can pay for if you so wish, so the second morning I thought I would give it a try. I wish I could say that my eggs benedict (supplement of £3) was worth it, but honestly, I should have stuck to the buffet breakfast. The hollandaise sauce had both a thick mayonnaise texture and taste which was terribly off-putting, the eggs were cooked really well this time but sadly because it was covered in the sauce I didn’t want to eat them.
It’s not all negative though, because everything else aside from breakfast was super! On my first evening I had the potted mackerel for starter, then the mushroom Mac & Cheese for main which were both really flavoursome and a perfect way to start our weekend.
The cute picnic that the hotel provided us for our biking adventure the next day was filled full of sandwiches, quiches, crisps, fruit and yoghurts – it was plentiful and I have to say, “oh-so cute” because of the rucksack they pack it in to.
The stand-out meal for me was on the Saturday night. We decided to push the boat out and order a bottle of Argentinian Malbec (of course) to help wash our food down. After trying my mackerel the night before Mr C went in and chose that for starter and I decided to go for the chicken, leek and bacon tart – both options were delicious. These are included in the A La Carte menu, if you wish to go off-piste from that section you can do for a small supplement which is what we decided to do with our mains this evening.
We both opted for the herb-crusted lamb, and ordered extra sides of dauphinois potatoes and seasonal mixed vegetables. As Mr C comes from a farming background, lamb is one of our all-time, favoured meats and we do like a good cut and for it to be cooked perfectly, and boy did this dish deliver. It was ever so slightly pink and the herb crust gave it an extra texture that I never knew I needed in my life. If I could have eaten that meal ten times over I would have (in fact, I’m craving it as I type right now!)
To round off a perfect meal we both shared the dark chocolate cheesecake and my goodness, this was rich, I’m so glad we shared it but it was heavenly. Plus, the clotted cream and passion fruit sauce was incredible – it reminded me of one of my favourite deserts from M&S so I was pretty chuffed with that. We decided to both have a coffee each before retiring to bed as we didn’t fancy staying in the bar much longer, where there was live music being played.
As we had ordered extra items from the menu, we had a bill at the end which included our food and bottle of wine, which came to around £60 with a tip which we felt was pretty reasonable considering our wine was nearly £30!
The restaurant was visibly busy that evening and it’s easy to see why people were celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and hen do’s here because the evening meals are absolutely divine!
I’ll start by saying I was “pooping myself” when it came to the bike hire! I haven’t been on a bike in years and I was also worried about slowing Mr C down, who is an avid Mountain Biker twice a week! I needn’t have worried because I soon picked it back up again – after all, they do say “you never forget how to ride a bike.”
We collected our bikes, helmets and picnics around 9.30am from the reception so we could get a nice head start before our treatments later that day. We were given a couple of maps with different trails on which we followed (to some extent as Mr C’s navigation skills aren’t particularly great!)
I have to say, our bike ride was a highlight of the weekend for me. And although it took me a good twenty minutes to feel confident on one again, it’s given a me a taste for biking outdoors (and not a static one at the gym!)
We headed right once we were outside of the hotel and followed the windy, country roads to get to a cycle path that would lead to the beach and the butterfly trail that runs alongside the trans-Pennine route. The beaches around Formby are just stunning and to be honest, it’s quite hard to believe that you are in the UK. The long stretches of smooth, caramel coloured sand, lined the shore – the sea was extremely far out that morning so we didn’t quite get the chance to paddle. The wind was a welcome gust after cycling around for some time. I love being beside the water, so for me, it is incredibly freeing when there’s a coastal spot or a lake nearby on our travels. I guess it might be down to the fact I’m a Scorpio which is a water sign!
After spending some time just basking in the sea air, we picked up our bikes again and headed to the National Trust woodland and forests that line the coast. We had tried to cycle to the red squirrel route but sadly my little legs couldn’t handle much more (or my bottom – why are bike seats so hard?) so we met in the middle and headed in to the butterfly forests, sadly, no butterflies were found but we did see a couple of dragonflies which made up for it.
There was a sweet little picnic spot halfway down the trail so we sat and ate our lunch there, the sun was making an appearance for us too which made the ride so much more pleasant (compared to the awful day we had had before!)
I think if we had had more time before our spa treatments we would have considered going on a much longer route, but we settled on 10 miles just as we pulled up to the hotel, which for me, was a small but mighty achievement to say I’ve not ridden a bike for a good few years. Boy, was I ready for our spa afternoon!
Oh I do love a good spa day, it’s one of those guilty pleasures that I just love to indulge in! Our stay at Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa included a complimentary, 55 minute full body massage and my goodness I was looking forward to it.
We checked in about half an hour before our treatment as suggested and all was calm in the lobby, the little cafe was extremely busy where people were having lunch so we found a little nook where we could fill out our treatment forms and enjoy our welcome drink. You can choose between juice, tea and coffee.
Once we had completed our forms we were given our robes, towels and flip flops so we could head down to the changing rooms and slip in to our swimwear and then we were given a quick tour of what was what. The spa is quite the maze with lots of stairs so accessibility wise might be a little minefield to get around with any ease, there are some lifts located around but not as many as I would have liked to have seen considering it’s very up & down.
We were pretty much straight in to our massages, the lobby had become a bit of a chaotic sight at this point with most of the sofas and chairs taken up by other people waiting for their treatments too so we stood for a little while. The therapists kept coming out and shouting peoples names to go in, it felt a little bit like a doctors surgery at one point!
Jazmine was my therapist who discussed my requirements. I wanted quite a medium to firm massage because usually I go for more of a gentle to medium one, but I knew that I had a lot of knots to get rid of after doing a big mail shot at work that week and boy did I get it. For the first time in the history of me getting massages I actually felt myself falling to sleep. Usually I am super ticklish, which I had pre-warned her about, but her firmer touch meant I wasn’t flinching at every touch. It was 55 minutes of bliss and those knots in my right hand shoulder were suitably popped out! Mr C & I had separate rooms which in all honesty, I preferred. He is a little squeamish and tends to laugh all the way through, so this way I could completely relax, but shhhhh, don’t tell him that.
Once the massage was over I was given a little card with all the ESPA oils that were used on my skin which I like because I can see how those products work on my skin if I wanted to buy them afterwards. We then had the full run of the place, sadly that day the Jacuzzi was out of order which was a shame but we found we spent a lot of time in the “Thermal Heaven” area which had hot stone beds, a sauna and a steam room – this was the most relaxing area of the spa.
We did pop down to the pool (where there is another sauna and a Laconium cabin) and we were going to go for a swim but the water felt particularly cool that day so we jumped back out.
As far as the facilities go, it was a big spa with more than your usual facilities but it didn’t blow me away like some others have, I think it just needs a little bit of TLC and it will be more up to scratch. It was extremely busy that day as well so it didn’t quite have the most calming atmosphere (other than when you were in the therapy rooms.)
If you can get a good deal like this one here, then I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it, but I would like to see the Jacuzzi being fixed and it getting a little refresh in some of the areas to make it feel a bit more luxurious – It was the massage’s that made this spa worth spending the afternoon here.
This hotel is a great spot if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of the neighbouring city of Liverpool, like golf and want to enjoy the local nature landscape on offer.
Our evening meal, the bedroom and bike hire were our favourite parts of the stay and if you can get a decent deal to stay over then it’s a lovely spot to enjoy a long weekend.
A special mention goes to the staff, who are fabulous too, everyone we dealt with were very helpful and knowledgeable about the area and what the hotel has to offer!
Would I go back to Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa? My answer would be, yes, on the basis that the hotel wasn’t in full, wedding period mode (as there were lots going on the weekend we were there) and the breakfasts got a little bit of a face & taste lift. I’d also love to explore more of the National Trust parks too – maybe we can go back when my little legs can carry me further!
Room Comfort: 5 Sleep: 5 Breakfast: 2 Evening Meal: 4 Facilities: 4 Spa: 3.5 Treatments: 5 Staff: 5
Overall: 4 out of 5
Bee
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