Stop 9 Horwood House

Stop 9, Horwood House

 

On arrival at Horwood House it’s hard not to feel like royalty as you travel down the ¼ of a mile tree lined driveway. The beautiful Elizabethan style house, built in 1911 for Frederick Arthur Denny (who had made his fortune in pork and bacon) stands at the end of the driveway and would be our home for the next two nights. The hotel, in Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire, is set in 38 acres of landscaped grounds and is easily accessible from the M1 and M40. 
 

The hotel houses 182 standard and executive rooms, and offers an impressive indoor swimming pool, spa, sauna and gym.

 

At reception we received a warm welcome from the staff and were allocated room number 202.


The hotel is quite large and although we had a bit of a walk to our room with our luggage, things were made easier by the use of ramps and lifts. The room was of the usual excellent Principal Hayley standard. Clean and fresh with modern facilities including a very large flat screen TV on the wall. We were very impressed with our welcome gift of wine and chocolate orange biscuits. Our favourite!

After a long day we decided to have dinner in Tempus. Some old favourites were on the menu and we enjoyed our beloved beetroot and feta salad and Chicken Kiev. We also tucked into our all time favourite Tempus dessert Chocolate Orange Torte!

 

Dinner took us to the hotel’s Tempus restaurant again on our second night but his time we were feeling a bit more adventurous and veered away from our familiar favourites on the menu. Hayley C opted for the sea bream and Hayley A for the beef, bacon and mushroom pie, both of which were delicious and very filling.  

The hotel was bustling with two weddings and a 40th birthday party. Everyone looked like they were having a great time and the staff were certainly looking after everyone. We left the parties behind and after a long day we were looking forward to a restful night sleep.

Out and about

The next morning, after filling up at the buffet breakfast we headed to nearby Milton Keynes to try out the Sno!zone. There are a variety of activities available here including, skiing, snowboarding and even an indoor sky dive centre. A hilarious half hour was spent riding doughnuts own the real snow slope.

Arguably the funniest photo I have ever seen - Hayley C

In need of warming up, we headed to the MK centre. If you like shopping this is definitely the place for you! With lots of shops and restaurants we were spoilt for choice on where to have lunch.

After a stop at Jamie’s Italian we went in search of the famous Milton Keynes concrete cows. The cows are an iconic work of sculpture, created in 1978 by Canadian-born artist, Liz Leyh and have been re-homed from a public park to the MK centre. We also managed to squeeze in a cheeky massage at the local Bannatyne gym, which was a relaxing end to the day.

Sunday dawned bright and we were looking forward to our trip to Waddesdon Manor an astonishing Renaissance-style château, designed by French architect Destailleur in 1874 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. The château, about 25 mins drive from Horwood, has beautiful gardens and each room inside the house is filled with stunning pieces of art work.

        

They were also hosting a Mustang event on the day which gave us even more to see. The house is definitely worth a visit!

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Horwood house and were very impressed with the attentiveness of the staff and the care that they took to make sure guests were enjoying their stay.

Bye for now from the Hayleys!!