[Pond]

God I hate looking for hotels. Booking sites are way too complicated, all hotel websites say they are best hotel ever. I think I have found at least five so far that advertise themselves as "the best hotel in the dales".

I want a decent hotel (even a decent pub) in the dales for a short break in late July. Must have good food without costing £50 for a burger and chips (I don't care if the potatoes have been fried 14 times in peacock fat!).

I don't go away a lot and am very fussy about where I stay. I am happy to pay good money but it needs to be worth the money. I saw a hotel today for £350 a night that had a bath with a shower attachment and a curtain! That is not my idea of somewhere I want to visit.

I have walked out of several hotels over the years due to their lack of quality, crap food, customer service or other reasons. I walked out of one hotel and demanded a refund on my honeymoon! My new wife was not best pleased. None of these were cheap places.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

[NickP XM]

Have had excellent stays at both of these...

https://yorebridgehouse.co.uk/

https://angelhetton.co.uk/

[isleaiw1]

Hotels are vwry personal, you might think is pretentious or cheap or stuffy or tired..

Does it have to be a hotel? What about a nice quirky self catering place but eat out where you want to?

Which bit of the dales? Its a big area!

Will you be wanting to use the hotel facilities ectensively or is it really just a place to sleep and tour from?

Narrow down what you want and the comments of suggestions will be much better!

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

Hotels are vwry personal, you might think is pretentious or cheap or stuffy or tired..

Does it have to be a hotel? What about a nice quirky self catering place but eat out where you want to?

Which bit of the dales? Its a big area!

Will you be wanting to use the hotel facilities ectensively or is it really just a place to sleep and tour from?

Narrow down what you want and the comments of suggestions will be much better!

He knows what he is talking about. Trust me.

Fun fact.....
I once booked three entire hotels from isleaiw1 on lets just say an extended booking.

[Pond]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

Hotels are vwry personal, you might think is pretentious or cheap or stuffy or tired..

Does it have to be a hotel? What about a nice quirky self catering place but eat out where you want to?

Which bit of the dales? Its a big area!

Will you be wanting to use the hotel facilities ectensively or is it really just a place to sleep and tour from?

Narrow down what you want and the comments of suggestions will be much better!

I want a hotel (not self catering) to 'stay' at, not just sleep and eat.
I want to be able to eat there, as don't like finding somewhere locally and having to travel.
I don't want these trendy, pretentious and stupid expensive 'taster menu' type dinners. Not for me at all.

All I want is somewhere clean, well kept with modern facilities and a bit of space (but not stuffy and pompous). Like being at home only better!

I want good, normal food (not the taster stuff), ideally with a choice of restaurant and bar food.
And a bar with draught beer, I don't drink wine!

As I said, I don't stay away very often (at all) so I want better than home, which is not too much to ask for the kind of money they ask these days IMO.

As for location, not too fussed, as long as it's in the countryside and in the dales (ish).

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by F30Andy

He knows what he is talking about. Trust me.

Fun fact.....
I once booked three entire hotels from isleaiw1 on lets just say an extended booking.

Those were the days!

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by Pond

I want a hotel (not self catering) to 'stay' at, not just sleep and eat.
I want to be able to eat there, as don't like finding somewhere locally and having to travel.
I don't want these trendy, pretentious and stupid expensive 'taster menu' type dinners. Not for me at all.

All I want is somewhere clean, well kept with modern facilities and a bit of space (but not stuffy and pompous). Like being at home only better!

I want good, normal food (not the taster stuff), ideally with a choice of restaurant and bar food.
And a bar with draught beer, I don't drink wine!

As I said, I don't stay away very often (at all) so I want better than home, which is not too much to ask for the kind of money they ask these days IMO.

As for location, not too fussed, as long as it's in the countryside and in the dales (ish).

That will help people make suggestions. Although I would always say that exploring the ocality looking for the best places to eat and drink is part of the fun.

Never stayed there but friends use the devonshire arms at bolton bridge quite alot.

[Pond]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

Although I would always say that exploring the ocality looking for the best places to eat and drink is part of the fun.

Not for me. Especially as the places we are looking at are not particularly near anywhere.

[isleaiw1]

And thats why when people used to ask me to sort a hotel for them and which would i recommend, my first question was always "whats important to you?"

Can we add "miles from anywhere" to your list of requirements?

[mmm-five]

Might be too far north for what you're looking for, but when I had to work at our Barnard Castle site I used to stay at the Rose & Crown in Romaldkirk (about 6 miles north-west of Barnard Castle) or Headlam Hall if our whole team was visiting & someone else was paying (about 10 miles east).

Can't remember what the bathrooms looked like, but the Rose & Crown offered both a gastro-pub bar service and/or proper restaurant dining.

https://www.rose-and-crown.co.uk
https://www.headlamhall.co.uk

[Pond]

Originally Posted by mmm-five

Might be too far north for what you're looking for, but when I had to work at our Barnard Castle site I used to stay at the Rose & Crown in Romaldkirk (about 6 miles north-west of Barnard Castle) or Headlam Hall if our whole team was visiting & someone else was paying (about 10 miles east).

Can't remember what the bathrooms looked like, but the Rose & Crown offered both a gastro-pub bar service and/or proper restaurant dining.

https://www.rose-and-crown.co.uk
https://www.headlamhall.co.uk

Tanks but that's a bit too far north.

[Pond]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

Can we add "miles from anywhere" to your list of requirements?

Not really. I just don't want a town centre, or town at all. Village is fine.

The other option we are looking at is somewhere near (but not in) Edinburgh.

[Sheepy]

Dales wise the Wensleydale Heifer is one of our favourites
https://www.wensleydaleheifer.co.uk/

Leith just outside Edinburgh easily accessible by tram in about 15mins, no good if you don’t like boats but it didn’t move to be honest & loads of restaurants very near by
https://www.oceanmistleith.com/

[isleaiw1]

I'm confused, Barnard Castle is too far North but Edinburgh is OK?

As for prices these days, blame NI increases, business rates increases, inflation on food and drink, inflation on power and gas, reduction in corporate business as everyone wants to work from home etc etc

Most hotels probably dont make a profit most nights. so dont blame them for the current prices...

What about something like this?
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_...e_England.html

Shouldnt be overly stuffy, very very good trip advisor reviews and in Richmond with lots of places to eat that you can walk to. Just google what's available, trip advisor before you book, no longer constrained to one location...