Macdonald Old England Hotel & Spa

We had a family rooms.. which was very generously sized, with 3 large,very comfortable beds and good facilities. Breakfast was very tasty with plenty of choices. All saff helpful and friendly. Really handy being so central in Bowness & plenty to do around and about... as always the views were amazing. Only negative point to make was that the wifi wasnt too great in the hotel & we gave up trying to download anything for our daughter to watch. Also its an additional £20 to park... so watchbout for that. ...given the price of the stay, we thought it should have been complimentary ... but, hey ho.... it wouldnt put us off staying again Overall really happy with our stay x

Amazing hotel in a stunning location. Breakfast service was a bit hit and miss with toast and coffees arriving after we had finished eating (25mins after ordered) on the first day all the food was tepid, the pool was excellent for the kids, shame the sauna was not working. Views were stunning, bar staff and porters fantastic, 1 or two maintenance issues but other that that great. Avoid ordering wine in the hotel at £12 - £15 per glass its extremely overpriced.

Good breakfast but it did get very busy to get a table , I liked the option for table service . The door did not have a secure working lock / latch as it was broken so the door could be easily opened from inside and having a toddler this was quite hard as he opened the door and ran for the stairs a few times so it was hard to relax in the room without putting a chair to the door to secure it . The outdoor lighting would be amazing for summer too at the rear seating area next to the bar . The staff were really nice and professional. Good lift for us having a baby ! Brill that we could use the spa facilities . Fantastic location honestly could not fault the location . Parking was offsite but wasn’t far.

Lovely place right on the lake but check in was 4pm i had my daughter who wanted to go in the pool the kids are only aloud in till 5pm so by the time we checked in it was too late to go in the pool then we said ok we will get up early before we check out at 11am to find out the kids are not aloud in the pool till 10am so we could only spend half hour in there i booked this as my little girl just wanted to have somewhere she could go in the pool so it wasnt what i expected

The staff are excellent from front desk to cleaning staff - friendly, polite, hard working and helpful. The location is fantastic. It appeared the restaurant was a little understaffed during breakfast and dinner. I did have a few issues during my stay which I feel were addressed by the manager when settling the bill. I have to say though, the pool isn't suitable for families with very young children due to the cool temperature which I think should be noted somewhere.

Absolutely stunning lakeside property. Amazing marina, outstanding food, excellent customer care. All round, an amazing experience for the whole family. Stunning views from all aspects... Will definitely be back again!

We very much enjoyed our stay here. So much so we extended our stay by 1 night. The room was very comfortable for our family of 4. My children loved the bunk beds. The location is amazing. Of note, the pool only allows children from 10am to 5pm this was a bit surprising and we were unaware prior to checking in. A bit of a disappointment. Also, as others have mentioned the breakfast could use improvement. Items were frequently empty. You could see the breakfast staff was trying to keep up with the demand so i don’t think the issue is the fault of the staff.

We enjoyed staying as a family of three, 1 adult, two teenagers however, it would have been useful to have known that the pool closed to under 16s at 5pm when we checked in at 4pm. We went at 6pm and only found out then. We would have gone straight after check in if we had known. One of the main reasons I booked was so that we could use the pool so it was really disappointing. We are offered a later check out at 12 but had already booked a boat trip for the morning.

What was meant to be a wonderful one night stay with family at a 4-star hotel (for close to £300 a night per room) turned out to be a thoroughly disappointing experience. Throughout our stay (excluding the two members of the hotel staff at the front door) we were constantly made to feel unwelcome and not valued as guests. Despite having made our bookings a month in advance, we were not provided rooms on the same floor. Upon making reservations the night before, the maitre’d assured us a table with a view by the lake for breakfast the following morning. However, in the morning the same maitre’d told us it was impossible to seat our group near the window.There were many unoccupied seats by the window when we arrived to breakfast. The staff were unhelpful and impolite. When we asked housekeeping for toothpaste, the housekeeper replied, ‘Jesus, why would we give you toothpaste? Go get it at Tesco!’ The breakfast buffet lacked variety, the English breakfast was occasionally cold, the bakery items were stale, and we were told the chef was too busy to process egg orders. Though the bathrooms were well kept, they lacked basic amenities (like toothpaste or slippers). Some rooms had no fridges either. The rooms had no ventilation! We woke up in the middle of the night sweating.

We had a wonderful stay. The staff were helpful and friendly and the rooms were clean and bright. The breakfast was wonderful. We were in room 227 and with hot weather the room was very stuffy as it was on the second floor and windows couldn’t be opened. With a family and being the summer, I would have thought the kitchen would have stayed open longer (we couldn’t get an ice cream) and the family use of the pool should be available earlier than 10am.