“The Cottage in the Wood Hotel”:http://www.cottageinthewood.co.uk/ We stayed at The Cottage in the Woods for two nights, meeting up with my daughter and her husband on the second night. We had a lovely dog-friendly room in The Coach House part of the hotel with a balcony and wrought iron chairs and table on the outside patio where we could enjoy the lovely views of the Cotswolds. We walked through the woods from a footpath leading directly from the hotel, along a ridge to St Anne’s Well Cafe. It takes about an hour but it’s stunningly beautiful in the Autumn leaves. The cafe is vegetarian/vegan and serves simply home made food. We had the homity pie which was made specially for us. Sitting outside by the pond was a delight.
From there we walked down into Great Malvern and had a wander around the Priory. Highly recommended. It’s beautiful, imposing, historic and just amazing. The ladies in attendance were very helpful and informative and let us take our dog into the interior. There was a choir assembling to practice The Messiah and the whole visit was just magical.
We got a taxi back to the hotel for about £6. The taxi driver was very informative about the area and the hotel and told us that Margaret Thatcher used to frequent the hotel as did Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones. I can’t imagine a more bizarre couple, can you?
We had dinner at the hotel on Saturday night. The restaurant was busy but friendly and cheerful. One of our party was vegan and he was catered for very well as we had phoned ahead to let the restaurant know. Nothing was too much trouble. The meal was quite expensive but that’s because we had two bottles of wine (there were four of us!) Approximately £50 per head with wine, puddings and Irish Coffees.
All in all, an enjoyable and memorable stay.
