The website for the Belsfield Corus is fantasically misleading. Having booked in on that, you'd think you were in for a sumptious stay in a Victorian pile on the lakefront at Bowness.
And, well, you kind of are. Apart from the sumptious bit. And only if by 'pile' you mean more in derogatory 'messy' sense that in the 'country house' one.
The Belsfield is sadly shabby, and a rather embarrasing version of what the house must once have been. Carpets held down with gaffer tape, bedrooms damp and musty, and bedding and blankets that even your granny wouldn't make a guest sleep under.
The tatty presentation is complemented perfectly by a Fawlty-Towers-type staff - shambolic and inefficient - and by the youth-hostel-esque feel of the games room just off the lobby.
On the plus-side, well-placed for jaunts around the nearby Lakes, and with Windermere itself just a stone's throw (though not quite as short a throw as the pictures might make you believe - the grounds don't run down the lapping lake shore, but are bisected by a road before they get there).
All in, not a romantic retreat in any way shape or form. But if ping-pong is your thing and you don't mind an itchy blanket, be my guest. Or, rather, be theirs. read more