Buy a Gift - Greenwoods Hotel and Spa Review

Recently I put together a Christmas Gift Guide For Her and in it I mentioned gifting an ‘experience’ instead of a physical gift. Thanks to Buyagift who have lots of packages to choose from, we opted for a pampering hotel stay for a getaway just before Christmas.

For our pampering weekend away we chose to do the Overnight Spa Break with Treatment and Dinner at Greenwoods Hotel and Spa in Essex.

Described as the hidden gem of Essex, Greenwoods Hotel and Spa is set in the beautiful English countryside and the hotel is a Grade II Listed 17th Century manor house which has been lovingly restored and developed. It is also the perfect venue to host any wedding thanks to its stunning Garden Suite, which can hold up to 200+ wedding guests and even has its own private entrance and terrace.

Included in our package was:

Overnight stay at Greenwoods Hotel and Spa
Full access to the spa and leisure facilities
20-minute treatment each
Three course meal at the onsite Ellis’s Restaurant
Breakfast (hot and cold)

On arrival we headed to reception to check-in where I was told that I could book our treatments on arrival. We were keen to make a dinner reservation (as the car park was very full) and we managed to get 7pm as all the later times had been booked up. Once we made it up to our room, we discovered that our spa treatments had been booked for us, along with a table reservation for 8pm, which hadn’t been mentioned to us.

It was a long drive from Norfolk to Essex, so we decided to skip the treatments and instead chose to chill out in the room before getting ready for dinner.

Our room was one of their Standard Manor and Classic Rooms, which has been newly refurbished offering updated shabby chic interior design.

You get two complimentary bottles of water along with tea and coffee making facilities and some biscuits.

Our room was located at the front of the hotel on the top floor and it was so quiet.

The hotel itself including the rooms are an Instagrammers dream, amazing light and plenty of places to get that shot.

Now I’m not sure if you can tell, but we definitely made the most of the beautiful window feature!

It really was the perfect spot.

As I have already mentioned, the hotel itself is a stunning manor house and with it being Christmas you couldn’t help but feel festive, even if weren’t feeling it upon arrival.

Again, this is the perfect spot for a photo opportunity!

There are Christmas features everywhere which really helped us to get into that festive spirit.

There is plenty of seating if you are looking to unwind with a drink before or after dinner too.

As part of our package, we had a three course meal at Ellis’s Restaurant which is an AA Rosette Awarded restaurant.

Breakfast is served in Ellis’s restaurant as well as dinner.

We decided not to take our cameras to dinner and instead enjoy each others company for a change. For a starter I had sweet potato, coconut and chilli soup served with some freshly baked rolls. For our mains we both had the chicken ballotine wrapped in parma ham which was absolutely delicious and for pudding I had the sticky toffee pudding and Alex had the hot chocolate fondant. Both were served with the most amazing ice creams I have ever tasted, I had caramelised banana and salted caramel and Alex had hazelnut.

For breakfast Alex had the fluffiest stack of pancakes and I had Eggs Benedict with bacon. The food served at the hotel really did live up to its AA Rosette Awards and I can’t remember a time where the food was this good served in a hotel.

As I mentioned at the start, this is one of Essex’s hidden gems and for a good reason as the setting for this hotel is absolutely stunning.

There is a photo opportunity at every turn…

They have a veranda area which is the most perfect spot for wedding photos, or if like us, you don’t have enough photos of yourselves as a couple.

Given who I am married to, it’s no surprise that Alex wanted to get a couple of photos for himself. Our styles definitely differ but that is why I wouldn’t have wanted to have shared this experience with anyone else.