I satyed one night at Rothay Manor with may family. Amblrside is a lovely little town by the lake, and there Rothay Manor locates. It is within a walking distance both form the Ferry pier and the city center. The staffs are very friendly and atttentive. We enjoyed dinner and breakfast, which were very good. The room we satyed is a wheelchair accesible room on the ground floor. The room was spacious enough to move around with a wheelchair. The bath room was very spacy and a wheelchair user could use it without any difficulties. There was a bath tub and a roll in shower in the bathroom, so I could take a shower . They also prepared a shower chair. As other people mentioned the room need to be refurnished, I agree this, but the room is still lovely and it really has a country hotel taste, which I really enjoyed. The hotel was quiet atmosphere in the dinig room and also in the living room where we could relax. I hope we could visit the hotel again.

We booked this hotel because of the reputation of being a family friendly hotel but unfortunately not as child friendly as I had hoped.

Another selling point was the balcony on a superior room, unfortunately the balcony isn’t private and the furniture on it was pitiful.

Breakfast is poor with undercooked eggs, no matter how you have them, and there was limited choice with the English breakfasts. There was a choice of cereal and toast was provided by the bucket load, I do like toast. Some variety in jam would be good. If you like raspberry jam then you’ll be ok.

Room was scruffy with poor fittings and scratchy bed linen. Childs bed was simply a sofa bed, not suitable for a child of 2 ½. There is a serious need of modernization as the room had a 90’s feel to it. It was fairly clean. There was a distinctive noise that was really irritating, it sounded like a drip of water onto a hard surface (amplified by 20 times) every 30 seconds or so and it never stopped. There was also the drone of the boiler nearby, if you used the hot water it would start up, although it did stop after a little while.

I expected a separate seating area in room where the LCD TV would be, there wasn’t, it was directly in front and beside the sofa bed where my daughter was sleeping, so no chance to use that.

The shower trickled to say the most and was barely usable.


£440 for two nights and I expected a lot more from this hotel.

The staff were very friendly and efficient and the other guests were all extremely friendly and well-to-do. The guests seem to have been of the older generation whilst I stayed there.

Parking was great with plenty of room.

I think the moral of my story is that this hotel is nice, but I would expect “nice” from a travel lodge or a premier inn and I would be paying much less for perhaps a similar room or better. If your reading this review and expecting this hotel to “Wow” you I would suggest that you just look around a little longer before making your final decision.

We were delighted with a two day break (via Travelzoo) staying at Rothay Manor. The quality of the food and the service was first class. Our standard room was a good size, the bed was very comfortable and the housekeeping staff were zealous in their duties. The centre of Ambleside was an easy, er, amble from the hotel and we enjoyed several good walks in the nearby valleys. Plenty of parking space and nicely maintained gardens at the front of the hotel.
There were nice touches when dining at night with the families with young children occupying a separate section of the dining area from other guests. Very welcome.
Minor cavils? Well the main dining room needs a refurb, especially the vile French Mustard colour on the walls, the good wine list is rather too Bordeaux/Burgundy centric for our liking (though there is an adequate choice from other countries) and the wine glasses themselves in both the dining room and the bar don't do the better wines justice. ...definite need for some Riedel or Schott Zwiesel there. None of these detracted from a very enjoyable stay and we'd be very pleased to return.
A final note, the Post code in your SatNav can easily lead you to the wrong hotel as the code covers more than one hotel. Best to approach the Hotel via the A5095.

I took my husband to the Rothay Manor for his birthday. We were very impressed with the food and the attentiveness of the staff. The selection of food for breakfast was excellent and every thing was very fresh. Finnan haddock was a treat for breakfast and the home baked bread at dinner time was delicious.