We stayed for 3 nights with our friends and cannot fault this fantastic hotel. The food is amazing and the staff are very efficient and friendly. Front of house, Kath is a wonderful host and has perfected the balance of always being on hand but never intruding. After reading a few reviews we worried about the size of the standard cottage rooms. We needn't have, as they were ideal. Sitting in the lounge with a warming log fire and home made cake was perfect after a day out. We will return.

We visited this restaurant with rooms in the summer and it was just wonderful. The food was imaginative and beautiful and really well executed each night, Kath was polite and helpful and clear and the views from the dining room were just glorious as the sun set over the mountains. We will be back. What can I say to make this place better? I just don't know. Perhaps fresh milk in the rooms in a sealed flask? But other than that...However please bear in mind that this is a top notch restaurant with rooms, not a hotel. Best wishes for a great year, Kath. You are doing a fantastic job and we loved it. Mark and Howard

We've stayed here many times in the last 5 years and have never been disappointed. We've just returned from a fantastic 3 night break over the New Year, where once again we enjoyed amazing hospitality and the most marvellous, wonderful food. Every course is a delight - a real adventure for the taste buds and it is always beautifully presented. We love going out for a day's walk, knowing that there will be a sumptuous meal to come back to each evening.

The Cottage in the Wood Country Hotel and restaurant is a former 17th Century coaching inn situated in the heart of the Whinlatter forest near Keswick, in one of the most beautiful and dramatic areas of the Lake District national park. We stayed here for 2 nights last year to celebrate my wife's "significant" birthday and took along our son and his fiance. The hotel is superbly positioned quite literally in the middle of the wood and its dining room has quite the most superb view of Skiddaw. The co-owner Kath is front of house and is a marvellous example of a welcoming and efficient host whilst her other half beavers away in the kitchen to produce quite marvellous food (we ate out on the second night at a nearby "starred" restaurant and the food was poor in comparison). The rooms, like the hotel, are modern and chic though not exceptionally large but all have a "certain something". Staff are friendly and knowledgable and a credit to the owners. The meal and room rate are great for what you get. We would unhesitatingly recommend the Cottage to others and have in fact done so. A true "new find" in the Lakeland fells.