Bridgewood Manor Hotel & Spa - Review

Bridgewood Manor Hotel and Spa in Chatham, Kent - Review

It was 11am when we arrived at Bridgewood manor hotel in Chatham, ready for some quality mother and daughter time. We had an afternoon tea, spa treatments & dinner booked for our “mini get-away from real life for 24 hours” treat & we couldn’t wait!

Having some time out with your child, especially when they are adults themselves and even more especially when they have much younger siblings added to the mix is sooo important.

I find I spend most of my time running around after our youngest, making sure he is fully entertained and asking my daughter to help me out occasionally and not really getting the quality time together that she equally deserves, so we try to get the odd day away here and there to just catch up, away from the boys and just spend some time together away from it all. So when the invite came from Bridgewood Manor Hotel, we gratefully jumped at the chance!

When we arrived at Reception, we were greeted by the very helpful and welcoming Anna, she explained everything we needed to know and because our room wasn’t ready (check in was 3pm) Anna gladly offered us a place to store our bags while we enjoyed the facilities Bridgewood Manor had to offer, so off we went to mooch around, being completely nosey at what was going on.

There were a couple of corporate team building and training events going on in the Maidstone Suite & Hastor Suite, which had no effect on any of the hotel guests whatsoever, in fact you hardly knew they were there at all.

What struck me quickly about the hotel is that it was a very traditional, yet comfortable place to be, nearly every member of staff we spoke to were friendly, there is a good mix of sofas, arm chairs and tables in the reception area, which leads into a very stylishly furnished bar area. My favourite part of this area is it serves Starbucks coffee!! - I love Starbucks, so this made me very happy and was already planning a morning of work the following day in this very bar as a total excuse to drink Mochas!

Afternoon Tea

At midday we sat for our fabulous afternoon tea and we were offered potless tea or coffee then presented with prawn Mayo, ham & mustard, cheese & pickle and egg mayo sandwiches, a choice of a sultana or a plain Scone with seedless jam and the best clotted cream I’ve had and a selection of mini yummy cakes. It was big, it was filling and it was rather delish!

Thanks to feeling like we didn’t want to move too much, we thought it would be the perfect time to chill out in the spa and prepare ourselves to be faced down for our back massages and hope we had enough time to digest our large lunch and not throw up on our therapists feet through the face hole on the spa beds! ... which we didn’t by the way!!

Bridgewood Manor Spa

We were welcomed by the lovely Harvey, who happily showed us around the spa and talked us through the facilities. The reception area had some comfy sofas and a tables & chairs and some delicious iced elderflower water, which we couldn’t seem to stop ourselves from refilling!

There’s a lovely large pool in a suitably warm room, where I was told has children’s swimming lessons every week. There’s also a steam room and loungers available to use.

The gym was quite small, but had all the equipment you would need from running and step machines, weight lifting equipment and also free weights. All the machines faced the walls, which I quite like as the last thing I want when I’m in the gym is to be getting any sort of eye contact with anyone, but there isn’t much to look at, so if you’re a hotel guest wanting a quick blast of exercise to your day then it would definitely be more than fine.

We laid ourselves on the two heated loungers they have while we waited to be called for our treatments, we were both having an ESPA back & face massage which describes as “ Relaxing Face and Back Ritual with ESPA - The perfect treatment; combining a gentle exfoliation and relaxing aromatherapy back massage, with a face and scalp massage, to melt away tension and leave skin radiant.” And we couldn’t wait! This could not be more better timed for me personally as my back & shoulders had been killing me!! My daughter got all starstruck with herself, as she glanced down and saw a copy of Vanity Fair magazine, she has recently had her work published in this very copy for her SFX make-up career! - Whoop whoop!!

The Treatments

Steph was my therapist and she introduced herself, asked me a few questions about the details I’d written on my registration card, left me some instructions on preparing for the treatments, left the room ready for me to get myself in place! When Steph returned, she carried out the back exfoliation and massage, she could easily tell there was a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders so paid a little more attention to those areas. The firmness was perfect and she automatically added a muscle relaxer balm when she had finished, explaining that it would help release the muscle tension.

Steph then asked me to turn over and started what I can only explain as the most relaxing and therapeutic face massage I think I’ve ever had in my life! I have literally never felt anything like it! Steph massaged my face, scalp & neck with oil for about 20 minutes, when the time was up I actually refused to believe it!

Unfortunately it was over, but I was allowed to lay there for a couple of minutes before I forced myself to get up and out of the treatment room. If I would have been allowed to stay, roll over and have a nap for the rest of the day I definitely would have done! Sadly, laying there all afternoon was not an option. (sad face)

When I said to Steph afterwards how amazing her treatments were, she seemed pretty relieved. It turns out she had only started working at Bridgewood Manor Spa the week before and although she had been a therapist for eight years, had only just recently learned this particular massage! You would never have known!

We spent the rest of our afternoon chilling out with our greasy hair, helping ourselves to plenty of the elderflower water, then at about 5pm made our way to our room and chilled out for another hour before getting ready for our evening meal.

Our Room

Our room was a twin, it was very clean and comfortable and had everything we needed including tea & coffee, ironing board, hair dryer, towels, a robe, shampoo & shower gels. It was also really quiet. The hotel was extremely busy, yet we didn’t really hear much noise at all.

There didn't seem to be any air conditioning in our room and it did get quite hot through the night, for safety reasons, our window only opened a little and wasn't quite enough to let much air in, there was a fan in our room, but didn't work too well, so if it was any hotter I would have asked for a new fan, but it was quiet and comfy so we were very happy.

Bridgewood Manor Hotel & Spa Food - Squires Restaurant

Bridgewood Manor Hotel is the home to Squires Restaurant and I am pleased to report that our evening meal was absolutely amazing! The menu offered so many dishes from steak to fish, lamb, veggie burgers, pies and even Goat Curry!

We were served by the very lovely Tracey, who was smiley, chatty and incredibly helpful. She was a joy.

As far as food goes, I love the stuff, so when out for a meal I like to go straight for a main in the hope that I have room for dessert, so I had the 'Flamed Scorched Beef & Marrow burger' which included pulled pork, smoked cheese, tomato chutney served in a brioche bun. It also came with fries and I seemed to end up somehow with onion rings too. Well, it was flipping delicious!! It was as big as my head and although I tried, I couldn't manage all of it. I was totally beaten!!

You couldn't pick it up as it was so big, I removed the top half of the bun and used a knife and fork! But, if you like burgers, then I can absolutely recommend this. I think this may just be my best ever burger!!

My daughter decided to have a mixed platter which was listed as a shared starter, but she had it as her main, she loved it. There were tempura prawns, calamari, Cod Goujons & White Bait, the Garlic dip and Chilli dip were a wonderful addition and she added a side of fries too. Like her parents, she also loves her food and happily ate the lot!

Our mains were so filling that sadly we didn’t actually have enough tummy room for dessert, so we grabbed a coffee and took it to the lounge area, by the fireplace to let our bodies recover from our wonderful feast – Yes, it turns out just eating one main serving can feel like a feast!!

After a little while we decided to retire to our room, watch some tv and get to sleep ready for our next day.

Breakfast at Bridgewood Manor Hotel & Spa

After chatting for an hour in the morning, we got ready and went for breakfast. Once again, the restaurant covers every option in buffet style from a cooked breakfast to continental choices, pots of tea and coffee were served at the table with a smile and there was a menu of specialities to choose from too, some of which had a supplement added as extra.

I had fruit, yoghurt and cereal, cause I'm a bit boring like that & my daughter had sausages, bacon, eggs, beans. All of which were cooked to perfection. It wasn't greasy or over cooked and again we were very happy! It was all really, really nice.

After breakfast we checked out of our room (check out is 11am) and then I plonked myself in the bar area, had my Starbucks, skinny Mocha (if there is such a thing - Skinny & mocha doesn't really work does it?) and did an hours work, while my daughter caught up with her Instagram!

I really wanted to find out about their themed nights, which they have on offer and take a quick look around. I was lucky enough to be shown a couple of the suites which seat between 100-200 people for weddings, party nights, conferences etc and they were great sizes and can be opened up to include bar areas for your event. They offer catering such as BBQ’s too, which is a lovely touch.

I was even more lucky to have a peak at one of the newly refurbished Superior rooms and wow are they lovely! Really beautifully decorated and gorgeously furnished throughout. Traditional, yet very stylish, a real home from home feel about it. If it was a room my husband & I had booked, we would have definitely been very happy with it.

Bridgewood Manor Hotel themed nights include dinner, disco and also a stay too if you fancy a beverage or two! So if you like a bit of comedy, Michael Buble, murder mystery or even 80’s nights then this would be a great place to drag your friends and family to for sure … Which I think I may just do very soon!

All in all, Bridgewood Manor Hotel is a really lovely place to go. A welcoming hotel, with great food and fantastic treatments. I would have no hesitation in recommending as a great place to stay over, dine or party in!

Thank you so much for having us Bridgewood Manor, we spent some real quality time together and loved our Mother & Daughter time with you.

We will definitely be returning again soon x

If you would like to know more about Bridgewood Manor Hotel & Spa and what they have on offer, please check out their website here or contact them on the following details.

Bridgewood Manor Hotel & Spa, Near Bluebell Hill, Walderslade Woods, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9AX.

Tel: 01634 201333 Email: reception@bridgewoodmanorhotel.com