Churchill Hotel, Ambleside

Even before you arrive at the hotel, you discover you can't fit down the steep alleyway to the 'car park', which has a severe lack of room and is virtually inaccessible by anything but a bicycle, even if you can squeeze through by folding the wing mirrors in, you have to inconvenience local traffic by having to turn several times to get in the gap.

Upon entering the hotel (at the time of my trip, this was done by dodging scaffolding ...
...my stay) you enter a disgustingly smokey pub, only to have to queue behind drinkers at the bar to be checked in, and you find yourself having to shout over the lager louts, loud music, and the football match on the large projector to be heard by the staff.
There is no real check in area and payment for the room was made in the dining area, with no opportunity to get out of the smoke and away from the din.
After this shambles, the person ... more

Even before you arrive at the hotel, you discover you can't fit down the steep alleyway to the 'car park', which has a severe lack of room and is virtually inaccessible by anything but a bicycle, even if you can squeeze through by folding the wing mirrors in, you have to inconvenience local traffic by having to turn several times to get in the gap.

Upon entering the hotel (at the time of my trip, this was done by dodging scaffolding which was not at all used for the duration of my stay) you enter a disgustingly smokey pub, only to have to queue behind drinkers at the bar to be checked in, and you find yourself having to shout over the lager louts, loud music, and the football match on the large projector to be heard by the staff.
There is no real check in area and payment for the room was made in the dining area, with no opportunity to get out of the smoke and away from the din.
After this shambles, the person at check-in told us our rooms were on the second floor and went to continue serving their obviously more valued drinking customers, we were left to wonder upstairs, the least they could do is actually show us to our rooms!

The rooms themselves were actually very nice despite the unpleasantness downstairs, they look to have been recently refurbished (though with the addition of curtains which don't shut, which are probably a factor in the high over-pricing of our stay...and ours were at a reduced rate! Woe betide any poor soul who paid full price for their stay!).
The en-suite bathrooms are nicely finished, but the showers have only 3 settings, off, hot, and hotter. If you attempted to stay under the slow trickle any longer than 5 minutes the temperature rose to a very much intolerable level. After having a shower after my long journey, I wanted to sleep, but couldn't, as the darn thing was dripping loudly for about 2 hours after I tried in vain to shut it off.

The beds are comfortable, and good provisions of tea and coffee are made available, and the flat screen TV was a great addition. (Also nice to note in the room was no bible taking up my drawer/shelf space!) The iron and ironing board also came in very handy.

Try and get to bed before midnight, but don't expect to sleep. The radiators are turned off at around 12am but the loud thumping of music from downstairs continues, so make sure you snuggle up with some earplugs in!

The morning after a night is disturbed sleep, what with the shower and the music downstairs, was a more pleasant one, and we discovered there was a nice view out of the window.
Although the cramped dining area still smelled of stale cigarette smoke, breakfast was a good, hearty full English. The morning staff are lovely and very accommodating, but the chef could learn to cook the toast properly and not burn one side...

(The 'terrible' family friendly rating is due to lack of cots (they may be available but certainly aren't advertised) and also because you have to drag your child through a smoke-infested bar every time you want to enter or leave the building.)

All in all, our stay was fairly poor, though the modern rooms and proximity to local shops and attractions do make up some of the failings in other areas.  

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