I went to the Regent Hotel in February 08 for a 2 night stay. I found the hotel after endless hotel searches in Ambleside which seemed to all bring up dated, old-fashioned looking hotels which weren't what we wanted. The Regent offered a refreshing alternative with modern looking bedroom, all recently refurbished. We paid £300 for 2nights bed and breakfast for 2 people.
The hotel was easy to find and was right near Lake Windermere as promised. We managed to park the car easily in the car-park, although we did notice that once everyone had checked in for the day the car-park looked rather full. It was only a short walk from where we parked to the reception, we only had small weekend bags but wouldn't have had a problem with suitcases.
The staff were friendly on arrival and were efficient and quick in finding our key and getting us to the room. The room was good, thankfully the furnishings and general look of the room was exactly the same as the pictures on the site. The only problem was the room was slightly smaller than the ones pictured on the site, but this didn't bother us as we didn't have a lot of luggage and weren't staying too long. Everything in the room looked and felt new, there were no damages to anything. The room contained a double bed with small bedside tables with a drawer. There was also an average size new flat screen television with DVD (which we wish we had known as we would have brought DVDs!) stood on a large wooden set of drawers and a wardrobe. We did find out that it was possible to borrow DVD's from reception. There was a comfortable chair with a smaller table next to it with tea and coffee facilities.
The room contained everything we needed for a weekend away, and plenty of room to keep all of our things. I would also have found the room to have enough storage space for a week away.
The bathroom was perfect, again it was quite small but the bath, toilet and sink all looked new and completely damage and dirt free. The shower was easy to use (and I do usually have problems..) and was always warm enough, as what the hot water from the sink. There were 2 large complimentary bottles of shampoo ad shower gel, which made a change from the usual mini ones.
There was one medium sized window in the room which was easy to open, and looked out partly onto the lake and partly onto the street outside. There was no noise outside at night so we were happy to leave the window open and could still sleep well.
We didn't have tea in the hotel as we prefer to eat out at night, but we did have breakfast in the hotel which was superb! We were seated in the light airy dining area. All the tables were spaced out nicely so we weren't squashed up to other guests. There was a selection of fruit, fruit juices and cereals which could be self-served from a buffet table, however on both mornings we opted for the cooked breakfast. This included every possible food that could come in a cooked breakfast and it was possible to ask for exactly what you wanted, removing or adding any parts. There were also other options such as a sausage barm etc The food was excellent and came very quickly.
Other facilities we used in the hotel were the hotel pool and the bar. The pool was in its own room which could be accessed without going outside. It had its own French windows which took you out onto the terrace in the middle of the hotel. It was a nice day so plenty of sun came into the pool area which was nice. The water was warm and although it wasn't quite big enough to do serious lengths, it would be ideal for children or people wanting to relax and 'float around'. The bar area wasn't very big, in fact the night we did come back to the bar after our meal it was full so we asked if we could order drinks and take them upstairs which they were happy to allow. The bar appeared to have plenty of selection including bar snacks (crisps, nuts etc)
There is a lovely country pub directly opposite the hotel which has a large, spacious interior and sells a variety of foods. It also had a lovely huge beer garden which sat directly in front of the lake with gorgeous views!
The hotel is a good 15-20 minute walk to the centre of Ambleside, however it is easy to drive there. And we were pleasantly surprised when we asked the hotel reception staff to book us a taxi into Ambleside on the second night they offered to take us in their very own Regent Hotel Taxi for free, which was a small mini-bus owned by the hotel. This was a brilliant idea and would be ideal for people who haven't brought a car with them or want to go out drinking (particularly because parking can be difficult in Ambleside).
Overall we were really pleased with the hotel and have advised it to some friends of ours who are visiting this June, I hope they enjoy it as much as we did.