The Grove, Chandler's Cross

We recently spent a lovely weekend at The Grove in Hertfordshire with our 1year old baby boy. The Grove is a beautiful, luxurious hotel, set within 300 acres of gardens with a Championship golf course, award-winning Sequoia Spa, three restaurants, a magical Walled Garden, woods, urban beach...the list could go on! We arrived early before our room was ready, however the staff were excellent and really helpful. They took our car keys, unloaded our car and placed all our luggage and baby paraphernalia in our room, whilst we had lunch in the Stable restaurant. The Stable restaurant offers delicious brasserie type food and has a fantastic kid’s menu. The staff in the restaurant were so accommodating and provided plenty of crayons and paper which kept our baby happy, whilst we tucked into our stone-baked pizza’s. There are tables outside overlooking the golf course, which in warmer weather, would have been great to sit on whilst watching our baby wonder about on the grass. Our rooms were a great size with inter-connecting doors. The décor was stunning, with huge plasma screens, roll-top baths, White Company bath products and best of all, homemade chocolates – for me of course! In the baby’s room there was a box of toys and a travel cot –which had already been set up. After lunch we went for a long walk in the gardens – which are absolutely beautiful and there was plenty of space for our baby to run around. We also went to Anouska’s, The Grove’s OFSTED inspected kids club. They run a golf cart shuttle service, from the hotel to the club, which our baby absolutely loved. Anouska’s has an outdoor adventure playground, indoor swimming pool (which is warm enough for babies), a bouncy castle, face painting, cake decorating, jewellery making and teddy bears picnic. Next door is the urban beach and an outdoor swimming pool – excellent during the summer months. Teenagers are also catered for with The Grove’s Games Room and Teen Zone, which comes complete with an X-Box, Playstation and Wii. Whilst my husband took our baby for a swim, I took myself off to the Sequoia Spa where I relaxed by the pool and read a magazine! Bliss! I’ve always been a little reluctant to leave our baby with a babysitter when we are away so had not considered booking one for the evening. However the babysitters’ are all from Anouska’s and I would definitely book a babysitter for the next time we stay here. Even though we were not able to go down to one of the restaurants for dinner, we did have the most fabulous room service, whilst watching a DVD from the hotels film library. The food and wine was amazing and we had a lovely chilled out evening Breakfast was in the Glasshouse restaurant, which had the most spectacular breakfast buffet we had ever seen. There was every type of fruit, pastry, muffin, cereal you could imagine, even our baby who is not a big breakfast eater tucked into a big bowl of fresh fruit. Overall our stay at The Grove was brilliant. The staff are so friendly and were amazing with our baby. We had such a lovely time and we would definitely come back – but next time for longer!

The Grove was a fabulous break for all the family, a championship golf course for the dads, a superb spa for the mum, delicious cuisine in 3 restaurants and outstanding care and activities for children. This find really is worth its weight in gold. It offers a luxurious relaxing break but your little ones are welcomed with open arms, the Christmas and Easter breaks we have attended have been magical and a lovely time to share and relax together as a family. The emphasis is on planning lots of activities for parents to share with their children and Anoushkas is on hand when mum and dad wish to relax at the spa etc. The baby sitting service is wonderful, we were given the same lady every night of our stay to ensure continuity for the boys. I am counting down the weeks to our next break there I cannot sing its praises loudly enough!!!