HAPPY, HEARTY HOLIDAYS
A chic new family resort in the Lake District has hit upon a winning formula, says WILL BAXTER
LET’S face it. A holiday in the Lake District isn’t exactly the easiest thing to sell to pre-adolescent children old enough to complain about the weather. Yes, there are bracing mountain walks, chocolate-box villages, proper pubs and real beer — all ideal for me, but I’m not convinced my 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son will buy it.
But then I hear about Another Place, The Lake — the new 40-room resort hotel from the people behind popular Watergate Bay on the North Cornish coast, where we have stayed in the past and were bowled over by the latter’s cliff-top location and buzzy, family-friendly vibe.
My children were obsessed with Watergate Bay’s indoor infinity pool with its floor-toceiling windows and eagle’s-eye views over the beach to the surfers beyond.
And you know what? When we arrive at Another Place to spend five nights on the shores of Ullswater, a few miles outside Penrith, the first thing the children discover is an almost exact replica of the Cornish pool, complete with those same wrap-around windows.
What these clever people have done (as in Cornwall) is take an old, down-at-heel hotel and given it a total makeover, adding a roster of endless activities to suit intrepid adults and raring-to-go youngsters. It’s a gold-medal formula.
On arrival, in a brace of shakes, we are kitted up in wetsuits and find ourselves paddleboarding merrily towards the peaks at the southern end of the lake.
Luckily, we’re under expert instruction, but that doesn’t stop one of our party taking an unscheduled dip while attempting a super-fast 180- degree tail- turn. Me, actually. Cue hoots of laughter all round.
There’s kayaking and sailing, too, with availability and weather conditions chalked up daily on a massive blackboard in the New Englandstyle reception.
The blackboard is just one of the ingredients lifted from the Watergate Bay menu.
Another is the Living Space — a relaxed dining area that’s all tongue-and-groove panelling and Farrow & Ball colours — where parents work their way through vast goldfishbowl-sized gin and tonics while taking on their children at