Luxury glamping site and B&B up for top awards
TWO county luxury holiday accommodation providers could be named as the best in the country, having been named finalists for this year’s VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
Glamping site Brook Meadow, at Sibbertoft near Market Harborough, and Horseshoe Cottage Farm, in Cropston, have both been shortlisted.
The businesses both triumphed in their categories at the Leicestershire Tourism and Hospitality Awards in March. Brook Meadow won the self-catering/ holiday park category and Horseshoe Cottage Farm won in the small hotel/B&B of the year category.
They were then automatically put forward to the national judging panel.
Brook Meadow is up against Landal Sandybrook in Derbyshire and Secret Meadows in Suffolk, for the title of Camping, Glamping and
Holiday Park of the Year. A working farm, it gives guests the opportunity to enjoy a lakeside break.
There are three luxury lodges, each with a veranda where you can enjoy the view across the lake. All lodges sleep four people with an optional extra of a sofa bed in
Woodpecker and Skylark for a further two people.
There’s a cabin, which sleeps up to four, plus two safari glamping lodge tents and a new Airstream caravan. The site also has pitches for caravanning and camping.
Cropston’s Horseshoe Cottage
Farm is in the final of the B&B and Guest House of the Year category of the awards, alongside two Devonbased businesses - Brightham House Boutique Bed and Breakfast, and The 25 Boutique B&B.
According to the Horseshoe Cottage Farm website, it aims to provide “environmentally friendly, luxury accommodation, along with a warm welcome that includes tea and homemade cake by the fire side or in the pretty cottage garden”. The B&B has been sympathetically restored, but retains many traditional features of the 200-year-old stone farmhouse and barns.
There are 15 core categories of the awards, which also include Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Award, Pub of the Year and Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Award.
Talking about the Leicestershire businesses, Martin Peters, chief executive of Leicestershire Promotions, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to see two of our regional winners on the national shortlist.
“Regardless of the outcome, this already recognises them as being in the top tier of England’s tourism businesses.”
The winners will be announced on June 8 in Birmingham.