When you eventually reach the house – it’s a long driveway – you’ve got seven acres to yourselves. Wander the 300-year-old walled garden, take your Prosecco out and sit by the pond, feel like a country squire with shotgun cocked under your tweedy arm.
Sit under the stars and bubble in the hot tub, towel off and chill on the sofas beneath the parasol, then crack the croquet balls through the hoops. Spark up the coal barbie and get the steaks sizzling in the clean country air. Dine al-fresco, toast the views, enjoy the hotel with the best guests in the world.
Rooms here are grand and great, the kind of interior spaces once given over to reprimanding children for apple-scrumping or for discussing the decline in the grouse population. But there’s nothing stuffy or formal about Amber Hall today. These are spaces in which to revive, rejuvenate and reconnect with the people who matter most.
Amber Hall’s living areas form a beautiful period tapestry of ornate cornicing, vaulted ceilings, Queen Anne legs and high skirts. You’ll love the august atmosphere but you’ll never forget that this is a home. Family pictures hang on the walls, sofas are deep and comfy, and log fires abound.
Traditional features of yesteryear here blend perfectly with the conveniences of today. You can stream away on the EE wifi, dock your iPod, delve into the Blu-Ray DVDs and stay up as late as you like bingeing box-sets on the drawing-room TV. Yes, there’s a drawing room. Of course there is.
Escape the madding crowd in the games room, with its flatscreen TV and table football. Keep on top of your email, or just bag a little quiet me-time, in the two studies. Amber Hall offers 8000 square feet of accommodation, with spaces in which to gather and gossip or just bury your head in a book.
Whose turn is it to cook? You’ve got a gas oven, two fridges, a microwave and dishwasher. Eat around the 14-seater table in the baronial dining room among the family portraits and busts.
If you fancy eating outdoors beneath the sky and the stars, then there’s coal to load onto the barbie. Break out the steaks and the sausages, pour the Prosecco and drop a toast to the long horizon. Or leave it all to the experts: call up our chefs for a one-off meal or fully catered break. When you’re done, chill awhile with a Nespresso under the parasol.
Pubbing it? It doesn’t get much better than Welsh Pub of the Year The Glynne Arms, with its lovage and lettuce soup and 6oz burgers. Pop into the farm shop when you’re done. Sit out on the terrace at Glasfryn with your rump steak sandwich and cask ales. Or how about spiced lamb kofta at Pant-yr-Ochain?
Get behind the neoclassical Greek facade of the Opera Grill in Chester to discover yellowfin tuna sashimi and Isle of Man scallops washed down with tasteful music. Or maybe you’d prefer braised featherblade of beef or beech-smoked duck breast at the renowned Sticky Walnut in Hoole. Can 1500 five-star reviews be wrong?
And so to bed. Choose from nine classically elegant bedrooms plus a double sofa bed for two more. Rooms here are a symphony of deep skirts, heavy drapes and sash windows.
Bedroom one, the master, offers a superking with a sumptuous private bathroom, while bedroom two is a kingsize with a shared bathroom.
Bedroom three provides a double bed with a shared bathroom and bedrooms four, five and six offer kingsize beds with shared bathrooms with bedroom four also having a double sofa bed. Bedroom seven is a double and eight a twin with a shared bathroom.
Finally on the second floor is double-bedded bedroom nine. The games room doubles up as bedroom ten with a double sofa bed. Pick from four family bathrooms and one shower room.
Drift off in the splendid silence of the Welsh countryside wrapped in crisp cotton in the embrace of deep mattresses.
Keeping kids buzzing and behaving on holiday can be bigger than any challenge you face at the office. But give them a big house with plenty of rooms, seven acres of garden and the company of their favourite people and they’ll make memories out of every moment.
Out there in the gardens, with its miry paths, alcoves and walled garden, there’s an endless game of hide and seek to be had. Follow that up with croquet on the lawn and you’ll have delivered a healthy dose of vitamin D while you bubble and boil in the hot tub (but be mindful of the pond).
Back inside, exhibit A might well be the games room. Kids can twiddle and twist their way to victory on the table football game. When they’re done with that, they get their own TV in the same room. Raid the Blu-Ray DVDs, get stuck into some games, compete on the Playstation or just stream away on the EE wifi.
Gone are the days when the only way to view a house was solely by way of poring over flat and sometimes confusing floor plans. With the emergence of 360-degree video we have an exciting new way of being introduced to the layout of a house.
With a few clicks you can be leisurely making your way through living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and bathrooms – the whole house in all its beauty waiting for you to step on in for an effortless and insightful virtual tour.
