Calcot & Spa’s New Treehouses Add A Magical Dimension To An Already Superb Stay

Effortless. That’s the word that keeps bubbling up when I think of our spell in one of two new Treehouses (ours was Skylark) at Calcot Manor & Spa. Even though our weekend was action-packed, even though we had two terrors in tow, even though there are so many diverse elements to this exceptional family hotel, the whole experience felt effortless for us – and appeared to be effortless for the staff as well. Natural, organic, wholehearted and genuine. ‘I can’t think of a single negative,’ declared the mother of the terrible two, my daughter-in-law Flick. And honestly, nor could I.

Olive, aged 6, was more discerning. Charged with following in her grandmother’s footsteps as a hotel critic, she took her role seriously. Here, for the record, are her observations, both positive and negative.

Credit: Joey Kendal

‘They put houses in trees. We loved our bedroom so much and we could watch the bunny rabbits from our balcony. I wish I could always live in Skylark. There were books on our beds to take home about children and nature, and we loved them and we loved exploring the wild meadows and picking blackberries.’

‘It’s a great idea to bring hot chocolate in penguin thermoses to the treehouse but after I’d had mine, I felt a bit sick.’

‘If parents want to leave their kids in the Playbarn with the nice nannies, there should be more things for older kids like me to do. You must be eight to use the room upstairs with computers and stuff. There’s an amazing wigwam in a field with lots of toys and games like table tennis and swingball, but grownups can’t leave the kids there if they want to go to the spa or something.’

Thank you, Olive. Calcot have taken your comments to heart. You can have my job.

Credit: Joey Kendal

How lucky that Olive and her brother Max were there with me to road test Calcot, a place I first stayed at in the 1980s when it was a family home turned seven-bedroom hotel, run by Richard Ball and his parents. The secret to its success and that feeling of effortlessness, of a hotel with soul? After 40 years, Richard is still there and his general manager Paul Sadler is still there and many of the key staff are long serving. With the help of a long-time, long-term investor/partner, Michael Stone and now his son Charles, Calcot has grown – naturally, organically, wholeheartedly, genuinely.

Amid an impressive range of facilities for both adults and children, Calcot’s two fabulous Treehouses are its latest additions. Though built by the same company, Blue Forest, who constructed the treehouses at Chewton Glen, their interiors are very different and less grand: clad in wood, deliciously cosy and characterful as well as luxurious and superbly equipped. The children’s top bedroom (with three beds) is enchanting; in the sitting area, there’s a woodburning stove and, on the wraparound balcony, a sauna and shower. Breakfast comes in a hamper in the morning; there are games, books, a wide sofa strewn with wool cushions and sheepskins, and a king-size double bed in the parents’ bedroom – not forgetting complimentary bicycles, gumboots, and those penguin flasks of hot chocolate on demand.

There was so much to keep us occupied that in one weekend we hardly touched the sides. For the children, a suntrap of a heated outdoor pool; the Ofsted-registered Playbarn and Mez, with computer games and so on, for older kids; adventure playground, toys and games in and around the wigwam, daily special activities such as face painting and magic making; high tea. Those bikes (including pullalong buggies for toddlers) took us on trails around 220 acres of former intensive farmland where for the past 25 years a rewilding project has gradually transformed the landscape into a peaceful sanctuary for wild plants, wildlife and rare birds. There are beehives – and those blackberries.

And for us grown-ups, Flick and I revelled in the calm and airy spa with huge indoor pool, outdoor fireside hot tub, specialised treatments (such as my instant-result Comfort Zone hydraglow facial) and recovery garden for saunas and cold plunges. Calcot also boasts possibly the most impressive hotel gym I have ever seen, indoor and outdoor, with its own Grain Store café, as well as two restaurants serving good if not gourmet food, an outdoor pizza oven and wrap-around terraces for lounging in the sun. And all around, those wild meadows which only add to that sense of effortlessness.

C&TH Key Notes

—What to eat: Pizza, large and small, made to order from the outdoor pizza oven on the terrace; and the deliciously moreish Salt and Pepper Calamari with Gochujang Mayonnaise from the grazing menu at Hive.

—The drink order: A long tumbler of local Cotswold Dry Gin and tonic with plenty of ice.

—Room to request: Stay in a Treehouse if you can, but if on a budget, the hotel’s least expensive Cosy Rooms are intimate, warm and perfectly simple.

—Insider tip: Check out is at 11am, but don’t leave then; you can continue to use the many facilities for both adults and children for the rest of the day and there is so much to keep both occupied that you won’t want to leave.

—Don’t miss: Exploring the 220 acres of regenerated farmland, filled with wildflowers and alive with birds, including a wonderful avenue of walnut trees that leads away from the hotel.

THE LAST WORD

The recent addition of two luxury Treehouses, Skylark and Kestrel, has added a magical dimension to a stay at Calcot, as appealing as much to adults – warm, cosy, characterful and superbly equipped – as to children. All the facilities of the hotel are on hand, but up in the trees in your own eyrie, families feel part of nature and in a world of their own.

BOOK IT

Treehouses, sleeping up to two adults and three children, start from £1,180 per night, including breakfast; calcot.co