For a certain someone’s special birthday I booked a treat night away local to us at the Hurt Arms in Ambergate. We loved it so I thought I’d do a little review for anyone close to us in Nottingham that fancies a night away that’s not too far to travel or if anyone is venturing up towards Derbyshire on their UK travels it’s a lovely place to stay that’s really close to picturesque places like Matlock Bath and Bakewell.

Room – 8/10

I’ve started scoring things out of ten because I think it’s really helpful to see what I actually thought rather than just saying how nice it was because you wouldn’t know on my personal scale how nice, nice is! I hope that makes sense.

The room was great, lovely double bed, robes, a big wardrobe, good locations for the plugs, a bathroom with a bath, shower and some toiletries. The room also had a telly with Netflix which was fab because it’s always nice to chill at the end of an evening with some Netflix and a hot chocolate. We also loved the interiors style which is a big plus for us.

Night’s sleep 6/10

As lovely as the room was I didn’t have the best night’s sleep. I never do in hotel rooms as I’ve usually had a glass of wine or two being away which doesn’t help me but this was my fault! The bed was lovely but the room was also too hot and the windows weren’t really able to be open as we were accessible by a fire exit and I didn’t feel comfortable with the window being open. We stayed on a Sunday night so when the pub had it’s delivery at 6am on a Monday morning it was also quite noisy. Ear plugs would have been a great addition to the room.

Local area 7/10

The local area, around Derbyshire has lovely things to do when the weather is nice and also nice places to hide for lunch and afternoon tea if it’s raining. Close to Matlock Bath, the Peak District and the dales and Bakewell there is lots to do. But, without eating if it is raining there isn’t too much to do. There is the Heights of Abraham quite close too but if the weather is overcast there isn’t much to see.

Value for money – 10/10

I thought this stay was amazing value for money at £109 for a night’s stay for two, a three course meal for two with a bottle of wine and breakfast in the morning from a huge selection. I think this is such good value as the food was beautiful. The menu wasn’t huge but it had lots of options and was perfect. We had shrimp tacos and cheesy dough balls to start, L had fish & chips and I had a lovely lighter salmon dish with Asian stir-fried veg and we shared a big brownie sundae for dessert and it was all lovely. The breakfast was also great, we had sausage sandwiches that were perfect.

Overall I think their Sunday Retreat offer is amazing, I paid for it all myself as a gift for L and I’d definitely go back again for the same stay although I might ask for a different room a bit higher up or not near the fire escape so that we could have the window open. That’s just me being fussy!

Have you ever been to Matlock or Ambergate? Let me know your favourite UK break in the comments.