I'm not one to get too mushy about the romantic side of life, but recently I was invited to review a new sleep experience at Hanbury Manor in Ware.
"Where's Ware" I hear you cry?! Ware is a 40 minute hop from Cambridge or London into the wilds of, well, Hertfordshire. It's really not far at all, well worth making a visit for a country retreat not too far from civilisation. Hanbury Manor is a
200 acre Jacobean country estate on the very outskirts of Ware and part of the Marriott Group. It's the perfect romantic hideaway, should you fancy a chilled out break with the love in your life... or it could be the selfishly indulgent solo spa retreat you've been needing for a while.
Setting The Scene: When I first met my bearded man friend, I told him all about my blog, the superb venues I get to sample afternoon tea within and the
luxury hotels & spas I review as Miss Sue Flay. As we got to know each other better, there was a promise of hopefully being able to take him along with me for the odd pamper. And so the day had finally arrived to treat him to a luxury spa break -
so exciting. 
This is the perfect location for a mushy, romantic getaway and with Hanbury currently teaming up with Duxiana Beds for the
"Ultimate Sleep Experience", this was the recipe for a much needed rest for the both of us. Off we skipped, hopped and jumped, frolicking hand-in-hand up through the trees up the green driveway and into a grand candlelit hallway through to the reception desk where we were greeted by a friendly young lady who addressed me as my real self - I like to stay
incognito on a review trip.
The Geeky Bit: Duxiana is a brand I'm very fond of, remembering back to the days of the Duxiana showroom on Jesus Lane in Cambridge, I used to pass it on the bus whilst studying at my local Sixth Form college,
lusting over a snooze in one of their showroom beds in the window - this weekend retreat saw that mini dream finally come to life.
Hanbury Manor and Duxiana have also teamed with Lumie Lights and Rajeunir, combining an advanced, luxurious bed with the
Lumie Bodyclock Iris to relax & invigorate your senses and a Rajeunir moisture serum to keep your skin healthy and radiant. They believe that sleep should be "engineered" and for everyone that can combine these luxury elements, why shouldn't it be? I'm a firm believer in getting a good sleep, of which I genuinely don't get very often due to a back injury that keeps me from comfort
more than I'd like. The Duxiana beds are designed to support your body for
optimum pain relief and recovery, of which I didn't realise to start with, it's pure fluke that I was about to put this bed to the back pain test.
The Lumie light is a type of alarm clock, but instead of an annoying, shrill beeping, you can programme it to send you to sleep or wake you with a mist of aromatherapy oils or mists to relax or awaken your senses. Rajeunir provide you with a container of luxurious moisturiser to use on your face and neck before a good sleep, we ended up calling this our
"Eternal Youth Serum" and we are still doing so almost a week later - it's making us feel younger, even if we don't look it.
The Dux 818 Bed: Duxiana have carried out extensive research to develop a selection of handcrafted beds, all tailored to meet specific needs. Their showroom in London encourages you to try them, but as a brand, they're now working with hotels such as Hanbury Manor to allow you a full night to road test them.
The Dux 818 is their most advanced bed and the one I got to try out here, with nearly four times as many springs as an ordinary bed. The lumbar support is individually adjustable for each side of the bed and that's as nerdy as I can get here - if you want to read more about the specifics of this bed, and I suggest you should, you can see more on their
website about the intricate details.
What I found most important is that it passed
"the jump test"... Yup, I like to kick off my shoes, have a good old jump on the bed and see if I can swing from the chandeliers - the Dux 818 didn't fail to impress me with its' spring action. In all seriousness, this was literally the comfiest bed I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in, I'm honestly not just saying that,
it's true. 
In fact, not even my own bed compares, that's
really saying something as I invested a lot of money in my own personal bedroom.
I'm now ready for a serious upgrade, I have a feeling it would do my back pain wonders, so I best get saving my pennies... Or if Duxiana is reading this and have a tatty ol' thing laying around, they're welcome to tap me up.
The Room: 
We stayed in a
Prestige Room, within the body of the main house, with access to their spa, golf course and gym facilities throughout our overnight stay. The Prestige Rooms have been recently upgraded, but what I did like about this room for a change was that there was no air conditioning unit within the room. This meant that we didn't have dried out, bloodshot eyes, of which we've suffered on our recent travels elsewhere.
Our bathroom offered a great sized bathroom, complete with fluffy white robes and slippers of which we made use of in the spa the next morning. The
loo roll origami impressed me as a total geek for this stuff and the lounge are had a comfy sofa where we camped with my pre-prepared carpet picnic of scotch eggs, crudités,
prosecco and cupcakes on arrival - bliss. This hotel is full of character, complete with a vaulted chapel which was set up for a wedding whilst we were staying, it looked stunning and I couldn't resist a nosey up close before the guests descended, what a grand room. I'm not interested in golf personally, but the golf buggies (even hover board-style buggies) almost tempted me to off-road, had the keys been left in the ignition...
Ahem.
The Spa: You can pre-book beauty and relaxation treatments here, however we didn't have time during our visit to get a massage or manicure which is a real shame, but we did get to use the rest of the spa facilities briefly. We were up very early for a Saturday morning (for us anyway!) and got into the gym for some cardio work before breakfast. There are no mats or free weights here, but plenty of machines to get your heart rate pumping before a full English in the
Oakes Grill. After breakfast we enjoyed a quick chill in the steam rooms (they have a separate one for men and for women), a quick sit in the unisex sauna and a few laps of the swimming pool before checking out.
Even though our visit was simply an overnight stay,
we still felt revitalised for using these facilities, so if you don't have time for treatments, you can still get quite a lot out of your visit.
The Food: The buffet breakfast was the
breakfast of kings, we could opt from a full cooked English breakfast buffet (the sausages were the tastiest I've eaten in a very long time), freshly baked pastries, fresh fruit with yoghurt, a selection of fresh muffins or breads to toast as well as a menu to choose an array of other breakfast options.
What I did like about the buffet was that if you didn't want the eggs on offer (fried or scrambled) then you could have a fresh omelette made up to go with your breakfast.
We enjoyed their afternoon tea before departing, of which we enjoyed with a glass of champagne to keep us going for the rest of the day. There's so much to say about this afternoon tea, it deserves it very own blog post...
The Little Extras: The toiletries within our en suite bathroom were
L'Occitaine which was a lovely touch, I haven't yet used this brand within a hotel stay before and I was thrilled to find one of my favourite beauty brands awaiting me. And it wasn't just the hand soap and usual hair supplies on offer, I also had access to a shower cap, sewing kit, nail file and even a miniature bottle of mouthwash - we were well catered for.
Dux also create
luxury bed linen - the lightweight duvet and pillow selection were all contributing factors to one of the best nights' sleep in a very long time for both of us. The pillow selection was superb, with two of the biggest pillows I've
ever seen. I could barely hold both of them together, they were
almost as tall as me. Breakfast was served between 7am through to 11am, I loved that there's an option to have a lazy start to your day... There's absolutely nothing worse than only being able to grab breakfast until 9:30am whilst staying away. We had ours whilst in our gym gear and felt comfortable sat out on the outside veranda enjoying some sunshine, with such a lovely view!
The Little Niggles: We were visiting to try out the Ultimate Sleep Experience, however on realising that our Lumie Bodyclock
wasn't set to wake us up naturally the next morning, we found that the chamber for that particular essential oil was empty -
*sob*. I called down to reception, but housekeeping had left for the day and we were offered a "normal" wake up call of which we politely declined for a Saturday morning.
A real shame, as this is a fairly important element to the experience, so we didn't get to sample being woken up naturally within our stay. My advice would be to check this before you settle in for the night...
There were two little packets of biscuits on the tea tray, however one of the biscuits was
crushed beyond belief, I still can't quite work out how on earth they would have crumbled so badly, it was if somebody had stood on the pack and popped it back. I could feel this was crushed, so when I opened it, powdered biscuit fell everywhere, oh dear, they certainly weren't dunkers.
Final Thoughts: Just two rooms currently house these luxury Dux beds, so if you decide to book an Ultimate Sleep Experience, you will need to specify on booking, a spa stay will cost between £150 - £200 per person, depending on your fancy. Although at full capacity during our stay, with not one, but two weddings this weekend, it felt so peaceful - the perfect snoozy start to our chilled weekend.
Pillow fight anyone.....?
www.marriotthanburymanor.co.uk
Read my new
"About Me" page here! You can also read about Miss Sue Flay's
"Around The World In 80 Stays Challenge"and other
Secret Stays & Reviews here. See more of my
travel videos here and more of my
food review videos here. Or get in touch via social media through
Facebook, Instagram &
Twitter for a natter about life in general!
Please note - This visit was complimentary following an invitation from the team. I am in no means obliged to blog or write about their offerings, but I simply choose to share with my readers, should I enjoy the experience. The service team that work on the day or duration of my visit are not aware of my reasons for visiting, to enable a fair review. Any questions or to discuss a "Secret Stay" or review, please do email:
hello@misssueflay.com All images © 2015 Miss Sue Flay, these may not be used or reproduced without written permission from the owner, many thanks in advance.
Having recently stayed with Hanbury Manor for their "Ultimate Sleep Experience" with Duxiana Beds, I promised that I would blog separately about their afternoon tea - so here it is, there really was far too much to say not to. I have been lucky enough to sample afternoon tea at Hanbury Manor a while back now, but they have recently changed their menu and I was invited to give it a whirl. Well, who was I to say no? You must know me by now... 
Setting The Scene: Afternoon tea at Hanbury Manor is served within their oak panelled study close to the main entrance of the hotel and what a stunning room this is. With carved and ornate decorations over the fireplace and around the windows, it's the perfect location for a traditionally British afternoon tea. There's a choice of tables to book when you visit, options including a formal and elegant high table within the secluded library behind the main walls, or a slightly more informal and lower table within the study itself. 
We went for a lower table, complete with soft, cushioned chairs to recline in as we sipped on our Pommery champagne after arriving. The champagne tea of which we were sampling served my favourite sparkling beverage in the most beautiful etched flutes I've ever sipped from at tea, these made it feel very special before we had even started. In fact, this champagne is very light, almost too light... I managed to sip it rather quickly and the bubbles did seem to go straight to my head, ahem. 
We ordered different teas to sample as many as we could, opting for the Royal Tea blend and a light Ceylon for my bearded friend, who was a little unsure what to go for in place of the usual "builders tea" he would normally make. The Afternoon Tea: The tall afternoon tea tier looks mightily impressive on serving, with the first element I spotted being their salmon pinwheel sandwiches, these looked so striking and inviting in equal measures. But, not only did they look beautiful, they tasted as good as they looked - perfectly moist and filled with tasty smoked salmon, a real wow factor for this tea. 
These were certainly the highlight when it came to the finger sandwiches, as unfortunately the rest were rather dry and had started to curl. I know how much of a challenge it can be to keep finger sandwiches fresh, but these had been made a while and hadn't kept well. The fillings were very traditional, cucumber & mint, ham & mustard on a walnut bread (our next favourite) and egg & watercress in a pink beetroot bread - very unusual breads, I liked the selection used in this way. We were also served a thin savoury muffin topped with crayfish, but again, the muffin was very dry and felt almost stale to the bite, it just wasn't very pleasant. A real shame, as again, this could have worked very well as a slightly different savoury offering to this tier. 
I would, however, also urge any afternoon tea venue reading this to please stop using watercress with your egg mayonnaise finger sandwiches. The thick, long stalks don't taste good or feel good when biting into a (what should be "dainty" or ladylike) sandwich, this is personally a real bug bear of mine. What's wrong with normal cress when it comes to this filling? Perhaps it's just me? We were offered more finger sandwiches, but we didn't take our waiter up on the offer, but there was plenty of food to keep on enjoying this time. The Scones: So, moving on to the scones... Oh these scones were worthy of the visit on these baked goods alone. 
They were served wrapped up in a cloth napkin (we were also provided with these for our laps, my bearded friend choosing to tuck his into his collar instead of over his knee of course ; ) to keep them warm for longer. I love this touch and have only seen it in one other hotel before, so I'm always pleased when they're tucked up in this way. Scones should break through the middle when pulling apart with your fingers and these did so beautifully, they were fluffy in the middle, light as air and tasted heavenly. We could even taste the glaze on the top of the scones, of which I asked for some geekery on as they tasted so good. 
Executive Head Chef, Raj Chakraborty (who is a fine man indeed) tells me the secret to a good glaze is as follows. 
The Sweet Treats: The miniature cakes for this afternoon tea were to share between two, including a battenburg, glazed strawberry tart with vanilla creme Patisserie (my fave with a crisp pastry shell), a moist lemon & basil macaron and a chocolate torte with a rich chocolate ganache to finish us well and truly off. There was also a watermelon (trifle?), I'm not 100% sure what it was, but unfortunately it was a slush by the time we came to try it, it had curdled and did not taste or look good in any way. I would say this probably wasn't needed, perhaps it was there as a pallet cleanser, but it really didn't work for is menu. They could perhaps look at offering a shot of lemon posset or a jelly in future, but this didn't taste of much which was, again, a real shame. 
The Little Extras: On serving our champagne to accompany our tea, were were advised to call over to our waiter when we were ready for our food. He took our tea order, then allowed us time to enjoy the glass before anything else was added to the table. I liked this touch very much, as it can sometimes be too much to balance a champagne flute on the table with tea and food at the same time. We weren't rushed, our table was ours for as long as we required, it was a very relaxed afternoon indeed. If we didn't need to rush off afterwards, I could have easily snoozed here all afternoon. 
The Little Niggles: We felt very much "watched over" as we dined, as the large team of waiting staff hovered by the door next to our table. They were stood there chatting quietly, but it felt rather intimidating being stood over as a dining guest. With four large scones being served, there simply wasn't enough jam to put onto all of them had we wanted them all. There was plenty of clotted cream, however, it was simply too solid to smother on top - clotted cream really should be served soft and you should be able to dollop it gently onto your scone. This had been in a very cold fridge and had to be cut out of the bowl and placed on top. Not a huge issue, but still... 
Final Thoughts: The afternoon tea looked fabulous on serving, it has an elegant look about it and I would say it's perfect for couples wanting to try and share lots of different elements or for small groups looking for somewhere sophisticated for a civilised celebration. The champagne tea at Hanbury Manor is £31.50 per person. Special dietary requirements can be catered to, it's advisable to arrange on booking, prior to your arrival to avoid disappointment. www.marriotthanburymanor.co.uk 
Read my new "About Me" page here! You can also read about Miss Sue Flay's "Around The World In 80 Stays Challenge"and other Secret Stays & Reviews here. See more of my travel videos here and more of my food review videos here. Or get in touch via social media through Facebook, Instagram & Twitter for a natter about life in general! To find out more about my afternoon tea etiquette tips, simply click here. Please note - This visit was complimentary following an invitation from the team. I am in no means obliged to blog or write about their offerings, but I simply choose to share with my readers, should I enjoy the experience. The service team that work on the day or duration of my visit are not aware of my reasons for visiting, to enable a fair review. Any questions or to discuss a "Secret Stay" or review, please do email:hello@misssueflay.com All images © 2015 Miss Sue Flay, these may not be used or reproduced without written permission from the owner, many thanks in advance. 
