We didn't have much vacation days left to book at work as we already had a few trips lined up for the rest of the year, so we started looking for weekend breaks around London. Lake District was an option but we had already been there on our way back from Scotland. Isle of Wight was already done. Cornwall was a bit too far for a weekend break. The lighthouse near Dover was booked all the way up to December. The idea was to go some place no more than a 4 hour drive away.
After much deliberation, the husband realised that I had never been to Peak District. He had spent some time near Manchester, but I had not seen any of the Midlands.
A hasty search for hotels resulted in disappointment. School holidays were still on (nearing their end), so most everything was booked or ridiculously expensive. After almost giving up, I expanded my search to the outskirts of Peak District and ended up on a booking.com site for The Ladderstile Retreat at Congleton. The reviews for this place were very good and the photos amazing - so we booked!
The plan was to leave Friday evening after work and get to Congleton by dinner. We thought we had left work and hit the road in time to avoid the rush hour, but we had underestimated the Friday evening traffic. With roadworks in play as well, we soon realised that we weren't going to make it to Congleton by dinner. Called up The Ladderstile Retreat to inform them that we were going to be late and to check whether there would be any restaurants open around the area. We wanted to make sure as the husband had spent time in this area some years back and knew there aren't many restaurants open late. This is when we got to know that The Ladderstile Retreat is not technically a hotel; it's a BnB run on a working farm and Congleton is a very small village with not many eating options.
Ok..that was an unexpected surprise, but as were still a couple of hours away we grabbed some dinner at a big enough town nearest to Congleton and then made our way to The Ladderstile Retreat. The entrance to the farm is on the A-road but it's quite conspicuous and we nearly missed it a few times over the course of the weekend. Though it was quite dark when we approached the farm, we knew it would be quite a sight the next morning.
We were met by Rose who ran the BnB. She led us to the guest area which was in one corner of the farm house. A gorgeous deck led to a beautiful foyer with lots of windows and shelves stacked with books. The bedroom and the bathroom were huge and very nicely decorated. Rose had spent a lot of attention to the intricate details. The booking also gave us access to the living room which was separate from the family's living room. This spacious living room had everything one would need to spend a day hibernating - cozy furniture, tv, movies, books, games - you name it. It was after we checked out of the place that we regretted not having taken a few more days off as The Ladderstile Retreat is a perfect place for a staycation (including massages and other therapies!)
We were exhausted from the trip, so after letting Rose know what we would like for breakfast, we called it a night.
Once we finally got back into the car our SATNAV refused to work of course, so we thought it best to follow signs to the nearest town which ended up being Castleton. As I mentioned earlier, we could not find any hotel bookings within Peak District and we finally saw why - this wee little town/village was buzzing with people. We were lucky enough to find parking and as it was almost time for lunch, we decided to explore Castleton to see where we can get a bite. It took us no more than 15 minutes to make a round of this town/village and we ended up at the Ye Old Nags Head for a traditional pub lunch!
Our SATNAV came to life at the pub and so did our phones. Finally catching some network, we tried to figure out where to go next and decided to go to the LadyBower Reservoir. The drive was amazing with some breathtaking sceneries. Our SATNAV behaved thru most of the drive, till we were almost pretty close to the reservoir where it then decided to get is off the main road and cut across on a single and extremely narrow road with gorgeous houses every half a mile or so. Though this road was quite nice, we were stuck a few times when a car (or even bicycles) approached us from the other end - either one having to back up to the nearest opening. Have to say that we realised the SATNAV's doing only on the way back when we missed turning into this road and followed the main road instead!
After some google searches back at the Ladderstile Retreat, we figured our best options for dinner was either in Macclesfield or Knutsford. There were plenty of options in both these places and both towns were almost equidistant from Congleton. I don't know what came about us, but we decided on an Nepalese-Indian restaurant in Macclesfield called Gurkha. I was a little skeptical going in as it looked quite drab from outside, but once inside - this place was quite a surprise. Beautiful ambiance, good service, and good food - one couldn't ask for more.
Once back, considering there is not much to do in the dark in this area, we planned out our next day. We were to head back to London and wanted to be home before dinner, so there was only time in the morning. After much deliberation, we called it an early night; thinking it best to take a call the next morning depending on our mood.
The morning started with crisp country air outside and another gorgeous breakfast table laid out by Rose.
We hired bikes from Hassop and then went a mere 2.5 miles down to Little Longstone - all in all the 5 mile ride was very refreshing and going thru the dark tunnels...an absolute delight! (You can check out the bike trail here)