Review – Enchanted Lodges and Enchanted Village at Alton Towers

The Enchanted Village is the latest addition to the Alton Towers Resort accommodation portfolio, I’ve previously stayed in both the Splash Landings Hotel, and Alton Towers Hotel (even the refurbished ‘Moon Voyager’ rooms), so I was intrigued as to what the Enchanted Village, with its Lodges and Tree-houses could bring to the resort, and when Miss A booked a surprise trip to stay in one of the Enchanted Lodges, I found the answers!

Here’s a quick video overview of the Enchanted Forest

Visitors to the Enchanted Village have to head to the Reception Building to check in, as with the other resort accommodation, you can check in any time on the day of your arrival (although you can’t have keys until 3pm). We went over around 10am to check in and collect our Fastrack tickets, the staff were wonderful – kind, courteous and happy to chat. Generally the Merlin staff interact wonderfully with guests, and I think those we experienced in the Enchanted Village Reception were some of the best I’ve encountered.

Our day at the theme park flew past, thanks to the post Summer Holiday lull, we’d got everything we wanted to finished by 3pm, and headed back to the Enchanted Village to pick up the keys to our Enchanted Lodge. Walking around the Enchanted Village, is delightful, each little ‘cul-de-sac’ of Enchanted Lodges has its own small play area in the middle. The first thing that hit me was just how quiet it was, you wouldn’t think you were next door to the UK’s biggest theme park, it’s like being in the middle of nowhere. Bliss.

Each of the Enchanted Lodges has it’s own front deck with a bench and table to sit at, the handy addition of an automatic light that senses movement (ideal for dark evenings!).

Upon opening the door to the Enchanted Lodges you’re in the main bedroom area of it, with a double bed, 32″ TV, hanging space, Tea and Coffee Facilities, and plug sockets aplenty (Hooray!).

Off the main area you have the door to the bathroom, and a curtained off area to the other bedroom which has a bunkbed, and a third pull out bed underneath. The second sleeping area is wonderfully cute, a massive oak tree with windows and doors adorns the wall, and there’s a super cute ‘grass’ vinyl floor with a picnic blanket, and all sorts or little trinkets. Unusually for a ‘kids area’ there isn’t a secondary TV or games console to be found, which to my mind is an excellent idea, kids staying somewhere like this are already hyped up enough without the need for MORE stimulation. The only electrical items to be found are little ‘night lights’ above each bunk. Perfect.

The bathroom is finished to an excellent standard, the dark walnut tones complement those found throughout the Enchanted Lodges – no printed vinyl on the walls as you’d find in other Merlin Accommodation, just subtle classy wall and floor tiles. It was good to see a subtle secondary light in the bathrooms which operates separately to the main illumination – handy if you need the toilet in the night and don’t want to wake the entire Lodge with the Halogen spots.

The main bedroom area has a bed that we both found extremely comfortable, it’s possibly one of the best nights sleep I’ve had in a hotel! The Samsung Smart TV seemed to work as expected, and the supplied hairdryer was fantastic (much better than those they have in the other Hotels!) I think the only glaring omissions from the room was a luggage rack, and also an iron / ironing board (they have these in the Hotels). Not a massive issue, but just little niggles.

You can view the entire gallery of images of our Enchanted Lodge HERE

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