Tea Travels - Afternoon Tea at Oakley Hall Hotel

One of my favourite things to do, usually with my Mum, is to go for Afternoon Tea. I just love visiting numerous places and trying different versions of the traditional English pastime that is stuffing yourself with sandwiches, scones and miniature cakes! I mean, what’s not to like?! So, for my 30^th Birthday back in October last year, my Mum and Dad gave me a voucher to enjoy afternoon tea somewhere I haven’t been yet – Oakley Hall Hotel in Basingstoke. We decided to wait until the weather was a bit nicer before we made our booking, and so, a few weeks ago, on a rather drizzly day (typical!) we headed over to Basingstoke to discover what treats Oakley Hall had in store!

Oakley Hall is an AA Four Silver Star Hotel and is ranked number one out of thirteen hotels in Basingstoke, so I was excited to see what it had on offer. The hotel sits in 315 acres of grounds and woodland – you literally feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere when you arrive – it is so peaceful and relaxing from the moment you turn up the winding drive. Although it feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere, the hotel is actually only six miles from Basingstoke train station and has easy access to the M3, making it easy to get to.

As we made our way up the impressive drive, the large country house came majestically into view. It was built in 1795 and was once owned by the Bramston family, who were friends of Jane Austen. But despite the 18^th Century architecture, the inside boasts a beautifully modern and contemporary design, making you feel at home and relaxed as soon as you walk through the entrance. But before I take you inside, I just wanted to comment on the parking, which is always important, especially when you’re disabled. There is a complimentary onsite car park with easy access to the hotel. However, if you have a blue badge, like I do, you can actually drive right up to the house and park just outside the main entrance. This immediately made me feel at home, as we had no worries about how I was going to get into the hotel. 

We were greeted by the friendly reception team and directed through to the Glasshouse Restaurant, where our afternoon tea would be served. The first thing I noticed was how quiet the hotel and restaurant were – we visited on a Tuesday and were advised that weekends, understandably, tend to be a lot busier. One of the waiters showed us to our table by the window, overlooking the extensive grounds. The Glasshouse Restaurant takes its name from the original glasshouse designed in c.1850 by Edward Milner, a renowned landscape architect who also designed Oakley Hall’s gardens. It was built in 2014 and provides an elegant yet relaxed environment. I do find that some restaurants you go to can feel a bit pretentious and uncomfortable, but in the Glasshouse I felt immediately at ease and we were able to relax and enjoy our afternoon.

Our experience began with being shown the wide-ranging tea menu – it took us a few minutes to decide on which tea to try (although our waiter did say we could try a few teas throughout the afternoon, which definitely helped!) In the end, I opted for the Winchester Fruit Basket, as I’m a sucker for a fruity tea. We were each brought an individual teapot with our chosen tea in it, and waited a few minutes for them to brew before we sampled them. I was so pleased with my choice – the berry flavours were sweet but subtle and the tea had a beautiful red-pink hue. I’ve actually been searching for the tea since I came home because it was so delicious!

No sooner had we started drinking our tea, a huge cake stand arrived piled high with sweet and savoury treats. Our waiter introduced us to everything on the stand (although I did struggle to remember what all the different cakes were!) and then left us to tuck in! 

After taking a few pictures and admiring everything, we started on the sandwich course. First up was a filling I don’t think I’ve seen before on an afternoon tea menu – Chicken with Basil in a seeded roll. This was absolutely delicious – I originally thought this would be my least favourite, but it was full of flavour and just melted in your mouth. Then we moved on to a classic – Egg and Cress in a white seeded roll. Again, the filling was really tasty and the bread was so light and fluffy – not at all stodgy. 

We then progressed to sampling the two sandwiches – Ham and Mustard, followed by my absolute favourite afternoon tea sandwich – Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t have afternoon tea without it, so I was really glad to see it on the menu. And it didn’t disappoint – the salmon was tender and the cream cheese had a slightly lemony hint, which complimented the salmon perfectly.

As we were finishing our sandwiches, another waiter arrived at our table and told us he had heard we were there for someone’s birthday. He presented me with a piece of slate, decorated with ‘Happy Birthday,’ some strawberries and the most incredible white chocolate truffles. It was such a lovely touch and really made me smile.

I was impressed to see that we had two scones each – one plain and one fruit scone, which always makes me happy as this is definitely my favourite part of afternoon tea! We piled them high with jam and cream (which do you put on first? I always go jam first, and then a big dollop of cream!) and began devouring them. Both scones were light and fluffy, and the strawberry jam had a lovely fruity flavour. There was plenty of jam and cream to go around (I always worry about running out!) but I’m sure they would have brought more out if it were needed.

By this point, we were all feeling rather full, and we hadn’t even started on the cakes yet! We didn’t want to make ourselves feel ill, so decided to try a couple of the cakes there and then take the rest home to enjoy later. Thankfully the hotel staff were absolutely fine with this (I have been to places where they won’t let you take leftovers home with you!) and brought out some boxes to put our cakes in. There was such an amazing selection of cakes to try, and I really enjoyed tasting them all over the next day or so. The little coffee and walnut cupcakes were divine – so light and melt in the mouth, with just the right amount of icing. The profiteroles were also really interesting – I just assumed there would be cream inside them, but they actually had a sort of citrusy mousse instead, which went really well with the white chocolate.

The chocolate layer cake was incredibly rich and decadent, but perfect to share between the three of us. There were also two beautiful fruit tarts (I loved the pink pastry!) as well as a salted caramel and chocolate tart, which tasted very naughty! But I think my favourite sweet treat had to be the orange macaron – I like to think of myself as a bit of a macaron expert these days (OK, so I’ve eaten a lot of macarons from different places – that makes me an expert right?!) But this one definitely lived up to expectations, with a slightly crispy outer shell and a delicious cream in the middle.

I really didn’t want to leave the tranquillity of the hotel, and can imagine it must be a lovely place to relax and recuperate for a few days, away from all the hustle and bustle of everyday life. But it was soon time for us to leave, and after a little wander around the spectacular grounds; we were heaving our full tummies back into the car and heading back to reality!

Whilst it would have been nice to have a few more people and a bit more atmosphere in the restaurant, it definitely didn’t spoil our experience and the service was second-to-none. We all really enjoyed our afternoon tea at Oakley Hall Hotel, and for a very reasonable £28 per adult, I would definitely recommend checking it out if you live nearby. 

If you’d like to hear about some of the other Tea Travels I’ve been on, you can find my posts here:

·     Pennyhill Park Hotel

·     Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Afternoon Tea

·     Peggy Porschen

·     The Ritz

·     Afternoon Tea Bus Tour

Are you a fan of afternoon tea? Where are your favourite places to go? Perhaps I can add them to my list!

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Day Four at Disneyland Paris - Character Dining, Toy Story Land & A Special Birthday Celebration

So far, I have shared what we got up to on our first day, second day and third day at Disneyland Paris, and today I’m back to tell you all about our last full day – Day Four! If you haven’t seen my first post, my family and I went to Disneyland Paris back in September 2018 to kick off my 30^th Birthday celebrations. 

We woke up to a bit of a rainy Disney on Thursday morning, although thankfully it was only drizzle. As we had a Character Breakfast booked for 9.45am, my sister, Rosiie, and I decided to make use of the Extra Magic Hours and go into the park to look round some of the shops. It’s quite a nice time to do it because most people are focussing on getting to rides or getting photos, so the shops were really quiet and much easier to get around in a wheelchair! There are so many cute stores down Main Street and dotted around the parks, and although you do find some of the same stuff across different shops, you will also find items that are just limited to one store. So it’s well worth having a good look around if you get a chance.

After a bit of time mooching around some shops, we made our way over to Plaza Gardens Restaurant for our Character Breakfast. Although we’d been advised to get there early, we actually weren’t allowed inside until 9.45am, so ended up having to wait outside in the rain for a while. It’s a very busy and hectic atmosphere inside, but you can really feel the excitement, especially from all the little ones who are desperate to meet their favourite characters. We were told to stay at our table (except when we went up to get breakfast from the buffet) and that the characters would come to us (although some people didn’t seem to listen to this rule and were quickly told to go back to their tables!) The actual breakfast is pretty similar to what you might have in a Disney Hotel, so you’re really just paying extra for the character interactions. But it does mean you get to see a lot of characters in a short space of time, without having to queue for them in the park. 

During our breakfast we had a whole host of characters come to see us for autographs and photos including Daisy Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. I’m not going to lie – it does feel quite rushed and you don’t get much time with each character, but the Cast Members do make sure that they go to every table, so they won’t miss anyone. If you’re looking for a gentle relaxed breakfast then this probably isn’t for you! But if you want to see lots of characters and get all your photos and autographs without having to queue, it’s definitely worth it. It’s also a beautiful restaurant with fountains and cute Disney decorations. As we were leaving they were starting to get ready for the lunch sitting, and were putting out the most amazing watermelons, which had been carved into different Disney characters – they must have taken ages to do!

Once we’d finished at Plaza Gardens, we made our way out of the Disneyland Park and over to the Walt Disney Studios, as we hadn’t really done anything (apart from eat!) over there yet. The Studios are definitely a lot smaller than the other park, and for us, we only really needed half a day to do everything we wanted there. We started off by doing the Studio Tram Tour, which I had vague memories of doing when we went ten years ago. It’s a really lovely ‘ride’ where you get taken round the Production Courtyard in a tram and see full-scale movie sets and props from various films. Just don’t get too comfortable! Round the corner you will become part of a film set and be faced with fire and water as an explosive disaster unfolds!

Then it was time for the part I was really excited about – Toy Story Playland! I absolutely love the Toy Story films and as this area is fairly new, it wasn’t there when we went last time round. As we made our way down towards it, we were greeted by a huge Buzz Lightyear, which, of course, I had to have my photo with!

I absolutely loved all the tiny details in this part of the park. From the lights that look like Christmas fairy lights to the fences that are made from K’nex, you really feel like you’ve shrunk down to the size of a toy! Looking round, it made me even more desperate to visit the Toy Story Land in Walt Disney World one day. Unfortunately, the only ride we went on was the Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop because none of the others wanted to go on the Slinky Dog or RC Racer, which I was a bit disappointed about. But the Parachute Drop was good fun (even in the rain!) You buckle up in your parachute; get taken up in the air and then drop from 82 feet. It looks like a kids ride, but believe me, it’s higher than you think!

Our next stop was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ and it was every bit as scary as I remembered! We went through the disabled entrance, so didn’t see all of the theming in the queue area. But as soon as you start watching this little film before-hand, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up (well, it does for me anyway!) I think the scariest bit is the anticipation of knowing there’s going to be a big drop and just waiting for it to happen. It’s also pretty cool being able to see out across the park from the top of the tower before you plunge 13 floors into the Twilight Zone. As you can see from the picture, my sister, Rosiie (bottom right) had a slight issue with her top not being very secure!

After Tower of Terror, we wanted something a little more relaxed, so went round to Ratatouille: The Adventure, which I had been so excited to go on. But when the rest of my family saw that it could cause motion sickness, they decided they didn’t want to go on. Because I needed to use my wheelchair to get to the ride, I had to have a carer with me, which then meant I couldn’t go on either, so I was a bit disappointed about that. Instead, we decided to split up, and my Dad and I went to watch Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular. I’d seen it last time we went to Disney, so wasn’t feeling particularly excited about seeing it again, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The stunts are amazing and it’s really interesting to see how they do some of the car and motorbike action sequences on the big screen. I would definitely recommend it for anyone that enjoys action, cars and brilliant stunts.

By this point we were feeling pretty hungry, so we met up with my Mum near Ratatouille and got some lunch at one of the little food stalls, which sell traditional foods from different regions of France. It’s such a beautiful space around there – you almost feel like you could be in a little French town – and it’s really nice being able to buy traditional foods like crepes, pastries and ciders. 

As we made our way out of the Studios, we made the most of a few more photo opportunities, including finding a huge Toy Story Rex and also getting a photo with Mike by the Monsters Inc. door. I know Sulley sometimes stands there to do meet and greets too, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to see him this time. My Mum and I also looked in some of the shops, including the Pandora store. I was hoping to get the exclusive Disneyland Paris Castle charm, but they told us it had sold out everywhere. However, I did manage to get the other exclusive charm, with is Minnie Mouse by the Eiffel Tower.

The others decided to head back to the hotel, but my Mum and I went back into the Disneyland Park so we could watch the parade again before going home. We sat in a different place this time (just at the top of Main Street) and actually, I feel like our view was better here than it was in the disabled area. We did have to get there quite early to get a good space, but it meant no one was standing in front of me this time and I managed to get some good photos.

After the parade, we looked in a few more shops and my Mum also took some photos of me with the big bunches of Minnie and Mickey balloons that seem to be dotted around everywhere!

By this point, it was time for us to head to the Disneyland Hotel for our character dinner at Inventions. It is the most beautiful hotel and it smells amazing. I’m determined that, one day; I will get to stay there! As we were a little bit early, we had a look around the lobby while we waited for the others. They weren’t far behind us, so we then went upstairs for our dinner. This was a much more relaxed affair than our character breakfast and we didn’t ever feel rushed. The food in the buffet was delicious and there was so much choice too. Pretty much as soon as we had sat down, the characters started coming round to see us at our tables. They spent so much time with each person and in my opinion; the interactions were so much better than the morning ones. We had Mickey sitting down at our table with us and falling in love with my Mum, Pluto seemed to love having his nose scratched by my sister and Chip and Dale kept stealing our Minnie ears! The characters also interacted with each other and the Cast Members, who often had to chase them around because they kept being ‘naughty!' They had all the diners in hysterics! We saw some characters several times as well, so managed to take loads of photos and have some fantastic interactions. 

We were just finishing our desserts when a Cast Member, Mickey and Tigger came to our table with a birthday cake for me. We had booked it when we first arrived, and I’m so glad we decided to have it at the Character dinner. Music started playing through the speakers and the whole restaurant (as well as the characters) sang Happy Birthday to me! Once they’d finished singing, Tigger got me up out of me seat and started dancing with me. The photos are ridiculously blurry, but they remind me of such a lovely time that I wanted to share them. I was exhausted (and a little embarrassed!), but couldn’t miss such a brilliant opportunity. I mean, how many people can say they’ve danced with Tigger and been sung to by Mickey Mouse?!

But I think the best part of the evening (and possibly the whole holiday) for me, was the fact we were sat right by a window that looked out onto the castle. So, as the fireworks started, Mickey and Donald came over to us, took my hand and stood with me to watch the fireworks out of the window. I actually get a bit emotional whenever I watch back the video of it because it was just such a surreal and special experience. I never expected to be holding hands with Donald Duck while we watched the most beautiful display of fireworks and listened to some of my favourite Disney songs. It’s a memory I will never forget, and whenever I think of starting my 30^th Birthday celebrations, I will always remember this part of our holiday so fondly. I think Donald especially will always have a special place in my heart after that evening.

Check back again soon to find out what we did on our final day at Disneyland Paris! And don’t forget, you can also check out my vlogs from our trip on my YouTube channel. 

Have you been to Disneyland Paris or are you planning a Disney holiday soon? I’d love to hear your favourite things about Disney!

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