Review: The Spa at Carden Park, near Chester

Joanne Goodwin enjoys a day of culture, sunshine, relaxation and great food at Cheshire’s luxury country estate.

I wonder whether the minds behind the Carden Park brand sat down one day and decided to create what must be the best multi-faceted luxury experience in the country? Whether they looked out on the thousand acres of prime countryside in front of them and envisioned a site where award-winning restaurants, two championship golf courses, a leisure club with swimming pool, five-star spa, four-star hotel, sports pitches, high ropes course, a vineyard, function rooms and, oh let's add a sculpture garden, would all come together to make what could be described as a theme park for adults? (Although children are welcome to come and stay too of course.)

Sculptor Emma Rodger, with her Liver Bird, which has landed in the Carden Park Sculpture Garden, and estate art curator Grant Ford. (C) Joanne Goodwin

Our day out at Carden, at the end of a full-on week sending the latest issue of Cheshire Life to press, started with a walk and talk in the sculpture garden with world-renowned Wirral-based sculptor Emma Rodgers, in conversation with the estate's art curator and BBC's Antiques Roadshow expert, Grant Ford.

READ MORE: Wirral-based Emma Rodgers is a world-renowned sculptor

A large number of enthusiasts had signed up for the fascinating event, held on a lovely, late-spring day, to see Emma's work in situ in the glorious setting of the Carden Park sculpture garden, while just a few minutes' walk away, there were cocktails and bikinis, chattering friends and kissing lovers soaking up the sun in the spa gardens. Golfers golfed, climbers climbed and families ate together in the AA Rosette-awarded Redmond’s Brasserie.

After fizz and coffee and pastries and a sculpting demonstration by Emma Rogers in Goldie's Bar, we joined the spa-goers for a facial and pedicure and a taste of the indoor facilities: salt steam room, tepidarium, aroma steam room, bio sauna, Finnish sauna, experience showers, ice fountain, indoor vitality pool and heated relaxation beds. And then a wander out into the sun-soaked garden with its fire pit, sauna, hot tubs, pods, vitality pool and loungers to chat and doze and forget about the outside world for a few hours.

The thermal suite at the Carden Park Spa (C) shootlifestyle.co.uk

We took afternoon tea in the Elements Restaurant and asked the charming staff to box up the remaining goodies to take home, because dinner at The Vines at Carden Park was about to be the icing on our Carden cake.

Along with its à la carte offering, The Vines – domain of executive chef Graham Tinsley – has a changing taster menu, starting at £95 per person with optional wine flight. The gourmet treat we were served started with chef's snacks and freshly baked bread, after which we needed a first rest before the exquisite portions of wagyu beef, tandoori monkfish, stuffed guinea fowl breast, rhubarb and custard and artisan cheeses. And then coffee and petit fours in Goldie's Lounge, where the relaxing lilt of the piano man lulled us into a complete state of physical and mental contentment.

And that is, I suppose, the aim of 'Cheshire's Country Estate' – to afford its guests a multiplicity of opportunities to take time out in whichever way they choose, be it culture, pampering, excellent food, sport, a break with friends and family. A chance to get away from it all.

Calling Carden Park a theme park might appear to understate the offering. But this isn't just a theme park, it's a Cheshire theme park – a place grown-ups can do all the things they enjoy, relax, recharge, come away smiling, and ready to go again.

*Half-day spa experiences start from £85pp for the morning in the spa garden, with a healthy brunch and full access to the spa facilities. An afternoon ritual with Spa Gardens starts from £170pp and includes afternoon tea and a 50-minute ritual treatment.

Full-day spa experiences: Start from £235pp, with lunch in Elements restaurant, full use of the spa garden and thermal experiences between 10am and 5pm and a 50-minute spa ritual treatment

Private use of The Spa at Carden from £4,950, with exclusive access to indoor and outdoor facilities, a glass of fizz on arrival and a buffet.

Themed and twilight sessions are also available.

Broxton Road, near Chester CH3 9DQ

01829 731000

cardenpark.co.uk