Tucked away on the lake front is an old castle turned hotel, spa, tasting room, and venue for special events, Belhurst Castle. The castle boasts three hotels (with one being 2.5 miles offsite), a pub, restaurant, cold continental breakfast, spa and a winery. It is also a fantastic venue for special events, and especially weddings, with its gorgeous views of Seneca Lake and its grand ballroom. We even barged through a wedding tour by accident...whoops, sorry...and saw a bride and groom come out of the ballroom to get pictures on the hill above the lake. Belhurst even won two awards for 2020 already, one from The Knot for Best of Weddings and one from Wedding Wire for the Couple's Choice Awards. Just Saying. But, we weren't here to get married, we were just here for a quick getaway and sort of a post-valentines day celebration.
We stayed in the Vinifera Inn, which was built as an add on in 2003 and therefore houses more modern rooms than the Chambers in the Castle hotel. These 20 rooms feature a Jacuzzi, fireplace, king-sized beds, and walk-in showers. But, Ang wasn't about to settle for just the regular rooms, that's just not who he is, he got us the Turret room. You can see our windows in the first picture on the left, we're the middle row of windows on that turret (the cylinder part with the pointy roof). WOW, this room was stunning! The second picture is a view of the sunset from our room and the third picture is what the room looks like, all five of those windows are in front of the bed and look out at the lake. Oh my god, I was in love with this view.
I am very drawn to water, and could spend time by it until someone makes me move. So, waking up to this every morning and falling asleep to the reflection of the city lights on a black lake while the stars glistened above? Absolute perfection, and the company wasn't bad either haha
Everyone in this hotel is pleasant, courteous, and helpful from the concierge to the shop employees to the waitstaff and hostesses. But I wouldn't expect anything else from a hotel of this caliber. We did not enjoy the continental breakfast, as we were here in the winter and wanted to fill our bellies with warm food, so we went offsite for that. However, we did enjoy food and drink at the onsite pub, Stonecutter's.
The chairs at the bar, where we sat, felt so fancy! They were huge, plush, and they swiveled. I got a grilled cheese BLT and felt like a 5 year old when I ordered their special sweetart martini while Ang got a burger with chips on the side and a beer. My grilled cheese was delicious and perfect with the salad, the different cheeses on the grilled cheese made it really creamy and that bacon was beautifully crisp! And it had a delicious sauce on there that I can't recall what it was. Ang's burger was cooked perfectly and had a lot of good flavor. Oh! That sweetart martini?! SO SO good. It was both sweet and tart (I'd be disappointed if it wasn't) and had a unique rim around it. It was a special so I don't know if its there all the time. The food was a bit on the pricey side, but I expected that when we went it, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
We also checked out the wine selection, tastings, and gifts in the shop attached to the main area in the castle. We tried the wine and cheese pairing flight as well as the chocolate and wine pairing flight. The cheese and wine pairing flight was my favorite as all the cheeses were out of this world good and the wine paired well. I ended up buying a bottle of the sparkling Rose that had noted of strawberry and raspberry in it. It was a bit dry like a champagne, but had a subtle sweetness to it that highlighted the chocolate it was paired with. I liked it a bunch.
Ang and I also went into town a couple of times to walk around and enjoy the food offerings. We also walked the pier and enjoyed the grounds of the castle all with great views of the lake!!
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