A touch of luxury on Windermere.

Byline: By Sarah Mullaney

I've spent many a wet weekend in the Lake District as a child, and I have enjoyed every single one of them.

There's something about the Cumbrian charm and the amazing views that just makes your weekend, no matter what the weather's like.

And this was to be a well-worth relaxing trip with my boyfriend, Gregg, especially as it was our first weekend away without our 16-month-old boy, Nathan.

We followed the white-knuckle winding roads through the mountains to Bowness-on-Windermere, holding our breath every time a car came in the other direction as the road didn't seem quite wide enough. But it was worth it for the amazing views of Ullswater on the way down.

We arrived at the Beech Hill Hotel to a very warm welcome. As we were celebrating my birthday, we were upgraded to the Wordsworth suite ( truly the best room I have ever stayed in ( making our weekend very special.

The Wordsworth suite had a super-king-size bed, plasma TV, huge bathroom with a double shower and huge patio door. This led on to our own private balcony overlooking Windermere.

My favourite part of the room was the hot tub on the balcony, which seems like a crazy idea in the middle of February, but we spent a good part of the weekend in there, and yes, we did both have colds afterwards!

The Gallery restaurant has two menus, the gourmet and the simple. We ordered from the simple menu, mushroom soup and grilled goat's cheese for starters, which were both really tasty and filling.

For the main course Gregg ordered wild boar and hare sausages, my excuse for a gag ( "watch the hare doesn't get stuck in your throat" ( was ignored!

I had brisket of beef with cheddar mash; both main courses were extremely tasty. The restaurant had a very romantic feel, especially after one of the waiters proposed on one knee to his girlfriend, she said yes and the whole restaurant applauded then let out a gentle "awwwww".

There was a very extensive wine list for people who know and love their wine. We don't know much but love a good Pinot Grigio.

Coffee was served in the lounge in front of a big open fire with a selection of board games that brought back memories.

Next day we awoke to a magnificent view of the sun rising over the mountains which put a spring in our step for the whole day.

After a full-English breakfast we drove down to Dalton-in-Furness, the home of South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

The park was created and developed by David Gill in May 1994 and housed wallabies, raccoons, parrots and ducks. Over the years he has developed the park to make room for tigers, rhinos and bears.

After spending the morning feeding the giraffes, laughing at the monkeys, avoiding angry wallabies and most of all missing our little boy.

We felt so guilty going to an animal park without him, but the truth is we are just big kids ourselves and I will definitely come back with him when he is a little older.

We left the park and took a drive along the coast and back up to Windermere where we had a look around the fantastic little gift shops, and a few clothes shops of course.

We then decided to take a 45-minute cruise on Windermere. We left Bowness Bay sitting on the top deck to get the best views of the lovely secluded bays and shoreline and the many wooded islands around the central parts of the lake.

It was freezing cold. So when we got back to the hotel we jumped straight in the hot tub to get warmed up. We watched the sun go down with a glass of wine, it was beautiful.

Our room had private access to the hotel's swimming pool, so we had a swim and a sauna before dinner to work up an appetite. The pool was small and the leisure facilities were basic, but when you have a hot tub with disco lights on your balcony, you can't really complain.

Dinner again was a very enjoyable experience. Gregg was feeling adventurous and had a warm wood pigeon salad, which was surprisingly nice and I had ham hock that met the same high standards from the night before.

We spent the rest of the evening in the lounge with yet another bottle of Pinot Grigio discussing our desperate efforts to get ourselves on the property ladder, and planning the rest of our week off work house-hunting.

When we woke up the next morning, we sat down to our full English breakfast, with the best sausages I have ever tasted, and we starting to think about going home. We had been treated like royalty, for the past two nights and I was getting used it.

The thought of going home and starting house-hunting again filled me with dread but I was looking forward to seeing my little boy again.