Monday 14 December 2015

An Icy Experience 😍❄️

This weekend, we spent a night at this little gem of a hotel, only 2 hours from home! You all know at this stage I'm a sucker for interiors and sleeping by the water, I'm easy sold. 
I was bombarded with questions after posting a few photos of our room to snapchat so I decided to fill you all in here with more photos!

While looking up hotels to celebrate part of Ruairí's birthday, I knew we both didn't want anything in a city centre, we wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle and go for a quieter area, so that was Belfast and Dublin out of the equation. 
I played with the idea of Galway but nothing really stood out.
Then this beaut of a hotel in Ballina popped up randomly.

I've swooned over this place before but never had the chance to try it, so when I saw the last minute deal (booked 2 days before) I jumped straight on it! 

Also, the name of the hotel fitted right in with Ruairí's birthday present theme, The Ice House Hotel, it all matched up, it was meant to be! Yeah right, as if I needed another sign. 😂

We arrived at around 5:30pm Saturday evening and were led to our room. The rooms have names instead of numbers.
Our room was named Rose!
I ran straight for the gigantic window to have a peak outside. It was pitch black but I could hear the soothing sound of the water, that was enough to excite me about waking up to an amazing view the next morning!

Ruairí had been up since 6am working so he lay down for a nap, I made my way to the bar and spent ages eyeing up the drinks menu before finally deciding on the trusty old red wine that always seems to win me over, we had our drinks in the room and got ready for dinner.





Dinner. Well wait until I tell ya. It was bloody amazing!
I'm fussy when it comes to tables, I like privacy. I can't hack those restaurants where you're literally sitting on top of the table next to you, I like a little peace and space.
Anyways, the layout here was fab, and so chilled. 

We both love food and I like to think I'm good at eating a lot of food, as well as himself haha.

Let's put it into perspective, after going back vegetarian again for almost 4 weeks, I gave in to the meaty menu that night and not one regret was felt! 🙉

I had the Crostini to start, basically different breads with toppings and sauces, Ruairí had the chowder which looked amazing.

I had the pheasant with black pudding stuffing for dinner (I literally ordered this because I wanted the stuffing) Ruairí had the steak, which was seriously unreal! 

Finished with a beautiful chocolate dessert and a couple of Irish coffees.

Hats off to the chef, the food was so damn good and also hats off to the service staff too - the service was top notch. Such a nice relaxed vibe in the place!


Even though we didn't sleep until 4am, I still had my alarm set for 8:45. Every time we go away, I set my alarm for the sunrise, especially if we are by the water!
 
We had breakfast in the room and decided to cancel the 10am spa appointments, chilling out in bed watching the water and fight highlights felt ten times more appealing... Hmmmm nothing to do with the multiples cocktails and wine, I swear. 😉


Look at the pretty view! Ok so there was obviously no sunrise with the cloudy weather but it was amazing to see from bed nonetheless :) 

If you're staying here, you need to request a riverside room!
 It makes all the difference!


We made our way to the "Chill" spa around 2pm and decided to just chill around the thermal suite.


The treatment menu looked amazing but I was a feeling a little too sensitive for a massage or seaweed of any kind. 
Damn you, wine.
I soon sweated all the badness out of me!
It may be freezing outside but I swear you don't feel in when in an outdoor hot tub!


We moved between the thermal steam room, outdoor sauna and outdoor hottub 
Until I decided I was hungry and away we went again for more food!

Overall, an amazing relaxing experience and not too far from home.

The food in the hotel restaurant, breakfast lunch AND dinner is so amazing you won't need to leave to go elsewhere if you don't want to.

A classy wee spot and one I'll definitely go back to.
Check booking rates for after the new year, as a wee treat for yourself and
Your better half, you'll love it!








 






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