Seaham Hall Spa and Suite
My husband treated me to Seaham Hall for my birthday. We arrived on a blustery Sunday afternoon and were shown to a room on the first floor. The room was a junior suite and was impressive. There was a large Queen size bed and a separate chill out area in front of the to. The room was equipped with a tablet and climate control system. The bathroom had an impressive bath in the centre of the room with a quirky shower around it.
We were greeted with some homemade brownies with a happy birthday message which was a nice touch. I called down to reception half expecting them to say the brownies had nuts in but to my surprise they didn't and they were delicious!
We also noticed that there was homemade shortbread with the tea and coffee and we made a note to come back to that later. We asked whether it had nuts in and were again told that they were fine. The shortbread was amazing; light with a nice dusting of sugar.
We then headed to the spa for some chill out time. It was raining outside so the outdoor hot tubs were empty. We therefore took advantage of the alone time and spent half an hour chilling in the hot tub. We then went for a swim in the warm pool and selection of steam rooms and saunas.
We had decided to book into the bar for our evening meal because we were conscious that we wanted to limit the amount we spent and knew dinner in the restaurant would be pricey. We were however shocked by the prices in the bar. I ordered a fish pie and paid £19! The fish pie was lovely with chunks of haddock and soft boiled eggs but we didn't feel it was worth the price.
It terms of the nut allergy policy, the waiter checked that the food was ok and confirmed that it was. When it came to dessert, brownies were on the menu and having tasted them earlier we decided to try them. This time though we were given the 'nut allergy warning' and were told that there are nuts in the kitchen. We noted that we had already eaten the brownie having not previously been given the warning. The waiter confirmed that it was the same brownie so we decided to risk it again.
We then went to our room and relaxed in comfort for the rest of the evening. The turn down service had been by this point and we noticed Elemist pillow spray which we checked for nuts then sprayed on our pillows. We brought the spray home and have since used it a number of times.
In the morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast of eggs benedict and fresh toast. We then proceeded to the spa to get our pre-arranged massages. I had a Ytsara back, neck and shoulder massage and my husband had a Mohom Deep Pressure massage. We had already told the spa in advance that I had a severe nut allergy and that neither myself or my husband could come into contact with any products containing nut oils. My masseuse told me that the oils usually used for my massage were not suitable so she used rape seed oil instead. This was a little disappointing as, although the massage was just as good, part of the experience is usually trying the products.
My husbands masseuse used the products on him. This was strange as I had been told there were no suitable alternative oils. I get the impression that my masseuse didn't give much thought to alternative oils and that there were perhaps some that I could have used. This is a shame.
Overall however we thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Seaham and they were generally good with my nut allergy but perhaps not as good as you would expect from such an highly rated hotel.
I'd give Seaham 3.5/5 rating for the way they dealt with my nut allergy.
