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It’s 5.30am on a Saturday and the sun is just starting to bounce off the lake outside my third-floor apartment.
In about 45 minutes, I’ll be leaving this peaceful setting for a 53km charity walk across the even more beautiful (and, as I later discovered, terribly unforgiving) Cotswold countryside – and I can’t think of a better place to get me in the right frame of mind.
Situated three miles outside the picturesque Gloucestershire town of Cirencester, the De Vere Cotswold Water Park is a nature reserve that mixes ‘family functionality’ while swerving the cliches of your average holiday park.
One of a collection of eight historic mansion houses and contemporary hotels, most spread across the south of England, it sits within 180 man-made lakes that span the Gloucestershire area.
Formed by more than 50 years of gravel and sand excavation, when the work ended, ground and rain water gradually filled the empty pits, creating this incredible wetland complex that spans 42 square miles.
At the hub is the Cotswold Water Park hotel, a light and airy building also home to the brasserie, bar and spa (more on that later). Nearby are apartments and a gastro-pub.
The lake that sits behind all this creates a backdrop that’s more aesthetic than functional. You can walk around or admire it from your balcony, but there’s no opportunity for activities here.
Instead, you’re signposted to places within a few minutes drive or walk, such as Lakeside Ski and Wake and 4Lakes, where you can find a whole host of things to do, from paddleboarding to waterskiing.
Alternatively, a 10-minute drive away is the Cotswold Country Park and Beach, which is theUK’s largest inland beach and has an inflatable water park, pedalos and kayaks.
While on paper it might feel a bit of a missed trick not to offer all these things on the park’s own lake, the reality is, without them, the place offers a sense of tranquility which works perfectly within the setting.
And, to be fair, this place is full of similar contradictions – with 300 rooms the accommodation buildings are filled with snaking corridors that could easily be mistaken for your run-of-the-mill large hotel.
However, behind those doors you’ll find generously spaced rooms or, like us, apartments with kitchenettes, en-suites, lakeside views and enough living space to feel welcome enough to chill indoors if so inclined.
Arriving on a Friday evening, we chose to have dinner in the brasserie restaurant as our plan was to simply eat and get an early night.
For anyone wanting a more refined meal, there is The Old Boat House, an Italian-themed gastro pub (but you need to book in advanced), which offers Sicillian sea bass and wild mushroom and truffle ravioli.
Choosing the brasserie’s charcuterie board, baked camembert and a whipped feta salad to share between three – plus a couple of limoncello spritzes to calm the pre-hike nerves – it teed us up for a good night’s sleep for the following day.
Admittedly, our first 24 hours at the Water Park didn’t give us an opportunity to see what’s on offer.
After leaving at 6.30am in the morning – and getting an incredibly generous packed breakfast from the hotel of pastries, fruit, yoghurt and water – we wouldn’t return to our room until 10pm, when all we wanted to do was hang up our finisher medals and hit the hay.
However, the next day we really got to explore.
Breakfast in the brasserie was self service and at peak times quite busy -we had to queue for tea and coffee, when all we wanted to do was sit down – but there was a great choice on offer, including healthy smoothies, as well as the lake view.
Our next stop was Spa 6, where you can either use the facilities for free if you’ve booked a treatment (a 20-minute massage starts at a pricey £60), or pay £10 for a 2-hour slot.
The pool area is compact, but there’s still room for sauna and steam rooms, as well as ice and rainforest showers, and it was a great place to soothe our weary bodies.
Be warned, as this is a family friendly resort, kids are also more than welcome, so it might not be the most relaxing spa experience due to noise levels and children using the hydrotherapy loungers as slides.
Later, as we walked around the grounds, we discovered a pizza pop up that served the most delicious combos (and has a DJ in the evening), as well as a cafe with light meals and ice creams to cool down on sunny days. There was also a perfectly situated bar to easily wile away the hours sat by the lake with a well-deserved espresso martini in hand.
Of course, if you’ve got itchy feet you can explore the surrounding scenery of the Cotswold Country Park, which covers 150 acres and has a looped 9.3km trail. Very handily there’s a Cotswolds Outdoors shop on site, where you can pick up an forgotten bits like waterproofs and hiking socks. (Although we weren’t thinking of going anywhere more than five minutes away!)
If you have time, nearby Cirencester is of course worth a visit. It’s a small market town that has managed to escape the Cotswold tourist footfall, unlike other Cotswold go-tos like Chipping Norton and Bourton-on-the- Water, to make it a lovely place with lots of independent shops to explore and decent places to eat.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a holiday park that is chaotic, loud and energy-charged, this is not the place for you. But if you’re after somewhere that will leave you feeling like you’ve actually had a break – even with the kids or after a 53km walk – then this is a pretty good shout.
A stay at Cotswold Holiday Park starts at £199. For more information click here.
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