I fell in love with this place three years ago when Covid forced the annual Girls Trip to local options. (See my earlier review here for a fuller picture of the hotel itself.) I’ve been hoping to bring my husband back ever since. Their lavish New Year’s package offered the opportunity, while giving both of us the chance to celebrate the conclusion of trying times at work and the transition to new roles for both of us in 2024.
Bovey’s two-night offer includes bed, breakfast, all the hotel’s usual included activities, plus a fantastic party on New Year’s Eve and an almost-constant spread of food that reminds you in quantity of a cruise ship, but in quality is much higher. We added an extra night at the start, arriving at lunch time on the 30th and heading for home late morning on the 2nd. Throughout, Bovey lived up to the country house ideal, offering pampered lounging in beautiful interiors that made you feel like you were more an invitee to a house party than a paying guest. The in-house experience was particularly important since the weather outside was dire.
The party at our escape’s heart lived up to all those New Year expectations. We started with a champagne and canapés reception sprawling across the castle’s impressive suite of drawing rooms. Even at maximum capacity, Bovey is big enough to not feel crowded, so there were plenty of comfortable seats for those who wanted them, space between groups of guests and no waiting for nibbles or top ups. The dress code was black tie and there was plenty of old-style glamour. While all ages were represented, including plenty of mult-generational family groups gathered for the holiday, the look and feel was solidly old school. One assumes the kind of people who like the idea of isolation in a Victorian castle on the edge of Dartmoor are more Downton Abbey than modern bougie bling. Best of all … and solidly Downton style … dogs are allowed in hotel bedrooms and the drawing rooms, so we enjoyed our cocktails with our spaniel at our feet in the soaring “cathedral room”
before a highlander piped us into dinner.
The six course dinner rolled out in the elegant Great Western dining room (named after the train line that’s been bringing guests here since it became a hotel in the ‘30s). It was transformed for the holiday with lavender and silver balloons, silver party hats and Christmas crackers at each place. Either ice crystals, diamonds, or bits of plastic … depending on your imagination … scattered across the crisp white linens to catch the light.
The festive dinner started with a large shot glass of Cullen skink soup, followed by a ballotine of duck and a fish course of smoked salmon in champagne sauce. The main course was also the highlight of the show, a peppered loin of estate venison in a rich, silky sauce. Unfortunately, despite having two month’s notice of my husband’s tomato allergy, there was no sauce alternative for him. While the atmosphere was elegant and the menu lavish, we were definitely in banqueting territory on service and selection, with no alternatives for his non-standard allergy offered up. More delicate dishes (scallops, eggs) were often slightly overcooked, and many served slightly cooler than the ideal. The food service … particularly at breakfast … was a lot slower than I’d expect from this price point. Aside from the lack of allergy substitutes, there was nothing I’d escalate to a proper complaint, but the food overall didn’t reach the levels I reported when at the hotel over an October weekend. All kitchens, including this one, struggle in banquet mode, and nobody seems to be able to get holiday staffing to full levels any more.
Dessert was an individual baked Alaska, followed by coffee and petit fours. I’m always a bit sceptical when the latter gets considered a course, but we were stuffed and had lingered at the table until 11:30, so that wasn’t an issue.
Back in the cathedral room, so called because of its soaring ceiling and majestic proportions, sofas had been moved away from the fireplace to make room for an eight-man band. The three-piece horn section gave them a full, rich Big Band sound but the musical selection was solidly comprised of the kind of pop “floor fillers” that get everyone dancing at big events. The champagne was already being pressed into guests’ hands as we climbed up into the minstrel’s gallery to get an overhead view of the fun.
Just before midnight all the guests poured out onto the terrace behind the house to watch a short but impressive fireworks display set to music. This is the way to do NYE fireworks. No waiting, standing in an Italianate loggia protected from the drizzle, champagne being topped up by the waiters and a pile of hotel blankets on offer to ward off the chill for the 15 minutes you’ve ventured outside.
The hotel was generous with the included champagne, topping up glasses well after midnight. We were relaxing in front of a roaring fire in the library, near enough to enjoy the band but far enough away for conversation.
While this was the biggest event, it was far from the only activity included in the package. There were lavish teas laid out on the afternoons of both the 31st and the 1st, with piles of sandwiches, scones, pastries and savoury treats. Sadly the weather was so awful it was hard to do enough activity to work up an appetite, much less to work off your calories.
I ventured out on New Year’s Eve, when the occasional pocket of sun peaked through scudding clouds and sudden rain bursts, but the wind was so intense that the dog and I only survived about half an hour. we made it to the foot of Hound Tor, a monumental pile of glacial boulders that appears like the ruins of some mythical castle from another age. I’ve taken glorious hikes here with Bruno’s predecessors on more clement days, but going any higher seemed to risk having our skins flayed off by the gale. The spaniel was so traumatised he wasn’t keen on going outside the rest of the break.
Fortunately Bovey boasts an indoor pool, steam room and sauna with glass walls at one end looking over the moors. This was a much a better form of exercise, though one the dog couldn’t participate in.
You could also attend sessions to meet the estate’s falconer and one of his hawks, investigate the chickens or witness ferret racing. Given years of listening to The Archers I had high hopes for the ferrets. While adorable, they’re not natural racers and needed to be coaxed to meander down a track comprised of cages and tubes to a bowl of food waiting at the end. Not a patch on the piglet races you’ll find at a Midwestern state fair.
Outside there was a boules court, a putting green and rambles around lovely gardens, but only idiots and dog walkers were braving the weather. It had rained so much, in fact, that the boules court looked like a water feature rather than the pristine rectangle of sand it’s meant to be.
The range of country activities included in the price of the hotel is one of Bovey’s draws, however, and in that way it reminded me of Missouri’s Big Cedar Lodge. And like the lodge, there are additional activities you can layer on for additional fees: archery, air rifle or clay pigeon shooting, an excursion to one of the estate barns to see how they make cider and gin. Having risked the great outdoors the day before, however, I spent New Year’s Day in an enormous wingback with my dog at my feet and my husband on the sofa next to me, alternating between reading a good book
and drawing the landscape that I wasn’t able to spend long within the day before.
While a range of activities is great, more important to me on a luxury break … particularly in the winter … is a variety of places to lounge in quiet, cozy, and architecturally impressive comfort. With fires. Bovey has these in abundance.
New Year’s Day brought another lavish banquet preceded by champagne, this time turned into kir royal to mix things up a bit. This time we started with a watercress veloute with a smoked salmon foam on top (I would have happily drunk more than the amuse bouche-sized shot glass), followed by another terrine, this time of chicken, duck liver and pistachio. The fish course brought scallops and young leeks in a vermouth sauce, just a touch overcooked as mentioned above. The cooking of the beef fillet, happily, was spot on, and they managed a sauce without tomato. The chocolate and malt tart that followed was the best of an impressive array of sweets that tempted me across the three days. In flavours and variety the New Year’s Day feast probably had a slight edge over the night before, but as the pinnacle of holiday indulgence it pushed me to that Mister Creosote moment, when a “whaffer thin mint” might have caused me to spontaneously explode. I figure this is exactly what you want out of your Christmas/New Year’s holidays: a climactic finish that makes you push back from the table and believe you are ready and eager to return to the austerity of January.
The fly in all this lovely ointment, as you might expect, is cost. The two-night New Year’s package at Bovey Castle starts at around £2,000 per couple, with variations in cost depending on the level of room and whether you’re bringing your dog. (Or children!) Additional nights are a snip at £270; you are REALLY paying for the holiday festivity. I made a foolish assumption that for that cost, the wine would be included at the dinners. It was not. Add in a suitably celebratory number of bottles from a wine list where few choices are under £50, a cocktail or two, two meals not included, and a flat £25 fee for charging the car once (far pricier than a home charge), and the incidentals bill was an eye-watering 25%+ addition to what we’d already paid.
Was the total cost worth it? Given the unique circumstances of our year, we’re glad we did it. We loved every minute and the three days felt more like a week of deep R&R. Would we do it again? Bovey Castle’s kind thank you upon leaving offers you a free additional night’s stay if you book next year’s package before the end of January. I’m not rushing to do it. I can’t help thinking that I’d enjoy the whole Bovey Castle experience more at none-holiday price. I’m certain the food would be even better if it was a la carte rather than part of a massive banquet. I adore the idea of a New Year’s Eve break spent in a luxury hotel with a magnificent party laid on for the guests … but could I find an option that offers something similar for a more reasonable cost? The hunt is on. As is the parallel hunt for new business. Because luxury like that isn’t even a remote possibility unless my new freelancing venture thrives.
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