I've seen so many disparaging reviews but I have to say my experience here was nothing but positive. We were able to park our car in the designated area at 1230 (early) and walk around the town a bit before checking in. The usual check in time is 3pm but we arrived at 230 and reception were happy to let us in ahead of 3pm. The room was huge and finished to a high standard with a Nespresso machine, bottled water, and Noble Isle bath products. I changed my booking to The Sands at the last minute and I'm glad I did.

The star is for the view from the restaurant terrace, really 5 stars for it, it is lovely out there but the service brought it down. We waited 10 mins and were very thirsty so walked up to the bar to see if we could order some drinks. We were sent back and the waitress clearly took a dislike to us coming up to order. It was passive aggressive from then on with various comments meant to educate us on the order in which things were done - it was extremely windy and we went to return the menus before they blew away and were told they stayed in case we decided we wanted something more. Ingredients were missing from my main and I had to ask for them (apologetic and I wouldn’t complain if not the waitresses general attitudes). We waited 30 minutes for our food and another 20 after and we had to ask to order dessert. When we asked (a different waitress) how many scoops of ice cream you get (on the menu for £8) she replied how many do you want (the tone was not nice). It would have been good to be told what the £8 is for, would you just pay £8 regardless of how many scoops you have? We then noticed the other tables were given cloth napkins and we were given paper, we decided to leave without the dessert. It’s not acceptable to treat one table differently from the rest and the attitude throughout was really poor from 2 waitresses, a third was nice (I spoke with re missing main ingredients, it’s a shame she wasn’t looking after our table). Very disappointing (birthday!!) meal out.

I played here as park of a function band for a wedding, so cannot comment on the rooms. The staff were fantastic however, if they treat 3rd party entertainers as well as us, they must treat guests amazingly. Highly recommended.

Lovely venue, great views, nice staff but a terrible afternoon tea: three tiny sandwiches with hardly any filling which were not moist; dry scone- neither of us finished them served with not enough cream too;two tiny cakes-which were a mouthful each and a piece of battenberg. It was paltry and not worth the money. We complained but in the nicest way as we wanted to enjoy my mums birthday present to us. So got nothing in return. Much nicer afternoon teas to be had elsewhere.

Stayed 1 night in a sea view attic room. Lots of cobwebs at doors to balcony. Toilet was not clean. It was an ok stay but £190 is not cheap. Breakfast was nothing special and the car park at £6 extra a night needs resurfacing and cleaning up.