Kurt spends his time trotting the world seeking the finest. He’s a respected reviewer with over 20 years experience, so knows a thing or two about it and isn’t shy to give his opinion – Ed.
I said, in my first ‘musings’ on VB, that I was going to have to investigate Niton’s ‘The Enchanted Manor’ and discover just why TripAdvisor rated it Number One amongst the Island’s B&Bs.
Well, I have.
And I have, because owners and hosts extraordinary, Ric and Maggie, were kind enough to invite me, yesterday, to a Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea Party at their fairyland palace.
Where do I start?
The name. I told you, the name kind of gave me the chilly willies. But I was wrong. The name is utterly and totally apt.
The rating? Get this out of the way. The Enchanted Manor many provide beds “¦ four-posters with beautiful caramel hangings”¦ and it may serve breakfast … in a most glamorous and pleasing verandah “¦ but it is quite simply not what you and I understand as a ‘B&B’. Know what I mean?
TripAdvisor has got to stop comparing such as this with Mary’s 20 quid a night tidy sleepover.
Not just somewhere to rest your head
The Enchanted Manor is, quite simply an ‘event’. It is a deliciously over-the-top Las Vegas fairyland, glittering with more special effects than I have ever seen. Nymphs in the garden, sylphs in the bedroom … .tulle and glitter simply everywhere!
Europeans .. save the fare to the US of A “¦ anything and everything Vegas can offer you is (I imagine, for I’ve never been to Vegas) right here!
All right, I will admit, I’m not a newly-wed (I live in hope) and I won’t be having anymore ‘anniversaries’, and I hugely love my beautiful all-white ‘monastic’ room up on the Downs. So The Enchanted Manor is never going to be my Wightish ‘home’.
But if you want a Fairytale weekend, a few days in Wonderland, with or without Alice, but with every seen-on-TV luxury you can think of, Ric and Maggie will, I am sure, make you as happy as all those five-star contented customers who have made them Number One B&B on the imponderable Trip Advisor.
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