De Zwaluwhoeve, Gelderland Province, The Netherlands

4Anne B 5:00 PM Jul 3, 2017

Great sauna day but water?
The Zwaluwhoeve is an extensive park with many saunas, large and small, so that even with many people it does not feel crowded. You can order a buffet or choose your dishes in the restaurant. A very relaxed day but with one annoyance. There are no drinking water fountains and the cafe and restaurants are not allowed to serve tap water. That is house policy, but it is not legal.

2AndreaH400 5:00 PM Feb 1, 2019

Very disappointed, least relaxing sauna ever!
SPA: Nice spa music in the reception but nowhere else in the Spa. One locker between two people (apparently they were two person lockers but they are the same size as one person lockers everywhere else I have been). The rozensauna/muzieksauna was supposed to have relaxing music but instead seemed to be playing pop music (Adele/Skyfall, Phil Collins etc.) not exactly soothing and relaxing. Sandelhout sauna was very bright - could do with softer lighting. Northern Lights sauna could do with some maintenance - light effect was spoiled by the fact that in some areas of the ceiling, the bulbs could be seen and at one point it looked like someone was playing a computer game as a bright green dot kept appearing, moving a bit then disappearing. Relax area was awful, no beds only (very tatty) leather sofas with a few relaxer chairs, also the relax room was open plan and included a cut-through to the restaurant so was actually very noisy. Other clients ignored the spa rules e.g. talking loudly in the Saunas and the Relax area. Did not see any staff around any of the Sauna facilities so there was no one to actually complain to or even help if you were unsure where to go. FOOD: Lunch and drinks were quite expensive 13.50 euro for a Carpaccio or Grilled Vegetable Salad, over 4 euro for a mint tea with honey (you pay extra for the honey). Evening buffet was much better value at 19.95, at as much as you like - healthy options like salad, salmon, mackerel and some not so healthy but very delicious desserts. LOCATION: Beautiful setting, imagine this is very nice in warm weather but were told by other guests that it is then so busy that they have to queue for the Saunas. When asked at the end of our visit if everything was ok, we shared the above and were told that they would make a note of our comments but nothing was written down so expect that this information will not be shared back to the management. Suggest that they also need to train and empower their staff so that they don't just give out empty platitudes but that there is actually visible/active sauna staff and a process for dealing with disappointed or unhappy customers. Would not go back!