Belvoir Castle Reviews 158

Visited the Regency Christmas show and was disappointed in the lack of decorations and lights inside the Castle. Not worth the money at all.

We visited Belvoir Light Trail tonight , our experiance started after climbing the step hill in and meeting the giggling staff she found it funny that my daughter had her baby in the push chair as they pointed out the trail was steep and had many steps and was very muddy! we were told to leave the buggy with all the others , so we had to carry my grand daughter the whole way round, I will say the steps are steep and wet plus muddy not very safe at all God knows what a wheel chair user would do and it was clearly not a suitable walk for any frail person , over the last two years we have done Wollaton Park and Belton House light trails which where both excellent and enjoyable this experiance was very poor the lights where pathetic and very amateur no Christmas theme at all and the refreshments where also poor and sad looking , all in all a pretty rubbish experiance and very poor value for Money I would advise you don't waste your Money

Note this review is purely for the 'Light Night'
After Nottingham castle probably the worst value attraction in the UK zero imagination or creativity a wholsale waste of £50 for a family ticket to roam along a mile of very muddy paths with some basic light displays - you could put on a better show from B and Q or by driving around your local housing estate - and dont waste £5 on the rip off parking its cheaper to pay at the machine on site , total robbery.

Regrettably I would not recommend this. Really not worth the money. Very overpriced and little to show for it.
Also, emailed belvoir castle to find out why the refreshment stalls were closed. They apologised and said it should have been open and would investigate. Three weeks later I'm still waiting for an explanation even though I've chased it.
Bitterly disappointed all round.

Very disappointed in christmas lights, just a long trail of lights with hardly any spectacular displays, only thing worth seeing was the fun animated videos illuminated on the castle. Belton was much better last year. Not worth the money unfortunately.

Disappointing displays inside & outside. Muddy around lake. Almost no food available. Very expensive (£75 for 2 adults) for 40.mins indoors & 50mins trail, Belton was much better last year.

Visited the Christmas lights and very disappointing. Not a patch on Belton last year and amateurish. Cars driving too fast up to castle and food outlets extremely exposed to wind and rain. Poor show!

Really disappointing christmas light trial, more like follow the festoon lighting and thats your lot. Having been to Belton previously we thought we'd try Belvoir - what a bad decision, expensive, paths were extremely muddy, really poor light shows with no real christmas theme, the video image that was projected onto the side of the castle was 50% blurred. No real food outlets - and no other entertainment. Suggest the Duchess takes a visit to Belton to see how its done !

I went for the Regency Christmas experience. Booking was easy and the checking in well organised. The whole experience was excellent I got to see lots of beautiful rooms it was informative with guides who were friendly and knowlegable. The Christmas decorations were stunning. I cannot recommend highly enough. I have visited Chatsworth previously and was bitterly disapointed . You will not be disappointed at Belvoir. I did not attend the light trail but when leaving it was getting dark and I could see some of the trail and it looked lovely. Highly recommend.

We went to the enlightened Xmas lights walk last night... OMG... what a load of rubbish.. I feel ripped off..
I took my wife and parents and we were all so disappointed, it was awful, we went at half 7 and when we got to the end all the food and drink places were already shut and Considering they were still letting people in I think its dreadful. Utter waste of money. Avoid this place like the plague

We spent £185 on 5 people to see the Regency & Light trail. Very disappointing. Inside the house was beautiful... but very short. Outside... it was a long, muddy walk.... the show was underwhelming. The lighting was actually quite dangerous in parts as you're so dazzled (in a bad way) that you can't see where you're walking. Trail was not at all Christmas themed... Refreshments at the Castle were very limited. Bacon buns, beef brisket or chips.... very expensive. They weren't allowed to sell drinks... queued for 'drink cabin' but only four hot drinks on offer. No cold drinks or water. I paid for hot water as I was so thirsty but didn't want caffeine, alcohol or sugar. We went to Belton last 2 years and thought we'd try somewhere different. We regret that decision as so much less for nearly twice the price. Gutted.

REALLY,,,,,,a light trail....seen better in my neighbours garden, and if you have any dexterity issues you may need to think twice...overpriced....poor display ....

We went to the enlightened light trail this evening,come on,that wasn't a Christmas light trail,it's sooo overpriced for what it is.Putting up 1.5 km of lighting along a path isn't a Christmas light spectacular,my Christmas lights are better than this!!!!
The castle and the surroundings were pretty but it isn't what it says it is,very disappointing,there are much better light displays elsewhere,a waste of money in my opinion.Sorry but you need thousands more lights!!!!!

It looks like we may have celebrated too early, we have received an email from POPLA to say they cancelled our parking charge notice in error, which not only took us by surprise but left us confused as to what is going on, apart from the fact that the saga continues. It appears that the appeal process is as flawed as the parking payment system.

**APPEAL THROUGH POPLA SUCCESSFUL**
We regularly supported Cafe Alez and the Engine Yard, partparticularly through the pandemic. Wishing to further support local businesses we visited Belvoir Castle on 26 July paying £36 entrance fee and also ate lunch in the tea room, paying for parking on exit. We enjoyed visiting the castle but not so much the gardens which were poorly maintained, in particular the Japanese Garden which had very little signs of any Japanese influence. We were dismayed to realise we had underpaid when we received a parking charge notice for £60 rising to £100 if not paid within 14 days. In our opinion, and that of many others on Tripadvisor (90+) and social media, the machine set up is misleading and confusing. Initial Parking declined our appeal but 2 months after appealing through POPLA we have now had our appeal upheld.
Our appeal was on the grounds that the signage and machines were misleading and as their defence included the fact that they had subsequently installed additional signage to make it clearer which we felt was an admission that the process was confusing they are no longer pursuing the matter. I would urge people to fight the charge and gather evidence to support their appeals.

It is such a shame that what should be a pleasant experience supporting a local business is thoroughly spoilt by this parking system and I will not be taking the chance of being caught out again by parking on site.

The tour guide, William, was a disgrace.

Re the Festival of The Horse Sun 12 Sept 2021!
What a great draw to the event it was to be – watching the Household Cavalry, but “no show!” Surely, such a performance would have continued with reserves in place if one of the troops were injured?
The most worthwhile and watchable event in the Granby Arena was the display of the Cossacks and having said that, all the horses on the day gave amazing performances.
The two mile off-road drive to the parking area was really shocking – is there a less traumatic route which could be used? I am sure a tarmac surfaced road has been used to travel to the Garden Show in the past.
Although disabled parking was available, it was obvious that no thought had been given to how those who needed the assistance of either a wheelchair or rollator would be able to overcome travelling through the very long grass to the arenas or the shopping/food areas. Did anyone think this aspect through from a Health and Safety aspect? Could the grass have been cut for people to walk over to the arenas? Were toilet amenities for the disabled catered for, if so, where were they? If the whole event was not suitable for those requiring this type of additional thought, why wasn’t this mentioned in the Festival advertising?
I’m not sure that I actually saw fifteen shops, but I did witness queues of people waiting for up to half an hour to purchase food and drink from a very small number of food outlets.
Today, Sunday, was such a disappointment and certainly not worth £75 for our family of three, even if the Household Cavalry had been present. I think a lot of effort had been made to advertise the event, both locally by flyers and on the Castle website etc., but the show did not match the build-up, I’m afraid.
Did the Castle events team monitor any of the progress throughout the two days?
From a former sports event organisers' point of view, I am interested to know your conclusions of the weekend.

I have just received a car parking fine of £100 relating to the visit my wife and I paid to Belvoir Castle last week. As you can imagine this has somewhat taken the shine off what was an enjoyable afternoon’s visit. The ‘parking system’ is at best confusing, and at worst a downright scam aimed at tricking guests into paying the wrong fee - thus incurring hefty fines to line the pockets of the parking company.
The first piece of confusion arises with the signage that tells you the first hour is free, but then the machines themselves do not reflect this saying “up to 1 hour £2.20”.
When trying to pay for our parking at the end of our visit, we had to input our reg no. The default charge of “£2.20” was then displayed. We knew we had stayed longerr than this, and had to pay more, but there was no obvious means of changing the charge. It was starting to rain and we had a queue behind us, so we simply shrugged our shoulders and paid what the machine asked for.
The system uses APNR reg no technology, but apparently does NOT use it to calculate the length of your stay and the price of the parking charge displayed to you. Crazy. Funny how its able to determine if you have stayed more than you’ve paid for and pump out a parking fine.......
We are not crooks and are accustomed to paying our way in life. We TRIED to pay the correct fee. The indiscriminate nature of this system has everyone labelled as dishonest and therefore deserving of a hefty £100 fine. I seriously question the legality of this
system, it can’t be allowed to continue.

Absolutely scam. Lady Rutland should be ashamed of ripping people off with the whole parking scam business, what an absolute let down to what was meant to be a beautiful day, like they don’t have enough wealth, they have to partner up with a private car park company sending in the dogs to take money from people. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING PEOPLE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. STAY AWAY FROM HERE.

Afternoon tea awful
We visited here for the day ,grounds were only thing good about it , the castle was ok , we opted for afternoon tea wish we had not bothered felt unwelcome and it’s very very very overpriced , the afternoon tea sandwiches and cake itself was ok ,staff rude and not attentive , we wanted to order another pot of tea but we could not even get hold of anybody or even wave at anybody because they were in the kitchen most of
The time and didn’t even ask us once if everything was ok ,and there was hardly anybody in for afternoon tea ,
This place should stop trying to be so pretentious and the staff should be trained properly in customer service , a note to sir and lady Grantham Look after your paying customers better!!