Two swim up bars in one spa? The Manor House, Alsager

The Manor House in Alsager used to be the only spa in the UK with a swim up bar. Then somebody else went and built one. So rather than share the title, they built a second swim up bar.

That is genuinely the main point of this blog. There are two swim up bars, what more do you need?! Book it now!

Simple answer.. yes, worth it. We paid £119 each on a Friday for four hours in the thermal gardens with lunch thrown in, and I would hand over that £119 again tomorrow. There is one bit of the timing that catches people out though, so stick with me for that.

What you actually get for your £119

Here’s the package as it’s listed on their website, valid Monday-Friday:

• Four hours of access to the full thermal gardens (13:30 to 17:30), which covers the English Spa Garden, the Secret Garden, the Indoor Spa and The Courtyard
• Lunch, served between 15:00 and 16:00, and you pick one of three: afternoon tea, a ploughman’s or a mezze platter
• Robe and towel hire

That £119 holds any weekday. It is not the Saturday and Sunday price, so if you’re pricing this up for a weekend, go and check before you get excited.

Right. The two swim up bars.

In the UK, I know, it’s perfect. A swim up bar is the sort of thing you fly five hours for, not something you drive to in Cheshire on a Friday. But you sit in the water, you order a drink, the drink arrives, and you are still in the water. That’s the whole thing and it works exactly as well in Cheshire as it does on a Caribbean island.

Having two of them is hilarious & exactly my kind of petty. Most spas are still working on their first, one other spa added one and they said bet. Not willing to share a title they went bigger & better.

We had the Limoncello and Elderflower Sangria off the summer drinks menu and it was perfect. Exactly what you want while sitting in a warm pool in the sunshine. Getting them handed to us without leaving the pool was soo good. We may have had more than one. Nope, not even sorry.

Top tip: wear a smart watch with a payment card so you’re not carrying your phone in the water or trying to hold onto a plastic card all day. Jumping out of the pool to get your phone out of your dressing gown pocket somewhat ruins the vibe, but it is a great opportunity for a selfie.

The cold plunge, and my dignity

The cold plunge is a galvanised trough with a bucket shower over it and a very reasonable blackboard next to it listing the do’s and don’ts of cold water therapy. I read nothing and jumped straight in, okay that’s a lie I was a bit chicken..

Sound on for that one. It’s just us laughing, and mostly at me.

The food

Three of us went and there were three options for lunch, afternoon tea, ploughmans or mezze platter, obviously we got one of each. They’ve since added a seafood platter which sounds interesting! Menu from 2025 attached

The afternoon tea comes out on a wooden shelving unit rather than the usual tiered stand, so everything gets its own little cubby. Finger sandwiches along the bottom, a fruit scone and a frangipane tart in the middle, and cakes up top with a proper wedge of chocolate and a lemony sponge. Jam, clotted cream, the lot.

The ploughmans was so well put together, what a spread. Cheeses, breads, chutneys, olives, pickles and a walnut salad, and between the three boards there was far more food than four hours of sitting in warm water strictly requires, not that I’m complaining..

The lunch was genuinely excellent, which is the thing that’s made us want to go back and eat there properly rather than as part of a spa package.

Everything else you get to sit in

The gardens are bigger than you expect from the road. The bit that surprised me most was the salt sauna, which has a whole wall of backlit Himalayan salt brick and fur throws over the benches. It’s warm, it’s orange, it’s very quiet, I’m still unclear on what it’s supposed to do, but it’s nice!

Then there’s a covered lounging area painted a soft sage green with patterned floor tiles and proper double loungers, which is where you end up when you’ve been in and out of water for three hours and your legs have stopped working.

And the indoor spa lounge, which has big skylights and a suspended fireplace in the middle of the room. Useful to know for the day you book this and it rains, which in Cheshire is a live possibility.

The bit to plan around

Here’s the honest gripe, and it’s about the clock rather than the spa.

Your four hours run 13:30 to 17:30, and your food is served between 15:00 and 16:00. So the meal lands almost exactly in the middle of your session. We went in for food at 15:30, between food, drinks & chatting we were in there for an hour. I really appreciate that you can go in soaking wet and they were super friendly about it, we checked about 5 times that they were sure we could get their pillows wet because it just felt wrong. They assured us that’s what they’re for and not having to get changed makes the break for food really smooth, but it does take a bit of talking yourself into getting wet again when you’ve just dried off.

It is not a disaster and the food is worth stopping for. But it does chop the day into two halves rather than giving you one long lazy one, they do mention that when you book though so it’s not a total surprise. Go in knowing it and you can plan around it: do the pools and the plunge first, eat, then use the back end of the afternoon for the saunas and the loungers, which are the bits that suit a full stomach anyway.

The hotel we haven’t done yet

There’s a hotel on the same site. We haven’t stayed, so treat this as a note rather than a review. The afternoon visit was good enough that we’re already plotting a trip back for the breakfast and the dinner menus, and we don’t usually bother doing that with a spa kitchen.

When we do we’ll write it up properly. In the meantime, if you want to look at rooms in and around Alsager, that’s the place to start.

Final verdict

Worth it, and it’s a comfortable yes.

£119 each on a weekday for four hours of thermal gardens, a full lunch with a complimentary drink, ask for the mimosa if you’re not feeling straight prosecco, and robe hire is good value before you’ve even got to the drinks (these are a paid extra), and the two swim up bars are the thing that makes it a day out rather than just a nice spa. The salt sauna is the sleeper hit. The Limoncello and Elderflower Sangria is worth paying extra for at the swim up bar.

Mark the 15:00 food slot in your head before you go, plan the afternoon in two halves, and don’t book it for a Saturday expecting to pay £119.

We’re going back for dinner. Small victories.

Prices are what we paid in August 2026. Things move, so check before you book.