English Inn & Resort

Very nice Inn, for the price it was perfect! So close to everything we wanted to see. Our room which was at the very top was cozy and clean. Staff seemed very friendly too.

I love The English Inn! My boyfriend and I decided to travel from Seattle to Victoria for our 5 year anniversary. I was looking on groupon one day and found a groupon for the English Inn. The pictures looked amazing and I told my boyfriend, «this is the place I want to stay!» I called and spoke with Heather who was beyond friendly and so very helpful! She held a room for me before I booked my groupon and then all I had to do was call back with the number.
A few days before we arrived I called to see if there were any special things I could send to our room to surprise my boyfriend for our anniversary and Heather so graciously upgraded our room to their honeymoon suite and it was the most beautiful room, so much space and a fireplace! We were in love with it!
I didn’t realize that the front desk closed at a certain hour and boy was I glad I spoke with Heather a few days before — she had someone come let us in around 10pm; which I though was so great and accommodating.
I will definitely be coming back here! I loved the Inn and the people! Thank you for everything to the staff at the English Inn!

Hotel is in a beautiful old converted house, efficient and pleasant staff, extensive grounds with cute paths to wander about, our room was a bit «cozy» and without air conditioning, but comfortable. Breakfast is essentially coffee/​tea/​hardboiled eggs but also includes large homemade tasty croissants, again served in a pleasant setting. If you can get this place at a decent price it’s well worth a stay.

Firstly, I haven’t stayed here. I visited solely for the grounds during the Spring to see Anne Hathaway’s cottage and outlying English cottages. Architecture I fondly remember enjoying as a kid. Back then, the English gardens were thriving and abundant. The village shop fronts had actual shops in them that sold trinkets, Shakespearean clothing, books, candies, British foods and a host of other Anglo-​centric items. An enclosed remake of Stratford-​upon-​Avon, not just a fun destination, but an educational and cultural phenomena.
Such is no longer the case. The grounds have overgrown with weeds, statues broken, roofs in dire need of repair. Metaphorically speaking, I felt as though the retirement home that granny had been placed into was being grossly incompetent in meeting her needs.
I feel the owner (s)/trustees could generate some insane revenue here by simply fixing up the place using volunteers. Post restoration, small volunteer costumed staff, implement small tours (buses), a tea room, little shops, 1 monthly concert, with 2 weekly intimate Shakespearean plays on the grounds (weather permitting). Charge $$.
I can’t imagine Victoria (and/​or a philanthropist) not wanting to take on part of the fiscal needs of this portion of the estate. If this were the case, I would visit twice a year.
3 stars because thankfully this place still exists!

We had our wedding there on August long weekend. They have a wonderful elopement package. The grounds were so beautiful my photos could grace the cover of magazines! The ceremony location, in the Sunken Garden was so pretty and lush with greenery. The lunch was fantastic, the service very good, and the flowers (from Foxgloves Flowers) were even better than I could imagine. Jennifer Friessen, the events coordinator has everything down pat, she was an essential part of the wedding!
The Inn is gorgeous, and the Crown Jewel suite is worth the extra couple bucks. It’s huge and very well put together.
And yes, the fresh baked croissants in the morning are fabulous!
I really recommend this place for small weddings (I don’t know what their event capacity is, but for sure a small wedding would be just perfect). I couldn’t have pictured it so beautifully.

Rating is 3.5. Romantic, good breakfast (esp. croissant), nice exterior, spacious. We would give 4 stars if it were not for the stale smell of old building.

I would recommend this for: 1) family reunion; 2) small wedding; 3) corporate retreat; 4) romantic getaway (with reservations). We stayed there as tourists and it was lousy for that — much farther out of the way than I expected. Cab ride to anything downtown was $ 14+ plus tip. Bus service is manageable, but the major bus lines are a good 10-​minute walk up-​hill from the property — and service is not big-​city frequent. Hotel is in better shape than some earlier reviewers suggest — we found it clean and well-​maintained. But it is a little down at the ears. And the lack of a restaurant is a problem — because the nearest restaurants are A&W and a couple of comparable ones. Great brewpub turned out to be a 35-​minute walk — we took a taxi back. We were disappointed but our expectations may have been unreasonable. The grounds are beautiful, the wi-​fi works and if we had been seeking a quiet two or three days together or with a small group it might have been great — particularly with some advance arrangements to cater in the meals other than breakfast.

There is nothing more romantic than waking up in a traditionally British bedroom (or whatever, I’m convinced!) to the twinkling of birds chirping in the light grey rain of Vancouver Island.
My partner and I stayed here for our three year anniversary January 25 – 27 for our anniversary on the 26^th. This was a tumultuous experience at times, but overall I was satisfied with our experience.
If you’re looking for remoteness or a private getaway without much bother, then the English Inn is your spot.
We stepped off the Victoria Clipper from Seattle and really had no idea how far away the English Inn was. We went to rent a car from Budget, but it was too expensive ($ 200 for two days to drive a Yaris?!) so we walked to the English Inn from downtown Victoria. IT WAS LIKE A 50 MINUTE WALK. But that’s all fine, we made it just as well.
The neighborhood didn’t keep up with the grandeur of the English Inn. It was a run down Canadian town called Esquimalt. But that is neither here nor there.
**the reason I’m giving them a 4 star rating versus a 3 star is because, beleaguered by our exhausting walk, the hostess Kim was very gracious in letting us check in 4 hours before check-​in. Thank you.
Practically the first thing we noticed was how awfully and guilt-​wreakingly squeaky the King-​sized bed was. It was too unromantic for Raven to bear. But the room was huge, and it stayed REALLY WARM. We were in «The Queen Anne Room,» which had a walk-​way onto a private deck above the arch that would be the car-​port. We kept the door open to the deck all weekend and that helped keep it cool and kept the romantic rain and bird chirps in our minds.
Oh and thank you for the free Wifi! We really needed it. It was exceptional. :)
The English Inn to The Victoria Harbor in front of The Empress Inn is a $ 12 taxi ride. The taxi driver said it would be about $ 6 to ride the bus (#6!).
Anywhoo, despite some hiccups in our arrival, and the fact that the English Inn, formerly known as Rosemeade, has seen former glory, we weren’t diminished by any of this. Raven and I had a lovely time in the Queen Anne Room and we walked the estate and saw all of the old rickety buildings on the estate. It was pleasant being away from Victoria (I guess?) and whenever we told a local we were staying at The English Inn, they knew exactly where it was.
Will we return? Oh definitely not.
Was it worth experiencing once?
~If you have a car or are willing to pay for taxis into Victoria, sure.
Next time we will stay somewhere closer to Craigsdarroch Castle. Cause that thang is beautiful.

Rooms are old and smelly. Can’t sleep as so much noise come from upstairs and lobby. Suits 4 is the worst. Don’t stay.

Looks like something out of amityville horror … complete with unfriendly staff. too bad because beyond the creepiness of the place, the main building has some spectacular wood and stone work. hate to admit it but we slept with the hall lights on. not a chance we’d go back.

There are great historical/​boutique hotels out there, but this isn’t one of them. The staff is friendly enough, but hamstrung by limited service availability and apparent closures of some of the buildings on the property (hence no low-​floor rooms).
A few of the factors that led to my 1* review: beat-​up room (softgoods were nice, furnishings decent, but bathroom and carpet were worn and stained), poor accessibility (third floor room, narrow steep staircase, no elevator), odd operating procedures (unstaffed at night, keys rather than keycards).
It’s a nice setting for a wedding or event, and the website/​photos accurately represent the grounds and public areas, but the guest rooms and third-​floor public spaces did not meet our expectations or needs, so we ended up not staying overnight.

This is definetly a faded lady. It consists of a series of buildings along with the main manor building. We stayed in one of the out buildings (Shakespeare Manor). The room was discribed as two rooms with a king or queen bed. I think it was really a full sized bed. The bed was so sqeaky and creaky that you could wake the dead when you moved in it. Otherwise the mattress was comfortable enough. The pillows where awful. The toilet was wedged in so tight you could wash your face in it while using it.
I’ve stayed in a lot of small hotels in Europe and by those standards this was Ok. If you like a place that’s a bit run down and funky, then this is your place. It’s not conveniently located and not in the best neighborhood so you better have you’re own transportation. There’s slim pickings for restaurants near by.
The staff was friendly. They did forget to make up the room one day, but did stop by with fresh towels when I went to the lobby to complain. I’ll stay elsewhere next time I visit Victoria.

I was looking for places to stay on Hotwire and looked for a 4 star hotel near Victoria. Since Hotwire doesn’t tell you name until you book, I got this place for $ 97/​night + tax ($ 117.43 total).
The TripAdvisor score looked OK, and I didn’t think much more about it until I was on the ferry from Vancouver. The other Unilocal reviews alarmed me and I scrutinised the TripAdvisor ones which did nothing to improve matters. Still, I gave it a chance and drove there with my daughter in tow.
At the risk of being repetitious, it is in a residential area with nothing nearby. There do seem to be bus stops nearby, but you’d really want a car to get anywhere.
It looks like something out of Hammer House of Horrors: overgrown grounds, decrepit looking buildings that need at least a coat of paint (one has a tarp over the roof). I pulled up to the hand print marked glass front door and peered in at the dark and dingy interior of the main house, got back in my car, drove around the parking lot to check out the rest of it and went to the Marriott in Victoria. Had it just been me, I might have risked it and written it down to experience, but with a young child, I don’t think so.
Four star resort? They are having a laugh! And they’ve got my 120 bucks.
The last word goes to my daughter who said: «It looks yuck.»

2.5*‘s. Partner kept referring to this place as a haunted mansion (damn it) but I think that’s because we were booked in one of the little outside rooms. I stayed last year and DEFINITELY ask for the main building… it’s old-​world but updated and much less creepy. Nothing to love or hate about this place… the grounds are pretty gorgeous and worth exploring if you have enough time. And if you get there early enough you can make sure they give you shampoo & conditioner as opposed to shampoo & two lotions =P

This holel has 4 stars in orbitz where I booked 2 nights there. Does it reserver 4 stars? I don’t think so. No refill on shampoo, soap, and tissue box. The floor was definitely not vacuumed. Broken shower hose was not fixed even it was brought to receptionist attention. The croissants for breakfast were good though.

Ignore the two negative reviews, one seems to believe that the Inn is located in downtown Vancouver, I have to believe that someone was generating bogus messages. This is a great bargain at slightly over $ 100 per night for two, and cleanliness is NOT an issue.

I have no idea how the two reviews below are so bad when we had such a great experience.
We bought a great deal on LivingSocial which gave us two nights, a bottle of bubbles and a box of Rogers chocolates. We chose to upgrade to an even better room for $ 30 a night. The building is beautiful and situated on lovely grounds. Our room was fantastic — a bedroom, sun room and huge bathroom with claw-​foot tub. The bed was a super king and had the most luxurious sheets I’ve ever slept on (and I don’t skimp on linen). The room was very clean and well decorated.
My only gripe is that they have signs in the bathrooms saying to leave towels on the floor if you want them washed and on the rack if you’re happy to reuse. We left everything on the racks and it was all taken away and replaced. Which would be fine, but it’s a little contrary to their signs.
All in all, we had a lovely weekend and I would absolutely recommend this for a weekend getaway.

I felt I was lucky — my stay was pretty good. It could have been way worse. Certainly not a luxury hotel — or a «resort» for that matter, but I was treated well, I liked the garden setting. I booked a single and received a garden suite. The room was quaint, the bedding was clean and I had a good sleep — and sat in the garden in the morning. Well worth the money for that experience.
However…
On the downside, the room was only half cleaned — there was garbage left in each of the containers from the last guests, there was make-​up powder all over the bathroom sink and shelf, the clean face-​cloth was on the floor in the bathroom when I arrived.
There were leaves on the floor in the room, and the rug in the middle of the room looked like it had never been cleaned — it was filthy. The pillows were just OK (I agree with Jod that they should invest in better pillows), and I laughed when I saw that the king-​sized pillows were stuffed into «standard» sized pillow cases.
It’s obvious they need to up the ante with this place. I would have liked the bathroom renovations to at least somewhat reflect the general ambiance — but it was a cheap job by someone who knows nothing about colour matching!
Not sure I’ll stay there again.

Grounds took my breath away. Where was this place when I was searching for a venue to get married at?
Rooms are eclectic and unique, I heard that the rooms underwent recent updates and that it’s under new management. I don’t know what it was like previously, but I’ll come back,

Warning, Warning-​this place is not at all what it seems in its ads and brochures-​the setting is lovely (though the neighborhood is really tacky and bleak and a good distance from downtown Vancouver) but its all in the details-​the room we got (the honeymoon suite) had a rug that was filthy the mattress was cheap and lumpy with a foam pad thrown over it to make it sleepable-​the pillows where cheap chopped up foam, no internet, no mini bar or even a bottle of water-​only one lamp on one side of the bed (so only one person can read at nite-​the breakfast was coffee, frozen orange juice, a muffin or a untoasted bagel and an unpeeled green orange or brown banana-​in other words it was the pits!!!