Lodges with hot tubs in Staffordshire

The Staffordshire Moorlands cover a compact stretch of country, easy to explore from a single base. Where you choose still shapes the trip. Rudyard Lake, a couple of miles north of Leek, is the most easy-going base. It is a two-mile reservoir with cottages and lodges along the water, a narrow-gauge steam railway running along one shore, and sailing and fishing for anyone who wants them. The setting does the work here, so it suits couples and smaller families more than busy itineraries.

Leek, the old silk town known as the Queen of the Moorlands, suits anyone who wants a proper market town close by for shops and pubs. North and west of the town, the land climbs quickly towards the Peak District. A base around Leek, or out towards the Manifold Valley, puts walkers within a short drive of the Roaches and open moor. The village pubs of Hartington and Longnor are near enough for an evening out, and the walking starts more or less at the door.

South of Leek, the country softens into the Churnet Valley, a wooded river valley long nicknamed Staffordshire's Little Switzerland. The farms and barns down here sit among fields and trees rather than open moor, and they are the closest bases to Alton Towers, which is why families gravitate to this corner.

Staying near Alton Towers

Alton Towers sits on the north side of the Churnet Valley, and the farmhouses around Cheadle and Alton are the handiest bases for it, most within ten or fifteen minutes of the gates. That matters more than it sounds. A theme park day runs long, and a base nearby means you can leave when the youngest has had enough rather than facing an hour back across the county. The largest stays sleep big family groups, with kitchens big enough to get everyone breakfasted before an early start.

The hot tub earns its place on a trip like this. Several of the family stays keep theirs covered or under a canopy, so it works in the rain and gets its best use in the evening, when everyone is footsore from the rides. For a quieter day between park visits, Trentham is about half an hour west, where the Monkey Forest lets you walk among more than a hundred free-roaming macaques, and the Italian Gardens give younger children room to run. Drayton Manor and its zoo are a longer drive south for anyone wanting a second park.

Group barns and farmhouses with saunas and games rooms

The Moorlands hold an unusual number of large stays for the size of the area, and they are what bring groups here. The biggest are barns and farmhouses that sleep ten or more, many of them old farm buildings converted to give the space a milestone birthday or a family reunion actually needs. That means more than one sitting room, a long kitchen table, and bedrooms enough that nobody draws the short straw. A few sit on working farms, where children can meet highland cattle or alpacas, a field away from the hot tub.

What sets the best of them apart is what comes with the hot tub. A few pair it with a sauna and a games shack built for a wet afternoon, with a pool table, air hockey and an arcade machine to keep teenagers off their phones. Others have a full-size snooker room, and most of the group stays have a wood burner for the evening. Not every large stay carries all of this, and some welcome dogs while others do not, so it is worth a look at the individual listing for the things your group cares about most.

Walks and days out on the Peak edge

This is the quiet, western edge of the Peak District, with far less traffic than the Bakewell side. The one thing worth knowing is parking. The popular spots have little of it and fill by mid-morning, so the difference between a good day and a queue is often just setting off before nine.

The Moorlands have one more thing worth knowing. The skies here are genuinely dark, with one of the Peak District's official stargazing sites at Parsley Hay near Hartington, and at the more rural stays you can pick out the Milky Way from the hot tub itself.

The lanes up here are slow, and the country is properly rural, so a car turns one valley into the whole of the Moorlands. The biggest stays tend to go first, and so do the ones near Alton Towers over the school holidays. The weather turns quickly too, which is the real argument for a covered hot tub. The walk gets cut short; the tub does not.