Chatsworth House

Admittedly we high expectations of a Christmas experience here a) because we paid £26 each and b) because we have had such enjoyable Christmas experiences at other historic properties.

Principal gripes were that a visit here includes the rather crowded and overpriced Christmas market and although the ticket price does include parking and access to the gardens, the house tour is a conveyor belt of visitors looking at a series of decorated rooms that lasts just 25 minutes. Essentially much of the 25 minutes included waiting for people in front of you to get their pictures and selfies taken before you could move forward to see what there was to see. There was no narrative that we could see, just that sequence of decorated rooms and references to previous Christmas themes.

Some rooms were quite spectacular, personally we would like to have seen some more rich traditional Christmas colours in the mix and more natural (or even artificial natural) greenery and arrangements.

Finding somewhere to sit and eat lunch was pretty much out of the question. I had a bratwurst for £7.50, a very ordinary sausage in a very dry roll. My wife faired better with a decent burger, although that was also £7.50. Tea in a cardboard cup £2.80. Box of 4 doughnuts would have been £20.

We had a pleasant walk in the gardens and fell into conversation with another couple that were glad to get away from the madness of the market.

If you have not booked but are committed to going I would recommend timing your visit to include dusk when the illuminations in the grounds can be enjoyed.

The landscape that the house is set in is fabulous. However, I thought the entrance price was very high. The house is ok but I have visited more interesting stately homes. Whilst the guides in the rooms are excellent there is no information at all about the house as you walk around. No doubt the would like you to pay more money for the guide book. Afterwards we took the little train around the gardens which was also disappointing- it was all over in 10 minutes and only saw a small part of the garden. We ate in the restaurant which was ok and then paid nearly £8 for two cups of tea in paper cups and a scone in a plastic wrapper with a 3 month use by date. So very overpriced. I had been looking forward to this visit but felt let down. Lots of ways to spend money though!

We left our visit to Chatsworth House for our last day and as I reflect, I cannot help but feel we left the worst to last. I am a member of The National Trust and I have to say that the house was over-priced and underwhelming in comparison to NT houses. The house tour was quick and with access to only a dozen rooms we had finished the tour within 40 minutes. There was no information to read in the rooms (unless you wanted to spend £6 on a guide book) therefore, you had no context of the rooms or the years of paintings etc. I would recommend that if you wanted to go to the house to only buy a ticket to the garden as the flowers etc were beautiful and the garden was a lot better than the entire house altogether. Very expensive day, better off buying a National Trust membership for a fiver a month!

Pre-booked ticket in advance had the 10:45 entry to the house, arrived early and had a quick wander around the gardens before going in.
House is very Covid safe, had to wash hands before entry and wear masks around the house which was not an issue. Upon entry there is a QR code that gives you a guide to the various rooms that you go in.
Staff in the house are very knowledgeable and more than happy to answer questions. I would say it took me approx 1hr30 to go round the house, but then I spent longer exploring the vast grounds that took me to the trout stream, rockery which was amazing and great.
The Cascade for me was breath taking. I felt I could have spent all day here as so much more to see and do.

I'm sure no-one would dispute that Chatsworth is a fabulous place to visit at any time of year, but the Christmas display at Chatsworth this year was somewhat of a disappointment. We visited on 21st Nov 2019 and combined it with the Xmas markets. The market was just as good as usual with plenty to see and be tempted to buy. There were ample food stalls and we were pleased to see gluten free food available. We don't eat in the normal house restaurants as we find these just too expensive. As to the Xmas house display, we found this not so good this year. Granted there were loads of beautifully decorated Xmas trees about but the theme of different lands displayed in different rooms just didn't work for us. Granted our house tour this time was booked at 11.15am and it was absolutley heaving with people all clamouring for the best views. On previous visits we've taken the late afternoon house tours which are much less busy and allow more freedom to look around. However, the rooms depicting countries were difficult to identify by the decor and the few signs we did see hardly related to the display. For our personal taste we are visiting at Xmas and that's what we want to see, not Canada in the fall or a some Delft porcelain on a dining table with a few flowers in it to represent the Netherlands. We never saw a USA room though I was assured there was one, A dragon and some Chinese lanterns, though pretty, was China and I think Japan was a few pretty umbrellas hanging from the ceiling but little else. My impression was that the only thing that made the grand hall a Russian display was the addition of a Russian sled. Of course, with so many people crammed into the tour, we may have missed a lot. Compared to previous years the whole experience was a considerable let down. Usually, the displays begin outside with the walk up to the house entrance but there was absolutely nothing outside this year and the first display at the actual entrance to the house was a few suitcases and a couple of suspended planes. We assume this was meant to represent travel to foreign lands but it was very lacklustre this year. We expected "Christmas at Chatsworth" but we didn't feel we got that this year. Of course I'm well aware, and appreciative, of the immense time and effort of putting on such a display in the house, but please, next year, make it more Christmassy and more suitable both for children and for us older visitors. The Dickensian displays in 2017 and the story book displays in 2018 were wonderful. My friend said it wasn't worth the £25 we paid to visit this year but I was reasonably happy with the price we paid but not the content we were given. As usual, the grounds, even in November, were amazing as was the general presentation of the whole house. I would love to come again next Xmas but this year has definitely put me off another visit. If we do come we would book later in the afternoon for the house tour and we would hope you would choose a better theme.

Spent last weekend with friends in nearby Rowsley and visited Chatsworth House on a Saturday morning via pebooked ticket for house and gardens(£23) Really enjoyed time spent here as garden aand whole estate is vast so plenty of space for everyone! House tour took over an hour with guides at every step to answer your questions about the history and art works which are many ( especially intriguing works of Lucien Freud ).
Penty of places in the grounds to buy sandwiches and drinks or many people /families brought picnics.
Found the cascade fountain attracted children and adults to paddle in, myself included, and climb to the top..whilst extensive rock garden provided great place to explore.
Would definitely come back to enjoy wandering through the wider grounds and along the riverside as I did before. Fantastic day outgot busier in the afternoon as lots of locals by the river and cars parked on the roads.

Visited here for the Xmas Event it was amazing the house was beautifully decorated each room had a theme, the visit was well organised with plenty of parking.
The art work around the house is lovely the ceilings were amazing.
After the tour we visited the shop followed by a walk around the grounds we also had a ride in a horse and carriage which was extra but thoroughly enjoyed it despite it being cold.
We had lunch in the stables restaurant where there is a good selection of food we opted for sandwiches with cakes and coffee think it was around £20 for 2 of us.
Will deffinitely return in the summer to see more of the grounds.

House & gardens £23 admission, which is a timed entrance slot.

The fact you are not allowed on the estate grounds till within one of hour of your ticket is a nuisance.

Cos people whom get the early slots can stay all day on site & explore, but people unlucky to only get the late afternoon tickets only get two hours to be on site for exploring the house & gardens yet still have to pay the same full price to get inside the grounds & buildings.

The small pull along train is £3 per adult (over 12 yrs of age) or £2.50 per child under 12 yrs of age for a short ride.

Ice cream is £2.85 for one scoop, a captive audience, all the ice cream stalls were busy on a warm day.

I liked the emperor fountain & the cascade.

The maze was locked off & the trout stream under renovations.

The hunting lodge was a half hour trek to it, but you are not allowed inside as it’s now a holiday let.

The upper gift shop going towards the restaurants has a better range of items than the shop down by the House.

Very disappointed with our visit .
Chatsworth looks impressive from the far distance but it goes downhill the closer you get .
Large parts of the garden and house were closed off due to covid yet there was not a reduction in entry fees so we felt totally ripped off and taken advantage of.
The gardens were no more impressive than my local park . The feature alpine rockery area was full of weeds and badly maintained . The banking around the closed off maze was again overgrown with weeds.
The gloomy interior of the house was a mish mash of random mixed artefacts , which I would not give house room to , with no explanation of what they were or what they represented .
The portaloos were in a disgusting state . A health hazard .
The picnic fields by the river were plastered with sheep droppings attracting hordes of flies .
In summary this was an expensive abysmal experience .

We visited Chatsworth on a Monday without pre booking fully aware that it's a popular attraction but wanting to see if there was availability. We asked the person managing the entrance whether tickets were available for the house and she confirmed that there was and that we could purchase them at the house. She then charged us £10 to park

At the house we were told that there were no tickets available. When we rightly complained that we had been told at the entrance that tickets were available and were now £10 out of pocket the response was "they are a different team"

A very unprofessional response from someone who theoretically be representing the estate and not just her team!