A beautiful lake nestled between mountains

[Bassim]

Have I made any mistakes?

A beautiful lake nestled between mountains was the president's retreat, to which he would come a few times a year to take a rest from his political affairs. The place was known just to a chosen group of his friends, who would spend with him days and nights eating excellent food and drinking expensive wines. Occasionally, they would go hunting bears and pose for a photograph with the killed animals.

 

[nigele2]

[STRIKE]A[/STRIKE] By a beautiful lake nestled between mountains [STRIKE]was [/STRIKE]stood the president's retreat, to which he would come a few times a year to take a rest from his political affairs. The place was known just to a chosen group of his friends, who would spend with him days and nights eating excellent food and drinking expensive wines. Occasionally, they would go hunting bears and pose for [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] photographs with the killed animals.

“days and nights” could be seen as containing a redundancy. Presumably staying a number of days infers the nights as well. But equally it does give emphasis to the time span. I might have written "who would spend several days at a time with him eating ..........................."

“was known just to a small chosen group of his friends”. Using “small” would emphasize that his friends were very much a select group. But I don’t want to put words in your mouth. Perhaps, even when limited to a few times a year, he invites hundreds of friends.