Family Holidays In The Peak District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Andy - Verified booking

  This is not to be seen as a negative review and I hope you take the feed back as constructive comments.

  We had a brilliant family week and the location for central Castleton is brilliant. But the property is needing some TLC. Most kitchen utensils were provided - but we are glad we brought our large wok for cooking for a family of 7. There's no garlic crusher and an additional chopping board would be good. It might be worth sharpening knives or providing new ones as the ones provided are woeful. Not a massive issue to us, but there's no gate on the fence facing the public car park which could be a close call for potentially escaping dogs when front door opened. The front door supporting brace needs replacing as it is broken and you have to lean on the door to close it. There is no key for the side patio doors (that we found). The stable door at the rear does not close properly unless you really push it and lock the door from the inside. This is annoying if you are sitting outside. It becomes dangerous for little children and their fingers. No light bulb in small room and no replacements or spares anywhere. Dishwasher needs salt to be provided - there was none that we found, so it often didn’t clean very well. Tumble dryer - doesn’t dry clothes completely dry. Accessible electric cables/wires under tv are not only visible and unsightly, but grabbable by a child unless really supervised. The welcome book is lacking any real details about managing the property itself. The bins - although it can’t be helped - were 3/4 full on arrival. There is also a lack of details for bin day collection point. I placed the green bin in the car park, but luckily I saw the bin crew at 6:30am and they said they only collect from the roadside. There is no hot tub information/ upkeep details what so ever. Luckily, we knew we had to add chlorine as the slow release container floating around had run out by Wednesday. Who knew you had to remove this when in use? I can only compare to other places I've been where staff visited twice a day to check levels. It shouldn't be down to guests to manage the safe use of a hot tub, with no instructions. There are no spare bedding or pillows (its stated beds can be pulled apart if needed which is great, but there are no extra duvets provided) there is also an under sheet missing. The curtain in the living room is annoyingly short. Cleaning, just generally could be better. It seems a surface clean is done, rather than a thorough turnover. There are cobwebs and spiders in most room corners, the worst place being above the kitchen fridge. Bathroom window is in need of repair (there was a note on the window) however the bathroom door in the same room also doesn’t close properly. In addition, the toilet seat is moving and needs to be fixed/ replaced. King size bedroom en-suite shower doors don’t close completely, and tray floods - due to blockage. Stairs are loud and need new wedges, difficult to move up and down the stairs at night time without waking others and one gets a sense that the stairs are going to collapse! Security for dogs and young children in the garden is concerning given the proximity to the main road and it is fortunate we were fastidious in supervision. We had to move any wood lying around to form a barrier to deter them from escaping, especially towards the car park side. There were many screws lying around in the rear pebbled area that we picked up following construction of the welcome cover to hot tub. It seems a missed opportunity to encompass the fire pit and grassed area along with the pebbled area into a wholly securely fenced area. The seating area along the fence in the pebbled area, along the roadside, by the hot tub is a great idea, but it is too high. It needs to be halved in height to sit comfortably on. This is by far the main area we used A seat leg was broken on the arm chair in the living room by window. We ended up balancing this many times so it could be used. The oven has a weird funny smell when in use Castleton experienced a massive power cut during our stay, so the burglar alarm needs resetting as it was beeping and there was an issue rebooting the WiFi and TV but we conquered that eventually. I come back to the Welcome pack, there were no instructions how to do any of this. A clock would be nice on the fireplace in the living room. It takes two adults to lift the hot tub lid on and off. Actually 3, the first time we used it we leant the lid against the fence, but it dropped down the back and it took 3 adults to get it out (2 in the spa). Whilst the lady cleaning the hot tub was utterly pleasant, she arrived at around 8:30am, but check out is at 10. The hot tub was being drained by before 9am, which didn’t allow any use for the morning of departure had we wanted to. Fortunately we didn't, but we were just not expecting anyone so early. Again, I come back to the welcome pack (lack of) information if 8:30 am is the norm.

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• Mr Teall - Verified booking

  The site manager responded very quickly to our request for a shower stool. She definitely put her customers first which is what I call top notch service. Thank you Karen. This cottage has been well designed and is very comfortable. It is well equipped and the Wi-Fi speed is very good. So long as you position your seat correctly, there is a lovely countryside view across the valley with both livestock (sheep and cows) and wildlife (rabbits, hares and many different birds) to keep you entertained. We did that a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the other direction there is a factory building in the yard you drive through to reach the cottage, three wind turbines and a row of pylons and cables. The factory building was quite noisy with constantly running machinery during working hours. As it was quite cold for our visit this was not a problem as you cannot hear it inside the cottage at all, but I suspect it would detract from sitting outside in better weather. The downstairs bedroom has the most storage space and a much larger shower room which is very good indeed. It has a king-size bed. The upstairs (only half-a floor up really) has a super king-size bed but a much smaller shower room and no wardrobe - just a row of pegs with hangers. Both bedrooms have a good amount of drawer space. As we rented the cottage as a couple (just two of us) we slept in the upper bedroom to have the advantage of a cosier room with a bigger bed, but kept our clothes in the downstairs one and used the downstairs shower room. It is a shame they did not put a super-king downstairs as well as there is plenty of room, but using the two rooms in the way that we did worked well and we were very happy with the arrangement. As usual, there were a couple of quirky aspects to the design like the hand-woven carpet in the downstairs bedroom which was extremely rough to walk on in bare feet and, because there was such a huge amount of cooking equipment, there was not actually any cupboard space to store food - just one empty drawer. We enjoyed our stay in Griffedale and we would recommend it to those of our friends who we know, like us, would enjoy the views on its good side. For the future, the addition of a charging point for electric cars would be much appreciated and, within a few more years, will become essential.

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• Walkiria - Verified booking

  Flat was cozy , warm and spacious.

  Village is pretty with a little river running across it. Church bells go every 30minutes but it didn’t bother us. Sadly , village seemed to have been deserted. It was supposed to be lively with shops , tearooms , pubs … however the shops and tearooms were either closed or “for sale” . Pub opposite flat didn’t serve food and looked very uninviting for families. It didn’t matter to us as we were out and about all day and then cooking at the flat . There were some housekeeping issues that if addressed would make place nicer . Front door lock is temperamental as well as the hot water taps . Bath taps are loose as well as the work top behind kitchen sink. There were only 3 forks available for a place that caters for 4 people . It would have been useful to have serving spoons and serving dishes, colander , potato masher , bread knife , jug . It was a nice surprise to find dog bowls in the kitchen and a couple of games inside the ottoman pouffe in the living room. It would be nice to have blackout blinds as very bright in the morning. There is no loo brush . There are 15 bright spotlights on the living room ceiling . It would be nice if they were dimmable. Bedding could be of a better quality. Mattresses and pillows are overdue replacement in our opinion… we could feel some of the springs from mattresses… however we all slept well after long days out and about . It was very nice to get back in the warmth of the flat at the end of day . Not possible to have a bath though, as hot water kept running cold on and off … so pointless. Shower head was a pain … not much water coming out … no water pressure .. Extract fan in bathroom hasn’t been dusted in a long while . The area outside flat could do with some cleaning and tidying up. Someone left a pile of cigarette buds on the floor by the front door. As a dog walker who always clean up after my dog , I was disgusted to come across a lot of dog mess around the village , left behind by lazy people . Despite the points raised above , we had a lovely stay at Howard’s hideaway …but with some TLC it could be much better.

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• Kevin - Verified booking

  Positives related to the property and information that we hope will be helpful people thinking about booking this cottage ; The property is just as advertised.

  Large parking area for one car at the side of the property. A second car can park with ease, safely on the road, next to the cottage. The kitchen is very modern, with quality appliances and all the utensils you need. Both bathrooms are very modern, with powerful showers. Both bedrooms are a good size (we took a blow up bed for our son and there was still room to move around the room) One bedroom/bathroom is downstairs which was perfect for 86 year old grandad (no stairs to climb) Both bedrooms had hairdryers There was a strong bike store with lock - real bonus The owners garden is your main outlook and the flower beds are stunning! Amazing base for walking and cycling. There are National Trust properties near by and RHS partner gardens. Chatsworth House is a short drive away. Really small playground at the back of the cottage, great for U10's This cottage was outstandingly clean throughout, plus very tastefully decorated. Overall we would highly recommend this property. The only issue/down side to the property for us was the bedroom windows either had blinds or curtains on the windows. (but not both) The light came through the edges of the blinds/curtains from about 4.45am each morning, waking us up and having a real impact on the quality of our sleep throughout our stay. Kevin and Family

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• Katie - Verified booking

  I feel I need to leave feed back in two halves.

  Good points- location is amazing, beds really comfortable, bedding good quality, towels good quality and living room furniture was comfortable. Things that let the property down- two missing gates on the front ( the dogs could get directly into the carpark or drive to main road), no handle to assist the hot tub lid lifting ( it took both my husband and I to get it back on so my parents had been unable to use it once we had left), no safe steps for older guests and a shower at outside the back door, very large amounts cobweb's in most areas, back stable door didn’t fasten together and is extremely poor repair, broken lock hanging off the inside of bedroom two along with a broken curtain tie back and broken soap holder left in the shower, shower in main bedroom not draining and leaving stood water, curtains that don’t reach the bottom of the window, no wood packs for the fire pit and lots of large lengths of wood left on sitting area so it was not able to be used.

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