Villas In The North West

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Michelle - Verified booking

  The cottage was average - not the usual standard of luxury we know from Sykes.

  There are a number of things that could easily be done to elevate it to luxury. It feels unloved, like a property that has been purposefully done up to let to the holiday market, but by someone who hasn't ever stayed in it to see what works and what doesn't work and possibly by someone who has never stayed much in holiday cottages themselves, so don't know the small things that make a big difference. For example, no shelves in the bathroom, so absolutley nowhere to put toiletries - that kind of thing just makes life tricky when you should be relaxing and not having to think about a problem to overcome - I appreciate it's a first world problem not being able to put your lotions and potions anywhere, but it felt like a battle. Another example of lack of thought was the freezer which is inside a kitchen cupboard, but not fully integrated. That in itself isn't a problem, but the door of the freezer opens in the opposite direction to the door of the cupboard it sits in. Coupled with the placing of the dining table and chairs, it was a battle every time we wanted to just get some ice out of the freezer as the cupbaord door had to be fully open to be able to open the freezer door and the dining table is in the way of the cupbaord door so that had to be shifted. It shouldn't feel like a battle to do stuff - real life has enough problems to overcome and holidays are an escape from real-life. The freezer door can bu hung easily from the other side making it much easier to get into. Other nice touches that would enhance the property - lighting. The living room/kitchen has two extremes of lighting - nothing or a runway of really bright spotlights, so sitting watching TV at night, reading or eating dinner at the table would be much cosier and ambient with a couple of lamps to provide an inbetween option. The sheet on the bed wasn't quite the right size for the mattress and it kept popping off and was really hard to put back on - all these things sound trivial even as I write them, but when you get a property where these things are right, you don't notice them, all you notice is how much of a good time you're having and how lovely the property is. When they're wrong, they focus your thoughts on the annoyances and there were a number of those that could be easily fixed if someone with an eye for detail took a practical look around. There were no details of how to recycle in the Property Information Booklet and there didn't appear to be different bins anywhere, just large black refuse bins - I found this surprising in this day and age. We took our recycling home with us. The description suggests a walk to Baycliff for a drink or food in the Inn, but I don't belive this should be included in the description - it's a 3.5 mile round trip on a very busy road - we love walking so the distance wouldn't necessarily put me off, but I don't think walking on such a busy and pavementless road, especially at night, would be very sensible - there may well be a public footpath across the fileds, but that wasn't obvious even with the maps we took - if there is a path then the proprty infomation booklet would benefit from this addition, otherwise remove the walk to Baycliff from the description or make it more accurate about what type of walk a trip to the pub would be. We really nejoyed the holiday, it was a good location for exploring the Lakes, but we would stay in Coniston or Grasmere next time - much prettier and definitely walking distance to a pub.

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• Hafiza - Verified booking

  Not clearly advertised.

  It should be advertised as a ground floor apartment rather than a cottage. We were in snowdrop cottage. Cosmetically it looks really good & very modern. Instructions in regards to where the accommodation is located initially seems clear but when you’re driving past the place it’s very easy to miss because the images shown on the website don’t match up the actual external entrance steps leading to the property. We had to drive around & knock on the doors of at least 4 peoples houses before someone finally sent us the right way. The property looked clean upon first appearance. When I lifted the bed covers back to look inside the bed it was covered in lots of hair. I had to use the washing machine to get it clean again before we could use it again. The washing machine was combined with a dryer. The dryer function was so hard to use every time you tried using the dryer function alone it would start washing again first. I put the wash on at 8pm and it was 6am in the morning before we got half the bedding dry & got in bed. The dishes inside the drawers had food stains & remnants on them. The heating couldn’t really be controlled properly. When we turned it on coz it was cold we’d be waiting for hours and it still wouldn’t warm up. However around 11pm & throughout the night it would be boiling hot throughout the whole place even when we turned it down & opened the double patio doors to cool the rooms down. There was no windows inside the bedroom that could be opened. The patio area wasn’t very secure as someone could walk up the stairs from the main road & walk around the house & onto the patio as there were no gates.

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• Karina - Verified booking

  Myself and my partner are just back from a lovely week at this cottage.

  We landed lucky and had great weather to go plenty of walks and do plenty of activities. The best part about this cottage was by far the hot tub, we loved coming home to relax in it. We also loved waking up to the view of cows right beside us in such a quiet, peaceful setting. We do have a few minor complaints that could have improved the stay; firstly no hand soap was provided in the bathroom, there was no bath matt to come out of the shower on to, the floor can be particularly slippy and with only 2 towels provided it was not ideal having to use one for the floor. Second there is a bin in the house but no form of recycling? And finally our power completely cut out late one night. We phoned to complain at 8.30am the following day and had someone respond and visit the house within half an hour, great response, all power was turned back on apart from the lights which kept tripping - Only issue then being that an electrician was required which we were told would be out that day and they did not arrive, meaning we were in complete darkness all night and into the following day. An electrician then came at 4pm the following day and did sort the issue. Biggest complaint and advice to owners would be to add a lamp into the living room, at night you do not want to be sitting with the full ceiling lights on and also don’t want to be eating dinner in this bright lighting, no ambiance at all. A lamp would make the lighting so much better and would make having a dinner more enjoyable. Overall we did enjoy our stay and we would just have appreciate these small adjustments to have made it perfect.

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• Patricia - Verified booking

  WOW!! What a lovely cottage it surpassed all expectations

  . The view from Snowdrop cottage is stunning. I know the coast road well and have family in the area and it was in the perfect spot. Your a few miles up the coast road to Roe Island and you can take a boat for £5 return to Peel island. Down the road is the little village of Bay cliff but if you go to Aldingham before hand go past the church and go down on the beach. Fantastic views. There is plenty of scenic views along the coast road including the well known Roys icecream. Take a small car journey into Ulverston fab for shops cafes bars gift shops. The Hoard known as the Pepper pot it's an amazing view from the top, Cartmel is a beautiful village withall little gift shops. Take a ride round Windermere going through BowNess upto Ambleside and then down through Coniston water. Drive into Dalton in Furness and have a meal and the fantastic Brown Cow it's has a beautiful garden. Don't forget my favourite Furness Abbey an 11th century wonder. It's said Henry V111 attacked the abbey and slaughter most of the monks the rest hid in secret tunnels. Some are believed not to have been found yet. The cottage itself was lively decorated and the little hearts around the cottage made you feel happy and welcome. I definitely recommendon't this cottage. The cows come and see you in the garden. The hotel tub is amazing and placed in a great position to look out on the beautiful countryside. What your waiting for book now you won't regret it

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• Beth - Verified booking

  We visited this cottage recently for a short break.

  We arrived and it was 30 degrees, the heating was not needed to be on. The glasses in the cupboards were dirty and greasy, we had to was utensils and trays before being able to use them. The property was extremely difficult to relax in as we felt over-watched by the people staying next door to us, and they could see through the fences when we were both in our hot tubs. It did not feel private. Our major problem was that we had booked our dog into kennels as the cottage stated it did not allow pets. However on the second evening of our stay a couple arrived with two dogs and were there a couple of days! Not sure how this was fair? they also woke us up at 6am two mornings arguing and screaming loudly, we believe they may have known the owners as they looked to be doing work on the property too. We were not happy. We also drank water from the cottage and myself and partner became poorly we have taken images of the water! It was NOT clean, these will be sent to the owner. We had to post this feedback on here as we looked in the guest book and a lot of pages had been ripped out and only good comments were left so we presumed this would have been ignored if it was left in the book so we have added it here in the hope someone makes use of this advice. Lastly the cottage is in a lovely spot with great scenery and there is lots to do with the beach not too far away, however sadly we will not be returning.

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