Villas In The Peak District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Carol - Verified booking

  We loved Castleton and especially enjoyed our hike.

  Eastry Cottage is located right near the entrance to Cave Dale, a ravine/dale often a part of mapped walks. The hike up was lovely and a little challenging for us. One caution is make sure you know your route well before heading out and take along a good map that marks the terrain. Paths are well trodden, but not well marked. In December the weather was not too cold, but damp with rain possible for some part of every day - plan for that. Good waterproof hiking boots are a must, as you will be walking on rocky, wet paths. Eastry Cottage was lovely, but not fancy - which was OK with us. We had planned to cook more, but found the availability of groceries limited. Fortunately there were many excellent dining options in Castleton. The host provided some lovely Christmas decorations and fresh flowers on the dining table - we really appreciated that as our visit was near Christmas. There were eggs and milk awaiting us in the refrigerator and served as our breakfast the first morning. The kitchen provided the basics as far as pots, pans, dishes, utensils and included 2 kitchen towels, dish soap, salt and pepper, instant coffee, tea bags. We did not find the extra silverware and dishes until we were leaving. Look for that next to the dining table. We were thankful for the washing machine - as we got very muddy in our hikes. We arrived by public transport (train to Hope Valley and bus to Castleton) and managed without a car, but I got the sense that most vacationers in the village did have cars.

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• Elizabeth - Verified booking

  It wasn't made clear before booking the hill the cottage is on isn't just steep: it's actually about 1 in 4.

  Parking to unload/load is by no means easy (assuming your car can cope with a stop on that hill.) We unloaded without a problem but when loading I had to move the car round the block twice because of vehicles waiting to pass. Eventually we trespassed onto the private off road parking area opposite which happened to be empty and loaded from there. A bit of extra width by removal of the window box so you can get nearer the wall might help. For anyone with knee problems a steep flight of stairs between bedroom and bathroom and an unusually steep hill to climb up and down to the shops may make this not the ideal cottage for them, as I found. About do-able for us but others might not be so lucky. There seems to be a TV reception problem: we had to watch everything by using i-player and similar because otherwise it was "No Signal". If this is the usual situation a clear simple idiot's instruction guide explaining that would be useful, not the manufacturer's very small-print full handbook. A similar sheet would be useful for the cooker - you don't want to have to search through the book when you just want to brown a fish pie in the oven - and our cooker is even the same make! Having said that it is thoughtful to have provided all instruction leaflets. Otherwise, yes, it's lovely and warm and we did enjoy the view from the bedroom.

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• Deborah - Verified booking

  Although the apartment looked nice, we were extremely disappointed in some aspects.

  First upon entering, it was freezing as no heating was on, it took most of the evening to get to a decent temperature. While unpacking we found a dirty towel stuffed in a bedside draw, and had to wash most kitchen items before use. The extractor fan didn’t work efficiently so cooking was extremely difficult as the kitchen would fill with either steam or smoking and we risked setting the fire alarm off. The biggest disappointment was noise. The windows despite being double glazed provided no protection from sound at all. While trying to watch tv, the sound of traffic drowned out the volume and made it impossible, if being considerate to our neighbours to watch anything. The amount of traffic going through the town at night was enormous. Consequently sleep was broken every night with the sound of deliveries being drag around on trollies, Lorrie’s bumping along the bad roads, conversations of people walking in the street etc. it was an absolute nightmare. I would not stay in this cottage again!

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• Caroline - Verified booking

  Such a wonderful find, highly recommended.

  We stayed as a family of four with our two girls, 4 years and 11 months and our Westie dog. There was lots of space in the top floor bedroom to accommodate the travel cot and our 4 year old had the single bedroom to herself. She loved the bee theme! The property was comfy and warm and the posh coffee machine was a fantastic bonus. The town itself has lots of amenities, less than 5 mins walk from a couple of decent supermarkets, and a handful of pubs, cafes, fish and chips, takeaways and wine bars on offer. The property is up a hill, which our 4 year old had no problems climbing, but we used a carrier for the baby rather than the pushchair which we left in the car. The car park at the bottom of the hill was easy to find and we purchased a parking pass online when we arrived. Highly worthwhile if you’re planning on visiting other towns in the area as the parking extends to several places in the Derbyshire dales. Would definitely come again and recommend to friends.

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• Ann - Verified booking

  We had a lovely holiday in Castleton.

  The cottage is beautiful and well equipped. It had everything we needed for a comfortable evening after a day out walking. We particularly liked some of the artwork, including some striking prints. The location of the cottage is perfect, right in the middle of Castleton and next to the well known Cave Dale, so as well as longer walks we did the little two mile circuit of walking up Cave Dale and back round to the village several times in the week. The one piece of advice I'd give is about eating out. If you prefer not to cook each night and want to eat out in Castleton it might be a good idea to plan this ahead of your holiday and book tables accordingly. We found this difficult with many places fully booked. If this happens, we recommend the takeaway pizzas from 1530, and one day we had excellent fish and chips, though this had to be lunchtime as the fish and chip shop isn't open in the evening. Altogether I wholeheartedly recommend this cottage.

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