Easter Cottages in the New Forest

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Beverley - Verified booking

  A beautiful cottage, literally a couple of minute’s walk away from the forest.

  Loads of space for a large family or a friendship group. We actually spent all our time in the large conservatory and garden and only went into the front room/snug on one occasion, and the dining room a couple of times to play board games, but we were blessed with the weather and I imagine the living room with a very large wood burner would be amazing in colder months. The house was really well stocked, with everything you could possibly need for a comfortable stay; the owners even left us a bottle of fizz and a tub of choccies, which was a lovely thought. There were plenty of lovely quality toilet rolls too! I know this seems an odd thing to comment on, but so often we go to a property that has frankly cost a considerable sum, to be left with a couple of cheap rolls for the whole week! Bedding and towels were luxurious and smelled lovely and fresh and clean, and the beds and pillows were comfy. I personally didn’t like the position of the bed in the master bedroom, as one side was against the wall - fine for youngsters with sturdy bladders, but middle aged ladies such as I, who need to get up for a pee, have to either wake up the other half, or clamber over them! A minor gripe, however, and one which won’t affect the majority of people! The garden was beautiful, and our dog absolutely loved it; he particularly enjoyed having cool shady spots to lie when it got too hot, but there was plenty of sun all day. It was large and completely secure, and there were a couple of relaxing sun loungers in addition to the garden table and chairs. We loved the games area with darts, pool and air hockey; our only tiny niggle was that it wasn’t lit, so as these evenings are now drawing in quickly, we were unable to play as often as we’d like. The location is great, as mentioned previously, almost in the forest, and only 20-30mins away from beautiful beaches. The village centre is only 10 mins walk, and there is a great selection of eateries and all the usual shops you would expect/need. The Swan pub is literally across the road, and is good for drinks but many better places to eat in town (in our opinion). The owners were in contact and were very responsive, but as they had thought of absolutely everything, there was nothing that we needed. We chose this area randomly, based on the pictures of the house, and I’m really glad we did, we had a lovely stay and would definitely recommend both the location and this specific property. A lovely stay, thank you.

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• Salina - Verified booking

  We had issues with boiler throughout stay.

  had to reset it several times a day to get any heating. this really needs looking at by the owner and its not acceptable for guests to have to keep faffing about with it as constant faults flashing throughout the day. there were pots left in dishwasher many of which were still dirty we found slugs in kitchen every morning- i know its an old house but some copper tape around kitchen side door would stop that. there were rats in the garden ( around the side)- we opened the kitchen side door near utility and we saw two in what looked like the old coal shed- you need to put something down to get rid of those. filthy stained bath upstairs which was unusable- no one wanted to sit in it. the slope down from gate to conservatory covered in slime so one elderly person in the group slipped quite badly walking down it the shower room downstairs basically flooded whenever anyone used the shower- needs a longer shower screen or some kind of run off point. trying to get in and out off the main road was a challenge in the cars. sorry all so negative but for what we paid we expected a better maintained holiday house- all the ones we've rented from Sykes in the past have been perfect. sadly not this one.

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• Alison - Verified booking

  The lodge is very nice, it was very clean and comfortable and we really did enjoy our stay there and we would return.

  The directions are very poor, needs to be more specific we arrived from Lymington but the directions did not get us there. It needs to be more clear about the restrictions on the park and you are not attached to the main one, it’s very clear when you arrive and laid out in a folder, this would have been useful advice when booking. This did not affect our holiday as we like the quiet nature of the retreat, but feel others maybe not happy, it needs to be clear when booking. The fridge and cupboards were all full of left over items, which meant we had no where to store our things. It felt like we were sharing with other people, rather than this was our home for the week. We catered for the whole week of food and had to leave items on the side as there was no space cupboards. The maintenance team were excellent, we had a problem with hot water, nothing anybody could have foreseen, this was fixed within half an hour with the most excellent customer service. The lodge is lovely as said at the beginning, the area is lovely, we only traveled half an hour a day, sometimes less to visit some excellent places. We had a fantastic holiday, the little bits would have made it superb.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  Overall, we were very pleased with the accommodation and had an enjoyable week.

  Just a few minor issues: 1. The instructions to open the main gate could have been a bit more detailed as we spent a few minutes working out how to use the fob. 2. The cupboard in one of the twin bedrooms was full of spare bedding so there was no room to hang any clothes. 3. There was no recycling bin in the lodge. 4. Not an issue with the accommodation, but we were disappointed to find out that we had to pay for a pass just to use the on-site restaurant (we didn't want to use any of the other facilities). Is this something that can be taken up with the site authorities? 5. Sykes advertises two lodges on the site: Seahorse Lodge and Amethyst Lodge. In relation to Amethyst Lodge, there is a note about the site facilities being 5 minutes walk away and that driving is not advised. It probably wouldn't have made much difference, but we chose Seahorse as this note wasn't included in the accommodation details and we assumed this didn't apply to Seahorse. Perhaps Sykes could be consistent in their information on this. 6. Also in relation to Amethyst, there is a note about on-site passes being available at half price. Does this also apply to Seahorse?

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• Colin - Verified booking

  The location of the lodge was pleasantly quiet.

  The lodge its self was a good standard. However, the presentation, soft furnishings, towels etc were very basic, not what we would expect. On arrival there were cleaning clothes dumped on the decking. The crockery and cutlery were a random selection and the some of the mugs, plates and bowls were chipped and tea stained. There were no hand towels, no basic hand wash, no toilet brush in the main bathroom, no waste bin in the en-suite. In the en-suite shower room there was a shower chair which had to be move out to have a shower making it very awkward. There was a washing machine but no ironing board or iron. Your instructions are very specific about not leaving items in the cupboards but there were all manner of things including medications such as paracetamol etc in the kitchen cupboard, ice pops in the freezer. Item's belonging to previous renters or the owners in the main bathroom cupboard. It felt like a very amateur operation. When you pay for holiday accommodation, I think you should feel you are the first people to use it, not that you are gate crashing someone else’s holiday home.

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