Half Term Breaks In The United Kingdom

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Hawthorn - Verified booking

  Had the Potential to be Good. The location within the countryside was great for peace & quiet and observing wildlife from the windows - lots of pheasants all over the place. It is close to the coast & easy to visit the main places we wanted to : Southwold, Sutton Hoo, Aldeburgh & Thorpeness. It was spacious enough inside but we had a few niggles -  It needs some homely touches - pictures, rug, some colour on the walls.  It felt cold & unwelcoming.  The website shows cushions on the sofas but they were not there so we used the spare pillows instead.   There were no tea towels but there wasn't a draining board for the kitchen sink either so nowhere to stack dishes washed by hand. The beds all had duvets & covers that were a size too small e.g. Kingsize bed but must be a double duvet & cover, not good on colder nights, same for the singles beds. Plenty of hot water & the heating was adequate although took longer to react as it's an air source heat pump.  We couldn't find any instructions for the heating except "adjust the temperature" but didn't say how.  We did work out how to operate the controls but others wrote in the Visitors Book that they couldn't use the heating & were cold.  The Freezer was in the Utility room, in a side building but better planning could surely have included it in the kitchen area? Biggest problem - the Freezer was unusable when we arrived as it was frozen solid, the door wouldn't close & the drawers were iced up.  The ice & frost would have built up over time & should have been defrosted well before reaching that state.  This "freezer frozen solid" was actually mentioned in the Visitors Book by the people who were there the previous week but either the book was not read, the freezer not checked (as a matter of course) or totally ignored.  As we expected to be able to use the freezer, we defrosted it ourselves throughout the Sunday.  That meant mopping up drips then drying inside which took several hours & throwing away the frozen food we'd brought with us.

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• Rachel - Verified booking

  Reading the summary about the cottage it sounded like there were plenty of local amenities around the area.

  We had discovered when we got there that you have to drive if you would like a meal out as the 2 local hotels are no longer open and have been closed for 2 years and more . So the summary should state there is a local shop walking distance and need to travel for other amenities. The cottage we feel needs some TLC as we found the floor boards in some areas very weak especially in the bathroom near the bath. (Its not going to be long before someone goes through the floor. It does not matter how many air freshners the owner uses the cottage has a damp musky smell and on return home I had to wash all items of clothing even ones that were not wear due to the damp musky smell clinging to them. I also feel the pictures that are advertising this property need updating as decking and other little things around the property need some attention the garden is over grown so no views can be seen from patio and we could not find the stream that has been mentioned ???.

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• Leslie - Verified booking

  Our arrival was a nightmare.

  It was very distressing and disappointing to be informed after 7 hours of travelling that our accommodation would not be available at 4 pm as promised, but only after 10 pm due to the late check-out of the previous guests. When we got the call from Sykes we were 30 mins away from our destination, with very poor cell phone reception and no internet in the area where we were travelling, so communication was a nightmare. A text message to the owner was equally disappointing, as he merely referred us to Sykes. Sykes Cottages offered us the choice of staying in alternative accommodation for the night, or resting in the alternative accommodation, but this added 90 minutes of travelling in the dark amongst the mountains to our day's journey, and the accommodation wasn't what we wanted, so we selected the return trip through the mountains. After a struggle to open the key safe we we finally entered the cottage at 10.30 that night. Not happy.

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• Mrs Bramhall - Verified booking

  The welcome pack was very nice and the property is very spacious. The location is very good for lots of places to visit in Suffolk and Norfolk. We enjoyed watching the pheasants in the adjoining field. Most of the equipment we needed was provided ( except a draining board as we don’t use a dishwasher for the few pots that we use ) . This property could be really nice, unfortunately it has not been looked after and is now in a state where it needs a deep clean, inside and out. It is difficult to find as the signage is not adequate. The cleaning does appear to be minimal ( I am aware that the cleaners do not have a lot of time between guests) . Although the booking form says 1000 departure, the cottage information book says 0900 , so we departed a day early. We had very good weather which made all the difference and we enjoyed the things we managed to do.

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• Brenda - Verified booking

  The lodge itself was adequate and my only negative comment regarding the actual lodge is that the shower was very irregular going from hot to cold without any manual handling.

  I appreciate that for most this is not too bothersome however one of our party is mentally and physically disabled with restricted vision and movement and therefore could not be left on his own to shower for fear of burning. Out with the Lodge we were very disappoint with the lack of sea view. As described in the website "On warmer evenings you can slide open the patio doors and step out onto the balcony for an early evening drink as you admire the calming views across the water." In our case we just directly looked in to a lot of overgrown bushes, grass and weeds and an abandoned garden table/seat combo which was rather disappointing. Finally with regard to being Pet Friendly, when booking previous lodges/cottages which allow pets, there has always been an area where the dogs can be let off the leash to run about but this was not available.

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