Last Minute Cottages in Alston

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Stephen - Verified booking

  We stayed for 3 nights.

  The location is perfect a good base to visit the surrounding areas. Central to both the northern lakes and Pennines. The village of Alston itself is a short 2 min drive to a public car park and nice tea rooms and Alston hall is good for a sit down meal. The cottage itself is beautiful. Facilities we’re great , everything you would need was provided, washer dryer iron hoover. Plenty of towels a nice welcome pack for our dogs. As a site and a location I would give it 10/10 The BAD part unfortunately after 1 night I received contact that the owner had told the agent that we had a party , that we were over occupied with 9 people and that we had set up out door lightning. The truth was when we went in to Alston on our first night the local eating places were booked up so we bought some food from the co-op. We cooked it and decided to eat outside in the lovely garden on the picnic table. We commenced eating around 630. Our party consisted of 3 male adults 2 females and 1 child and 2 dogs. We finished around 815 as the sun was going down and there is an outdoor socket I placed a table lamp outside to give us some light as we cleaned up. There was no music no alcohol and we were in the rear for less than 2 hours. The lady who called us from Sykes was really nice and advised it was probably a nosey neighbour who had reported to the owner the above fallacies . Unfortunately this really cast a dampener on the rest of our trip. We felt like we were being watched and scrutinised by the owners of the other cottages in the site. I wouldn’t place the blame on skyes or the owner as they have protocol and insurance and continuing to have relationships with the people that actually live in the location. However the fact remains I wouldn’t recommend booking this cottage as we personally had a bad experience. Despite its beauty and location.

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• Jacquie - Verified booking

  All in all, a pleasant stay.

  Beds were extremely comfortable, with crisp white linen, and lovely views. The lounge was large but cosy and well appointed easily accommodating 6 people (although there were only 2 of us). The kitchen was very well equipped. A few niggles now but I guess it's difficult for the owners as we learned they live in another part of the country so don't see the visitors book. On arrival, in driving rain and wind, getting the key safe open was really difficult. It's clearly broken, same issue when trying to close it up on departing. The grass in the garden was something of a mine field due to dog mess not being picked up, I don't envy who has to cut it but my diary dog would not step on the grass. Unfortunately the shower head was awful, covered in mould, as were many of the tiles round base of the shower. There was also lots of debris down the side of the cushions on sofa so maybe missed when hoovering. The description said fuel for heating supplied but there was only 3 logs and kindling although it has been made up really to light. Maybe I misunderstood. Some of the crockery could have been cleaner as had to wash 2 plates and saucepan. However, we're aware that the owners are intending to upgrade the cottage over the winter so I hope these niggles will be sorted. Please also leave instructions for things like where to put rubbish, where the heating controls are, where to buy logs etc, as when we arrived there was no heat on and it was freezing and dark. Once the thermostat found, the heating was very good. The views from the cottage are beautiful and it's literally 5 minutes in the car to Alston. The neighbours are also very friendly.

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• Wendy - Verified booking

  We all thoroughly enjoyed our four nights stay at Cross View Cottage, (two adults and two teenagers).

  We arrived in the village slightly earlier to park up (we always managed to find a parking space during our stay) and to look round Alston. The cottage is in a prominent position so it was easy to spot as we drove in and we couldn't wait to get inside and unpack. Collecting the key with the key code was easy. Once inside the cottage it was as good as the photos, beautifully presented and spotlessly clean. We loved all the original features, including the spiral stair cases. And having two bathrooms was definitely a plus! Even though we didn't really need to use it, we still lit the log burner in the living room on an evening. As it was a novelty, not having a real fire at home. Plenty of kindling and matches were provided, we just needed one bag of logs from the local Spar. A fruit/veg/plant stall appeared twice in the week under the Market Cross right outside the cottage, which we used. There are ample of shops for groceries etc in Alston so you don't need to bring lots of food with you! We even had one meal from The High Plaice Chippy close to the cottage, after completing the tree top challenge at Go Ape in Matfen, which went down well. We loved having this cottage as a base to visit places near by such as Penrith, Long Meg, Hadrians Wall and the High Force waterfall. We have since recommended Cross View Cottage to our family and friends. Thank you Shanthi and John for such a lovely stay in your cottage, it's a gem and we came home feeling truly revitalised.

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• Angela - Verified booking

  We three ladies had a wonderful time staying at Cross View Cottage.

  The cottage was clean, comfortable, warm and perfect for our stay. The beds were extremely comfortable and we slept better than we have in ages. It is definitely not suitable for anyone with mobility issues but we found it really quaint. Alston has everything you might need on your doorstep. We visited the church, almost next door, the CoOp, handy for supplies, the takeaway, for delicious pizzas and fish and chips and most other shops for souvenirs and just to chat to the local people who were extremely friendly. The journey to Alston from Penrith took us across stunning moors to a height of nearly 2000 feet but what a view from the top!!! We caught the train from Penrith to Edinburgh, just an hour and a half away, and did the tour of the city on an open top bus, we also visited the Lake District and Barnard Castle, all definitely worth the trip. Finally, the best meals we had whilst in Alston were in the Cumberland Arms. The pub was not much to look at but the chef is a genius. If you enjoy walking, stay at Cross View cottage, you won’t regret it.

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• John - Verified booking

  We loved this property, it is beautifully presented, well equipped, very comfortable, beautifully clean and ideally situated, we really enjoyed our stay.

  We would have liked to give this property a 5 star rating but there are a couple of things that have prevented that. The main one is the stairs. The listing does give a warning about the stairs and I would fully support that but I question whether it goes far enough. The stairs are indeed very steep and I would have thought a hand rail should have been provided, the absence of such meant that descending the stairs was a scary experience and one we only got used to by the time we were leaving. I find it hard to believe this past any safety inspection, if the handrail was sorted we would have no problem giving this property a 5 star and recommending it. The other issues were minor and didnt really bother us and didnt impact our star rating. The most note worthy of other issues was that the public parking in the town square while free is chaotic and you could at times find yourself parking some distance from the property, this was the last week in September I dread to think what it is like in high season, probably to be expected in a busy town centre.

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