School Holidays 2017 Cottages In New Forest

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Paul - Verified booking

  We were very pleased with the property and its garden leading down to the river.

  We were 4 adults, two small children and one old arthritic dog! John - the owner - contacted us in the week before to make sure that we knew about the arrival and parking instructions and to answer a few questions that we had about fishing the river and any possibility of getting in a little earlier on the Saturday. John advised that as he couldn't greet us on that Saturday that I contact his House Manager Carol and speak to her. That I did, Carol was very helpful and on arrival gave us a comprehensive tour as well as explaining a few things to us. We certainly couldn't fault the administration at all. Whilst the front of the house is directly on the main road through Fordingbridge we did not find noise an issue; indeed Tesco Express 50 metres or so to the left and New Wong's Chinese take-away a similar distance to the right were extremely convenient! We found people we met in the town to be very friendly in these difficult times. Downstairs the rooms layout is very interesting with the kitchen, dining room and breakfast room all being on slightly different levels. The couple of steps between each level may present a slight problem for those of limited mobility; however not for us!. Perhaps the lounge might be a little on the small side if 8 adults were in the property; however the real wow was the self-contained Games Room to the side of the kitchen:- Big Screen wall mounted TV, a games console and a large leather sofa - this proved a big hit with the grandchildren given the amount of rain that fell during the week! Fishing was very challenging because the river was flowing very fast given all the rain and much weed was being carried in the flow; heavy tackle needed but even so not a successful week. To sum up: Very good property, good location for accessing New Forest as well as other towns like Bournemouth. Ringwood & Salisbury. If only weather had been a little less wet then we would probably have been out and about to enjoy more of the surrounding region.

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• Paula - Verified booking

  The house itself was clean and well equipped.

  The wifi connection was poor and every hour or so buffered, meaning I could not watch on demand TV or use zoom. I would not recommend relying on the wifi if you want to work from there. I struggled with the parking clock. I could never get parking at the small Gosport parking area and had to change every 20 hrs between Cannon Street and St Thomas street. For stays of a few days I imagine this is fine, but for me having to every day move my car back and forwards was hugely annoying (and wasted 30 minutes every morning especially if i dont want to leave at 8am). It meant having to plan your car usage strategically: either parking just before closing to get a lie in (consequently parking and walking around a car park in the dark) or waking up early before the car park opens. This was not an enjoyable experience and felt like a hassle for a holiday. The property description should accurately state what free means i.e "free public parking for 20 hours each day - guests will have to move their car each day to a different car park due to the no return rules." The road directly out front is extremely busy and very noisy. This is fine if you are planning on not staying in during the day and definitely explains why children are not permitted at the house. Finally, whilst it says pet friendly, I would give caution, as the road out front is extremely busy and has a very small pedestrian pathway. I had to keep my dog on a very tight lead and step out in front first for safety.

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• Andrew - Verified booking

  Riverside House was delightful and I have no hesitation in highly recommending it to others.

  Our large family found it the perfect hybrid of village life in the New Forest (and 20 minutes from Mudeford) combined with the convenience; a Tesco Metro open until 11pm every night and great restaurants / takeaways in the village. We would recommend to other visitors the George (a wonderful pub / restaurant by the river adjacent to the bridge), the Raj (excellent Indian food), Lambretta (excellent pizza) and the nearby Chinese. The house and garden are wonderfully spacious and well presented; enough room for a large family group (7 adults, 1 child and a dog) to have their own space. The obvious 'Jewel in the Crown' is a relaxing morning tea / coffee on the jetty at the bottom of the garden and watching the ducks, kingfisher and other native life going about it's business. We were lucky enough to have the foresight to bring out own inflatable canoe to explore the river for ourselves. The courtyard hosted many family chats over a glass or two of wine and the gardens are beautifully planted. There has clearly been significant investment in the games room (the TV is amazing, watched just once) and bathroom; the water pressure in the shower matched the top quality fittings. The kitchen has everything one might need and we enjoyed using the BBQ. .A review will always be subjective but our family loved their week spent at Riverside House; I hope others equally enjoy it. We will be back!

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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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