Showing posts with label Staycation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Staycation. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

York Place Apartments Edinburgh

We booked a 3 bed apartment for 6 of us costing a very reasonable 190  other apartments came in at upwards of £600. The apartments are located 5 minutes from Harvey Nichols, 10 minutes from Waverley train station  and easy access to shops bars restaurants and transport. Check in was 3 but after a rather nasty vomit incident in the car we called to ask if we could arrive early and Donny said no problem promptly texted me the access code foe the door and told me to make my way straight there. We met him in a clean airy lobby and made our way to the apartment which was on the top floor,  you should know there's no lift and LOTS of stairs. The apartment is huge and clean, provides almost all you need for a self catering break withdishwasher, washing machine and loads of kitchen utensils plates bowls and glasses, it could do with a couple of fans as the place was like an oven through the night but it's situated in the perfect location with friendly staff on hand to answer any questions and offer help.


We Love
The location- Situated just 7 mintes walk from Rose Street and its huge choice of bars and restaurants, Princes Street with any number of shops and you could walk to the Castle in under 30 minutes even with kids.
The decor - Clean minimal and nothing broken
The space - There was loads of room, so much the kids spent an hour playng hide and seek!
The view - with a view right out across the sea and up into the beautiful hills
The little extras like a welcome pack of tea and coffee, toiletries, and washing powder.
Service
Cleanliness absolutely spotless
Information booklets were full of handy tips (as was our greeter) about the local area, Where to eat, what to see, bus information and there was someone just a call away the whole time

Room for Improvement
The stairs are a killer especially humping heavy bags up and down, request a lower floor if this will be a problem
The windows had no safety features for staying open, so we had to close them on a night and keep.our eyes peeled through the day as they were quite low so made me worry for the safety of the little people.
Optional fans would have been a godsend  in the heat of the hottest day of the year
A brush and dustpan would have helped a lot with my messy bunch of crumb droppers
The velux windows in the roof room could only be accessed by climbing on the raised level to close the blind and that was a bit of a performance!


We would definitely return here but if you are considering it I would book up quick, we could only get 1 night and some of December is booked already

Thursday, 31 December 2015

Rye Hill Farm Review


Rye Hill Farm is situated about 10 minutes from Hexham with views right across stunning Tyne Valley. Its a real proper working sheep farm, and I mean real PROPER, like sheep being shepherded about, friendly farmers, gorgeous horses and lovely dogs (who very nearly got kidnapped by Termite!)
We arrived late as always! I blame the husband, he blames me, we end up grumpy every time! But the grumpiness was short lived when the peace of Rye Hill took over, Barley the Farm dog was straight over to say hi and Elizabeth was out in a flash to show us into the cottage.

Rye Hill is made up of B and B rooms, a campsite and the cottage which is a converted milking byre. The cottage is beautifully spacious with an open plan living dining kitchen area, 3 en-suite bedrooms, one of which is on the ground floor and is accessible for wheelchair users, and an enclosed terrace for the kids to play in.

This is the first self catering holiday we've been on in a long while so I have to admit to being a bit panic stricken about what we needed, shoud we pack towels, utensils, pans???? My panic (and excessive packing) was unneccessary, Rye Hill Has everything you need in the kitchen, including a box of beautiful homemade chocolate brownies! There are toiletries in the bathrooms and a cupboard full of games, a bookcase full of books, free wifi and they even provide a local parking permit and a place for muddy shoes!

The kids had fun trying every bed to decide where to sleep, and there was plenty of choice  with twin beds downstairs then upstairs a double room and a family room which had a double and single bed AND cot space with a travel cot stowed neatly away in the cupboard.
There are tea and coffee facilities and a TV in one of the double rooms and all of the bathrooms have fluffy white towels and toiletries available.

The farm has stables, grazing fields, the campsite, with a play area and mud kitchen for the kids, and a games barn with skittles, pool and table tennis. All set amongst beautiful views ...

Whilst staying at the farm you can travel by car to a number of local villages, or the busy town of Hexham for a bit of shopping, there are plenty of walks on offer and Derwent Reservoir is just moments away by car and beautiful for a picnic, or you can do what we did and just relax, check out the farm, enjoy the outdoors, watching the farmers in action, and generally take advantage of the peace and make pals with Barley (the labrador) and Pippa (the Jack Russell) who were firm favourites with our tribe.

Rye Hill is peaceful, friendly scrupulously clean and so well stocked with everything you need. Despite the fact it took us only 40 minutes to get there it felt like a million miles from the hustle and bustle of everyday life so much so The Golden Child thought we had gone abroad!

We loved playing in the mud kitchen and discovering bugs and leaves in the little forest play area, these are situated right by the campsite which was a small but lush field at the front of the farm and obviously very popular with families as we saw quite a few here. 

We especially loved watching the sheep being brought in from the fields and moved to a different grazing area. Real Farming in action and such fun to watch!

We had lots of fun playing skittles in the games barn and the kids have just thouroughly enjoyed their holiday, Termite has cried to bring the dogs home, The Golden Child has cried because he declared it unfair to take him home from the 'best holiday ever' and Peanut has decided Daddy will help out on her farm when she buys one. He is to drive the tractor!

If you are loooking for a bit of peace, a base to explore, a different kind of holiday or a cozy cottage to recharge your batteries then Rye Hill is the place to go, prices start at £425 for a week which for us is hugely competitive for such a high quality accomodation.
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