Louisa Cottage

The location is fantastic, couldn't have been better for us. The harbour is just a few metres away. Facilities nearby are great. Plenty of pub and restaurant choices, easy access to the harbour facilities, main town just a short walk over the bridge leading to the beach area. There's a lovely fine sand beach with all the usual beach type activities but tastefully done - no gaudy or noisy Blackpool style amusements! The property rental office is just along the road to the cottage. The staff there were lovely - friendly and very helpful. A big thank you to them. The house is comfortable. All amenities that you need, well equipped for a family. Very clean all round. There was a box full of instruction manuals for everything in the house which was great for sorting out the heating. Central heating was efficient and we had to turn it off. It's a traditional old harbour cottage so expect creaky floorboards upstairs. There is a small enclosed courtyard at the back. Iron and ironing board came in handy. The kitchen has plenty of cookware, crockery, cutlery etc. A few tea bags, coffee sachets, sugar and biscuits were left for us. The washing machine was a bonus with a manual in the cupboard for instructions. No tumble dryer but a maiden plus line and pegs are provided Wifi was good and we had no issues with it but we couldn't connect on the top floor. Maybe an extender plug could help with that if you're a technology addict or have teenagers. Living room was cosy and dining table is big enough for a family meal. Very pleasant decor. Master bedroom mattress was extremely firm, with plenty of pillows available. Top floor single bed was comfy. There were enough towels left for us too. Both bathrooms were clean and well maintained. Lovely heated towel radiators dried the towels. We did struggle to get hot water in the first floor shower on the first day but that may have been because both showers were used at the same time.

The venetian blinds were broken and damaged at every window. In the master bedroom, they need to be replaced. The tilt cords are jammed, there are broken slats and they don't keep out light. The main bathroom blind was the same. I had to close both of these by standing on a chair and manually closing the slats. It was so fiddly that we didn't open the blind back up for the whole week! There was also a blind on the stairs window, overlooking the rear courtyard and overlooked by rear properties. This was exactly the same as the others in that the slats didn't tilt - this was more difficult to deal with as it was above the stair treads but dropped down to below the stairs too (It went behind the stairs that have been remodelled to go in front of the window). It was impossible to reach all the slats and so wouldn't close without the tilt mechanism working. It was OK for us as rear properties seemed empty but I would request new blinds in the bedroom before I stayed again. Parking - there is no parking at the property which is clearly stated on the booking site. We were able to pull up outside and unload our bags etc. The parking passes have apparently been withdrawn by the local council (parking in a nearby carpark used to be available with the pass). Now it costs £6 per day to park there. We had no trouble finding car parking in the free spaces on the public roads nearby but we stayed in October and parked up at 5-6pm'ish. There were limited spaces that filled up quickly so in the summer season, this may be an issue. You have to walk up and down a hill to your car. You can drop off any family members with walking problems outside the house though. Neither of these things would stop me booking to stay here again or booking with the same company. This is just information to feedback for anyone that would struggle with these issues.

Double bed