3 Apr 2010

Burpham Country House Hotel

We stayed at this delightfully named hotel for a couple of nights in September. It's down some very windy lanes in gorgeous countryside. We could have done with better directions than google maps gave but that's not the fault of the hotel.

Cost: The rooms cost between £75 and £135 a night, depending on when you go and what type of room you have. We stayed in one of the superior double rooms which was comfortable, clean and well stocked with biscuits and drink making supplies.

Food: Excellent! Really delicious food and great service. The food was included in the price of our break, and seemed very well priced for the quality. Some of the ingredients used are fresh from the garden which is wonderful - we had raspberry breakfast muffins with fresh raspberries one morning. They hadn't been out of the oven long and were just fantastic.

Service: The owners, Steve and Jackie, are very friendly and welcoming. We asked at reception for a jug of fresh milk for tea, and chatted to them about the local area.

Facilities: Great. Lovely ensuite room, and we played croquet on the lawn. The pre-dinner drinks room seemed very nice too.

Area: A great place to visit - especially the fairytale Arundel castle which was really interesting with fantastic grounds and lots to look at. The grounds included sculptures (as seen in the picture - right), fountains, a kitchen garden, formal areas and relaxed sections. Arundel itself is a lovely town, with a great fudge shop! We also walked some of the local footpaths along the river which was very nice.

Website: http://www.burphamcountryhouse.com/index.html

23 Mar 2010

Red Doors Farm, Devon

We stayed at Red Doors Farm, near Honiton, Devon, for three nights in March. We stayed in Courtyard Cottage, a two person part-barn conversion. Red Doors has seven cottages in total. Most of this review will be general, with a specific focus on Courtyard Cottage at the end.

Price: Reasonable - however, much more expensive, about double the price of, the last self catering holiday cottage we stayed in (review here).

Service: Fine, no complaints. The emails/letters leading up to the holiday were very business like but the welcome when we arrived was very friendly and cheerful. A "welcome hamper" was put in the cottage for our arrival and milk in the fridge. Note - the welcome hamper was lovely but it was extras and luxuries, not catering supplies.

Facilities: These were excellent. The swimming pool was a good size (although we found it a little chilly - you had to keep moving to stay warm!), and we enjoyed the ping pong in the open air barn shelter. Also there was a table football which although we tried out, it was heavy and stiff - not the best! There is also a games room, with a pool table, a decent DVD library and children's play area. Although we don't have children, I'm sure this area (and the babysitting service offered) would be appreciated by those with young families. In addition, every cottage has a PS2 (games in the games room), and there are outside games (croquet and giant chess). The website gives a full list of facilities, these are just the ones we tried out. In summary - there is a lot to do, you don't need to leave the site if you don't want to!

Area: Very pretty. We walked out from the cottage one day and explored the footpaths in the local area. We were even lucky enough to see some deer, and the views from up the hills were great! We also visited Sidmouth, and took a walk along the coast. Very hilly, but again, stunning views.

Courtyard Cottage: For two people, Courtyard Cottage is wonderful. The kitchen (with aga, gas cooker and oven, fridge and dishwasher) is on the ground floor and was big and spacious. It also has a dining table.
Halfway up the stairs is the bathroom - very nice, with shower and whirlpool bath. The bath is fun, but when the bubbles are on it is a little too noisy to be as relaxing as you might hope.
Up some more stairs is the living room which is huge - sofa, large (board game sized!) coffee table, TV, PS2 and log burner (logs provided free of charge). At one end of the living room is a tiny nook (pictured - right), with windows overlooking the valley (facing the sunrise!). This space is really lovely - do take your breakfast there to enjoy the view and the sunshine.
Up a few steps from the living room, is the bedroom. With kingsize bed and it's own little ensuite toilet room, it's lovely. It also has stargazing windows in the ceiling.
The cottage also has a shared patio garden and terrace although we didn't try this out as it was chilly weather!

Other information: Lovely touches throughout including candles, flowers, binoculars (good for bird watching and stargazing) and the hamper of food! In the games room there are ready meals available (good quality with local ingredients) - which were delicious, and it was nice not to have to cook. There is an honesty box system to pay for them, and they were very reasonably priced.

Website: http://www.reddoors.co.uk/index.html

10 Mar 2010

Novatech

Recently we purchased a new computer and after a bit of browsing decided to go with a model from Novatech. We've used Novatech in the past and have always found them to be reasonably priced with efficient delivery. This time we were purchasing a prebuilt desktop PC.

Cost: The price was the best we found from the various suppliers we looked at. Obviously with PCs the price varies with the performance, but overall we were satisfied on both counts.

Delivery: We selected next day delivery and it arrived on the next day. However when we came to put the PC together we found that we'd been supplied with a mouse that was not compatible with the desktop (the mouse was PS/2 and we needed a USB one). After phoning up to explain our problem they offered to send us the correct mouse in the post (and we could keep the other mouse). The replacement mouse arrived the next day and works fine.

Packaging: The computer seemed to be adequately packaged, although the box design had a gramatical mistake and the mouse was packed in with an disproportionate amount of polystyrene.
Overall: We would definitely consider using Novatech again. Buying a prebuilt PC seemed to be marginally cheaper than buying the same parts and putting them together yourself.

Website - http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/