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

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

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/

Roseblade Photography

Owen Roseblade gets top marks from us as a wedding photographer. He took fantastic shots that told the story of our wedding day beautifully, answered all our questions (before and after the day) helpfully, and didn't keep us hanging around with fixed smiles.

Cost: As anyone planning a wedding will know, getting a good photographer will cost you. Owen is an excellent photographer and as such does not come cheap. We would say, however, that it was worth it. He does do different packages to suit different budgets - depending on how much of the day you want him to capture.

Quality: The pictures are fantastic. They aren't just the traditional posed shots - Owen brings imagination and creativity to photography. He picks out what makes your day unique and brings that out in the photographs.

Service: Owen was helpful, friendly and cheerful throughout the whole process. He was cheerful and took photos without being intrusive. He captured the moment but didn't make it about the picture.

Product: As part of the package we bought we got a DVD slideshow of the photos, put to music which was lovely to show friends and family after the wedding. We also got an album which was beautifully produced and presented and a disc with all the images on so we could print our own.

Website - http://www.roseblade.com/Home.php

Youngs Suit Hire

Another highly recommended company we used for our wedding. We wanted four suits from Youngs (groom, bestman and two fathers) but when we came to order they advised us that if we ordered a fifth suit we would get the groom's suit free. What this meant in effect was that the fifth suit was free (apart from a small insurance fee - which was about £6 per suit) and that we were able to collect the suits up to ten days in advance. This in itself was worth the extra money as we were able to check the sizes and that we had what we wanted with plenty of time to make any necessary changes.

Cost: Comparable to other suit hire companies. Platinum deal was definitely worth the money.

Quality: The suits were great - they looked good, fitted well and there was a good range of colours and styles available to choose from.

Service: We used the Reading branch to place the original order and to collect three of the suits from. If not cheerful, they were helpful and polite - no complaints. We also used the Leeds and Thurrock stores, and had similar reports back.

Overall: Fine - good product, good price, good service.

Website - http://www.youngs-hire.co.uk/

Ti-Bihan

Ti-Bihan is a tiny two person gite in Brittany, France. We stayed there for one week on our honeymoon.

Cottage: The gite had everything you could need. The kitchen is modern and well stocked and the bedroom very comfortable. There is a living room with sofa, TV and dining/games table and chairs. The bathroom is also modern with a good power shower. The garden is also beautiful and is very open to the countryside. We went in August and it was fairly warm and sunny so we don't know whether it gets cold in winter - the floors are stone and it is quite open plan. However it does have a fireplace and thick curtains which would help.

Area: The gite is in a remote hamlet (Rotz) so there is plenty of open countryside around for walking. We took a GPS which helped us not to get lost but there are a lot of footpaths and walks marked by coloured signs. The nearest beach was also lovely (Penn Lann, about 30 minutes drive from the cottage) - sandy and not crowded. The nearest village is Caden (3km) and the website mentions the bakery although it was closed when we went so we can't comment on their croissants. Those from the bakery in Beganne (4.6km) were lovely though. We also visited Rochefort en Terre (12.5km) a very pretty town with lots of good souvenir shops. There are plenty of supermarkets reasonably close.

Service: The owners also live in Rotz and are currently renovating a couple of other cottages (the hamlet only seemed to have about ten though so don't be worried about hoards of tourists!) so they were on site if we needed them. They are very friendly and helpful and happy to recommend places to visit. When emailing before the holiday they were also helpful and quick to reply.

Cost: In August a week at Ti-Bihan cost us £385. Our security deposit was about £100 and was returned in full even though we did break a glass.

Overall: This is a lovely peaceful get away cottage for a couple. If you are looking for seclusion somewhere pretty this is ideal.

Website - http://www.escapesinbrittany.com/

Longcombe Farm Holiday Cottages

We stayed at Longcombe Farm for three nights in February, in the Dovecote cottage. Longcombe Farm is made up of six holiday cottages and the owners live on site as well. Most of this review is general, with a specific section about the Dovecote at the end.

Price: Reasonable. We went in the off season (February) and only stayed for a long weekend so it cost about £168.

Service: Friendly and efficient from start to finish. Our breakage deposit was returned in full within a week of our holiday. We appreciated the thought put in - milk was put in the fridge ready for our arrival and there were tea and coffee supplies in the room.

Facilities: The swimming pool was lovely and was a good size. We would have preferred it a few degrees warmer but overall it was fine. The games room was good - we played pool (a slightly run-down looking table but fine for amateurs like us) and we enjoyed the use of the (free) video collection. We also enjoyed freeview TV in our cottage.

Area: Very pretty, although as it was February and rained a lot we didn't go for many walks and we didn't visit the beaches nearby. Two attractions we did visit and would highly recommend are Paignton Zoo and The House of Marbles.

Dovecote: Dovecote is a pretty, tasteful, two-person cottage. When we arrived we found it clean and warm. Bed - comfortable, good size and warm. Bathroom - very nice, good shower (towels provided). A few notes for anyone thinking of renting Dovecote...
1) The cooking facilities are limited - only a microwave, kettle, toaster and plug in two-ring hob. We found cooking and washing up in this tiny kitchen a bit too much effort and went for takeaway when possible.
2) The cupboard on the wall by the door in the kitchen does not have a hinged door. It isn't really a cupboard and the front is only held on by magnets so if you try to open it (as we did) it will fall off.
3) The TV does not twist round so you can watch in bed. If you try this it will fall off the wall.


Website - http://www.longcombe-cottages.co.uk/index.html