Christmas Cottages in Norfolk

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Adrian - Verified booking

  Lovely holiday cottage, comfortable, very clean and well equipped.

  We enjoyed a week at the cottage at the end of May and despite the unseasonably cold north wind the cottage was cosy enough. The southern aspect of the house front and garden means it's going to be easy to enjoy any sun there may be. The cottage is linear in design and all the rooms have windows facing the south. We manged well with the different floor levels that have developed as the original cottage was extended, the stair treads are quite shallow but safe enough for a couple in there late sixties. Bathrooms appear recently refurbished and were very clean. Super comfortable bed in the main double bedroom. Good wifi throughout the cottage and a reasonable O2 mobile signal. The kitchen has been refurbished as well and a good selection of implements, crockery, glasses and all the appliances you may need plus a large fridge. Nice to see a full set of washing up materials and plenty of washing up liquid. Lovely to chat to the owner's father who lives next door and he is full of local knowledge and tips. Nice little village with a shop for essentials (a little pricey) and a large range of gifts. Wells on Sea is just down the road for larger grocery shops and a range of shops. Loved our meal at the Red Lion and though there is a stretch of road with no pavement in the evenings there is little traffic to worry about so an easy walk. There are plenty of footpaths around the village and I would recommend turning left out of the gate and taking the road past the telephone box up to the sports field. Carry on through the fields and past the holiday homes and you come to the trees lining the edge of the marshland overlooking the sea. Here you can join the coastal path. One local attraction I would 100% encourage visitors to pay a visit is the 'Rescue Wooden Boats' museum, it only opens on Sundays but is a very professional and interesting display of artifacts, boats and information. They also run harbour tours in Wells in the old lifeboat the volunteers have restored. Other places close by I would recommend are Morston Quay and Blakeney with the latter having some good walks and a great cafe by the NT carpark. North Norfolk is great for families with lots of places to visit and super sandy beaches and lots of WWII history. Thoroughly recommend the cottage and location.

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• Edward - Verified booking

  The location of the property was ideal.

  We were looking for somewhere close to the coast so near to the Broads was a bonus. Before we moved in, we parked close by and walked into Stalham eating a light lunch at The Swan. We found that Tesco, Boots, the Health Centre and many shops were close by. The Museum of the Broads was also very close and well worth a visit. We also went on the boat trip which is extra. (Check opening days/times.) Parking at the property was easy on the exclusive drive. Inside the property was clean and well-equipped with plenty of information about local facilities. Unfortunately most of this had not been up-dated since 2019 so couldn't be relied on for opening times/prices. Clearly the kitchen was one cupboard short of the ideal. One was intended for food but with little space beside the china and glasses. We used the small table for cereal boxes, jar of coffee, squash bottle etc. but if six were staying would not be adequate. A small point, but do you have matching china and cutlery at home? Yes, so do we, so it is a shame to find something different in a holiday property. Owners, I expect you started off with everything matching but then some broke and others went missing and replacements were hard to find. Can I suggest you start again? Buy 12 of everything, put 6 in the property and replace from the reserve as and when required. Now for a couple of points of accuracy in the description. The main bedroom was said to have a king-sized bed (i.e. 5ft). The photo shows that, but the bed was in fact a standard double (i.e. 4ft 6in). There is an outside eating area and the photo shows a lovely glass-topped table and chairs standing on bright, multi-coloured slabs. Unfortunately the table and chairs had been replaced with a wooden picnic table and chairs and the slabs had lost most of their colour. The whole area had not been cleaned prior to our arrival and with trees overhead as well as general dust, bird droppings were much in evidence. We decided that we hadn't come on holiday to spend time cleaning, so gave the facility a miss; a pity, as we like dining al fresco when on holiday. A final point to those who might be put off by the possibility of traffic noise from the busy road behind the property. Do not be. We could hardly hear a thing inside with closed windows.

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• Nigel - Verified booking

  The house was basically grubby.

  There was: a filthy kitchen floor with a filthy mop left to clean it, many chips in the floor tiles; dirty oven, shelves and grill pan; dirty towel rails (splashed); ill-fitting toilet seats (loose) and one that was the wrong size so that you were sitting on the porcelain; dusty skirtings; grubby settee with lots of fluff and dust at the back of the cushions. There was also one piece of furniture in the living room with missing handles, no clothes hanging space AT ALL in the main bedroom, and holes of long standing in the quilt cover of the main bedroom. Although the kitchen cupboards were stuffed full of bits of equipment, there was no larder cupboard to store cereal boxes, tins and jars. The fridge had a thick layer of frost at the back of the cabinet, though the fridge itself appeared to have been cleaned. On the bright side, the beds were clean and comfortable and the TV was a good one. The gifts of wine and biscuits etc were appreciated, but they were no substitute for a clean house. We have stayed in Sykes Holiday Cottages before without issue and we have another booked for later this year, but you are on notice. N.B. the shower in the en-suite didn't drain properly, indicating a partial blockage, which the owners would not have known about, unless the fault had been reported, but it needs attending to. The general consensus was that this property needed a good clean from top to bottom, some general maintenance and then needed to be kept on top of.

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• Michael - Verified booking

  A fundamentally ok property, but with a multitude of maintenance issues.

  We experienced many issues during our stay; despite being reported early to Sykes, nothing was fixed while we were there and we had to spend a good deal of time corresponding to get any recompense. The advertised king-size main bed was not. This seriously marred our stay and we would not have booked had we known. Thank you for having now corrected the listing. Dead plants and peeling paint outside. Coffee mahine broken, leaking and unusable. Washing machine full of stangant water that stank in the most fetid way when we arrived. Kitchen kettle crusty with scale and had rust - replacement needed. No wardrobes anywhere… and a broken leaning over hanging rail in main bedroom. Someone else’s trousers left for us in main bathroom. Numerous lights not working, including above main bathroom mirror. Very sketchy wifi. Garden noise (which is made clear in listing) is worse than expected makes sitting out on the bird-poo encrusted chairs untenable. On a positive side: Guest welcome pack was nice and much appreciated. Loads of loo rolls provided. Beds had good comfy mattresses. General cleanliness inside was good. We had a sense the owners might live far away and not know about maintenance issues that had built up and not been fixed. But, for the money we paid, the volume of issues really were quite unforgivable.

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• Anne - Verified booking

  We arrived to a clean house and lots of room for 4!

  It was incredibly well stocked (lots of loo rolls and hand-wash in all the toilets, washing-up liquid, cleaning spray, dishwasher tabs - thank you for providing all this and more!) Plenty of all things kitcheny - could even have done some baking as this was catered for too! Enough bedding and towels were left for us for a 2 week rental. The welcome gifts were a lovely touch, thank you! As stated in the description, the house backs on to a busy road which you can hear when the windows are open...especially early morning as rush-hour starts! A couple of pointers.... 1) being a light sleeper, the curtains in the master bedroom are very thin and with early sunrises the light was streaming in ...maybe a thicker lining/black out lining on the curtains (we pegging a spare duvet cover up to block out some light!) 2) the bunkbeds, although comfortable, creaked quite a bit as they are a metal frame. This bedroom could do with a set of drawers in the corner at the foot of the bunks as there is nowhere to put socks & underwear in that room. Hanging facilities are provided. 3) the additional dry storage trolley in the kitchen is a bit flimsy-something a bit more robust on wheels perhaps. These pointers certainly didn't take away from our stay and we thoroughly enjoyed our time @ 26 Burtons Mill.

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