Dog Friendly Cottages In New Forest

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Beverley - Verified booking

  A beautiful cottage, literally a couple of minute’s walk away from the forest.

  Loads of space for a large family or a friendship group. We actually spent all our time in the large conservatory and garden and only went into the front room/snug on one occasion, and the dining room a couple of times to play board games, but we were blessed with the weather and I imagine the living room with a very large wood burner would be amazing in colder months. The house was really well stocked, with everything you could possibly need for a comfortable stay; the owners even left us a bottle of fizz and a tub of choccies, which was a lovely thought. There were plenty of lovely quality toilet rolls too! I know this seems an odd thing to comment on, but so often we go to a property that has frankly cost a considerable sum, to be left with a couple of cheap rolls for the whole week! Bedding and towels were luxurious and smelled lovely and fresh and clean, and the beds and pillows were comfy. I personally didn’t like the position of the bed in the master bedroom, as one side was against the wall - fine for youngsters with sturdy bladders, but middle aged ladies such as I, who need to get up for a pee, have to either wake up the other half, or clamber over them! A minor gripe, however, and one which won’t affect the majority of people! The garden was beautiful, and our dog absolutely loved it; he particularly enjoyed having cool shady spots to lie when it got too hot, but there was plenty of sun all day. It was large and completely secure, and there were a couple of relaxing sun loungers in addition to the garden table and chairs. We loved the games area with darts, pool and air hockey; our only tiny niggle was that it wasn’t lit, so as these evenings are now drawing in quickly, we were unable to play as often as we’d like. The location is great, as mentioned previously, almost in the forest, and only 20-30mins away from beautiful beaches. The village centre is only 10 mins walk, and there is a great selection of eateries and all the usual shops you would expect/need. The Swan pub is literally across the road, and is good for drinks but many better places to eat in town (in our opinion). The owners were in contact and were very responsive, but as they had thought of absolutely everything, there was nothing that we needed. We chose this area randomly, based on the pictures of the house, and I’m really glad we did, we had a lovely stay and would definitely recommend both the location and this specific property. A lovely stay, thank you.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  We were very pleased with the property and its garden leading down to the river.

  We were 4 adults, two small children and one old arthritic dog! John - the owner - contacted us in the week before to make sure that we knew about the arrival and parking instructions and to answer a few questions that we had about fishing the river and any possibility of getting in a little earlier on the Saturday. John advised that as he couldn't greet us on that Saturday that I contact his House Manager Carol and speak to her. That I did, Carol was very helpful and on arrival gave us a comprehensive tour as well as explaining a few things to us. We certainly couldn't fault the administration at all. Whilst the front of the house is directly on the main road through Fordingbridge we did not find noise an issue; indeed Tesco Express 50 metres or so to the left and New Wong's Chinese take-away a similar distance to the right were extremely convenient! We found people we met in the town to be very friendly in these difficult times. Downstairs the rooms layout is very interesting with the kitchen, dining room and breakfast room all being on slightly different levels. The couple of steps between each level may present a slight problem for those of limited mobility; however not for us!. Perhaps the lounge might be a little on the small side if 8 adults were in the property; however the real wow was the self-contained Games Room to the side of the kitchen:- Big Screen wall mounted TV, a games console and a large leather sofa - this proved a big hit with the grandchildren given the amount of rain that fell during the week! Fishing was very challenging because the river was flowing very fast given all the rain and much weed was being carried in the flow; heavy tackle needed but even so not a successful week. To sum up: Very good property, good location for accessing New Forest as well as other towns like Bournemouth. Ringwood & Salisbury. If only weather had been a little less wet then we would probably have been out and about to enjoy more of the surrounding region.

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• Amy - Verified booking

  This is a lovely property, ideally situated for exploring Dorset and the New Forest.

  Our boys and dog thoroughly enjoyed the spacious house and garden, in particular. The house was very comfortable & there was everything we needed & more in the kitchen. On our first day we found that the television in the snug didn’t work. It switched off intermittently & the next morning unfortunately did the same. The contact number given by Sykes was for a company that looks after the property on behalf of the owners. My husband left a message, but didn’t hear back so had to chase them up later in the day. We were told someone would go round to look at the television the following day. Having returned to the house we were unable to tell whether anyone had been in, so again rung that company. They said they spoke to the maintenance person who thought the tv probably needed replacing. They’d also spoken to the owners, who said they’d been there the previous week & it was working ok then. We were asked to video what happens to the television, which we did & this was emailed to that company again. We never heard back from them or the owners, so felt the duty of care was lacking. Having a second television wasn’t the end of the world, but it meant one room in the house couldn’t be used, as intended. Our biggest disappointment was in having to spend part of our holiday chasing up an issue & not getting it resolved. It would also have been nice to have heard from the owners at some point, even if only to apologise for the inconvenience. We understand that they aren’t local, so you lose an element of personal touch but at least this issue wasn’t anything major.

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• Andrew - Verified booking

  Riverside House was delightful and I have no hesitation in highly recommending it to others.

  Our large family found it the perfect hybrid of village life in the New Forest (and 20 minutes from Mudeford) combined with the convenience; a Tesco Metro open until 11pm every night and great restaurants / takeaways in the village. We would recommend to other visitors the George (a wonderful pub / restaurant by the river adjacent to the bridge), the Raj (excellent Indian food), Lambretta (excellent pizza) and the nearby Chinese. The house and garden are wonderfully spacious and well presented; enough room for a large family group (7 adults, 1 child and a dog) to have their own space. The obvious 'Jewel in the Crown' is a relaxing morning tea / coffee on the jetty at the bottom of the garden and watching the ducks, kingfisher and other native life going about it's business. We were lucky enough to have the foresight to bring out own inflatable canoe to explore the river for ourselves. The courtyard hosted many family chats over a glass or two of wine and the gardens are beautifully planted. There has clearly been significant investment in the games room (the TV is amazing, watched just once) and bathroom; the water pressure in the shower matched the top quality fittings. The kitchen has everything one might need and we enjoyed using the BBQ. .A review will always be subjective but our family loved their week spent at Riverside House; I hope others equally enjoy it. We will be back!

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• Salina - Verified booking

  We had issues with boiler throughout stay.

  had to reset it several times a day to get any heating. this really needs looking at by the owner and its not acceptable for guests to have to keep faffing about with it as constant faults flashing throughout the day. there were pots left in dishwasher many of which were still dirty we found slugs in kitchen every morning- i know its an old house but some copper tape around kitchen side door would stop that. there were rats in the garden ( around the side)- we opened the kitchen side door near utility and we saw two in what looked like the old coal shed- you need to put something down to get rid of those. filthy stained bath upstairs which was unusable- no one wanted to sit in it. the slope down from gate to conservatory covered in slime so one elderly person in the group slipped quite badly walking down it the shower room downstairs basically flooded whenever anyone used the shower- needs a longer shower screen or some kind of run off point. trying to get in and out off the main road was a challenge in the cars. sorry all so negative but for what we paid we expected a better maintained holiday house- all the ones we've rented from Sykes in the past have been perfect. sadly not this one.

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