Holiday Cottages In Salcombe

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Christopher - Verified booking

  16 Bolt Head (Winkle Cottage) is in an excellent location, only 100 yards or so from the beach at South Sands, a slightly longer walk uphill to Overbeck Gardens (beautiful) and on the doorstep of the westward coastal path.

  The roads accessing this property are very narrow, steep and winding. This entails much jousting with oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Needless to say once the car was parked, that’s where it stayed. If you don’t wish to cook then South Sands beach has the South Sands Hotel, Harbour Beach Club Hotel (both pricey) and Bo’s Beach café (better value). A further pleasant walk to North Sands beach will get you to The Winking Prawn which is well worth visiting for food or coffee. We preferred this. Salcombe itself is a brisk 35 minute walk away. Within the complex there is a lovely viewing point with a seat only 30 yards from the house. The property is good holiday accommodation and I would certainly use it again simply for the location. The kitchen is well stocked with utensils, the lounge/dining area was comfortable as were the bedrooms. The en-suite is large and very convenient, while the bathroom felt a little cramped, but adequate. The outdoor area is located in a courtyard (with some greenery), but is not secluded. There is a footpath at the end of the patio area which other residents use to access the rear car park. Storage space in the main bedroom is good, though a few more hangers would not go amiss. In the second bedroom it is inadequate for two adults but is probably enough for two children. In the third bedroom – what storage? The worst part of the experience was the “allocated” parking space. The description warns that it is sloping back to front but what it doesn’t say is that it also slopes down very much at one front corner i.e. tilted (which makes parking trickier) and the bay is very narrow with a low wall on one side. Had there been a vehicle in bay 17 then I would not have been able to exit the car once parked. Also my wing mirrors would have fouled the wall had I not spotted this and closed them before entering the bay. The only solution is to find a parking slot for an empty property and hope no-one else turns up. I have few other adverse comments, none of which spoiled our stay. I imagine that the owners are aware that there are problems with the extractor fans, because these were turned off at the isolating switches. The ensuite fan doesn’t function when the isolator is turned on, while turning on the bathroom fan results in a terrible smell akin to that of a refuse vehicle – only ten times worse. The owners need to sort out who is responsible for emptying the vacuum cleaner. Like good clients we cleaned the property at the end of our stay, as requested. The vacuum cleaner (a good one) was very ineffective and smelled. On opening it I discovered that the bag hadn’t been emptied for months, possibly years. It was so full it looked pregnant. There were no replacements bags so I proceeded to empty it through the tiny hole. This took a good 30 minutes because in addition to much dust, the contents were mainly hair and fibres, all of which had to be pulled out. The cleaner worked well after this attention. Owners please note – reduced rental for me next time!! Finally, the instructions, while comprehensive and clear are somewhat out of date. For example, clients are asked to strip beds and to place bedding and towels in the red bag provided and also (elsewhere in the instructions) in the black bags provided. There were no bags provided. We just bunged them in the bath! I had better re-emphasize “It is a good place to stay”.

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• Georgina - Verified booking

  The property location could not be bettered for access to North Sands and walking into the centre of Salcombe and we loved being able to see the sea and across the valley from the apartment.

  The off road parking is an absolute bonus and the heating and hot water systems very efficient. The property manager was very helpful and the maintenance engineer checked the new fridge/ freezer just after we arrived. Acknowledging that our stay was towards the end of the 'season', the outside areas were not particularly inviting. The BBQ looked as if it had not been used for a long time, the gas was disconnected and it looked unsafe. There is a rusted wheelbarrow and boat trailer in the garden along with broken pots, and lights that do not work and the lid of the refuse bin is broken The covered area ceiling was very dirty with algae and signs of persistent leaks and some of the plants are very overgrown. As another guest mentioned, this was obviously a stunning apartment when it was refurbished, with good quality fittings that have stood the test of time (the shower, kitchen ovens, hob and dishwasher). We enjoyed that it felt very much like a home with the extensive books and games available to guests. However, the soft furnishings are showing their age and the tiled floor is very marked and cracked. We expect to find cobwebs etc as holiday properties are rarely cleaned to the standard of your own home, but when adjusting the sofa cushions there was a seasons worth of crumbs and dust underneath. We only used the bedroom with the ensuite shower and the bed was decidedly uncomfortable after a while and you could feel the springs. Would we visit again? Not sure, the apartment above was unoccupied until the last night of our stay, when the noise from above was intrusive and unsettled our dog.

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• Fiona - Verified booking

  The property was ideally situated but be aware it is on a hill (fine for us) Very dissapointed, the approach to the property was un Kempt and weeds approaching the property.

  The garden grass was about 8 inches high, over grown and should have been cut and tidied there was no excuse for that as a holiday rental other than poor management. The property it's self needed a through DEEP clean....dirty, kitchen cupboards didn't shut properly, broken shelves in the fridges. The furniture and carpets in the front room need changing and up grading! setee seriously stained so it the carpet and rug.... (Fortunatly I took my own throws) other wise I certainly wouldn't want to have sat on it. There is also damp coming through the wall of the front bedroom. Stairs are steep, NO baby gate provided however we did ask and were declined. We also asked to take our own to be told it the pressure caused any damage we would be liable.....absolute joke considering this is not a highly maintained property. There was no concern regarding safty of a toddler! It was nice to have the table tennis in the garage. They also lost console games however the wired to these also need replacing, This property needs care and attention and bringing up to a higher cleaner standard and maintenance issues need addressing also the damp in the bedroom. The garden should have also been kept clean and tidy, This property is neglected which is such a shame Next door is a rental too and unfortunatly the owners adult children liked to party till 03.00 am dispite asking to be quiet!

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• Amanda - Verified booking

  Winkle Cottage is a lovely setting.

  Parking for no16 is for a small city car. We arrived in our BMW estate and parked it in any vacant space as it was a nightmare trying to park it on the slope as it sloped lengthways aswell as widthways which made it hard to get out as the door wouldn't stay open due to the angle of the slope. Luckily there wasn't many people staying at Bolt Head the week we were there so had a few spaces to use. The lanes leading down to North and South sands are narrow but manageable. Shame that South sands has no parking...not good if you have paddle boards or surf boards to use. We parked and used North sands but it got very busy. Winkle Cottage itself is lovely but needs a little maintenance doing. The spot lights in the lounge flickered so sat with lamps on. Some were loose in the ceiling and need sorting. Some guests have burnt the frying pans and need replacing.....we found some cobwebs around the cottage but mainly it was a dust issue in the double bedroom...the skirting boards beside the bedside tables was bad and the lampshade on main light needed dusting aswell as the same lampshade in the twin room. Apart from those little niggles the cleanliness was great. Sofas could do with updating....not over comfortable.

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• Mr R Jackson - Verified booking

  We have stayed at the house 3 times and love it.

  It is great to see work done on it each year, e.g. bathroom and paint outside. However a few things to note which I hope will be of benefit and some perhaps worth passing onto owner: -The top bedroom in roof can get seriously very hot in warm weather as there is no airflow (we brought a fan this year to help). This can be improved two ways; (1) fit an opening window behind bath (the current window doesn't open and double glazing has blown so likely needs replacing in due course), (2) the blocked up window behind wardrobe is painted black outside and this acts as massive heat soak (wall gets very hot)! Could it be painted another colour? -The lawn was not cut for a good few weeks (same last year), would have been nice since we have young children -Master bedroom on 1st floor has some large cracks in wall and could do coat of paint -Rear downstairs lounge has several areas were plaster/paint is failing and could do with repair (might be damp?) -Twin room has some broken bed slats. The frames were also very loose (I tightened some with allen keys start of the week). Thanks, Ross PS we would like to stay there again next year for salcombe week (7th July next year)

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