Wednesday 6 August 2014

River Cottage - Ashford-in-the-Water

When did we visit?
1-3 August 2014

How much was it?
£125 per night, so £250 in total

Who did we book with?
rivercottageashford.co.uk

What were our initial impressions?
We parked off the road at the rear of the property and our first view was of the garden which was just lovely.

John and Gilly, the owners, were on holiday for our arrival but we were greeted by Nigel, who, along with his wife Barbara, were on B&B minding duty.























Nigel was really friendly, showed us our room, which was really charming, with a lovely big bathroom with a walk in shower.  It was really nicely decorated with lots of little touches that made it really comfortable.  The bedroom and the bathroom were both spotlessly clean.



He then showed us the dining room, where we would eat breakfast, and the garden.  He brought us some bread so that we could feed the rainbow trout in the river and we spent a good while watching these and just chilling out before unpacking the car.


We were both really impressed and looking forward to our stay.

Our likes over the course of our stay
It was really warm during our stay and we were grateful for the desk fan which had been thoughtfully provided.  This got plenty of use.

Breakfast is served between 8.30am and 9.30am, with last orders at 9.15am.  There was a small cold buffet table with fruit juice, cereal and fruit to start off.  This was followed by a number of different choices, including a full English breakfast, poached eggs on toast or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.  The full English was a real full English and comprised of bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms, black pudding (if you like that kind of thing!) and a grilled tomato.

The reality was that you could really have had any combination of what was on offer, cooked however you wanted.

There was also what felt like an unlimited supply of nice fresh hot toast with a good choice of locally made preserves.  The rhubarb and ginger was particularly tasty.

Breakfast certainly set us up for the day.

Whilst the property was lovely and really well located, the bedroom was just charming, the breakfasts just the job, I think what gives River Cottage the edge has to be the welcome that you receive.  Both Nigel and Barbara and John and Gilly, who we met on our second morning, seemed to genuinely want to make sure that you had the best stay possible.  Although we didn't need to ask for anything, we got the feeling that if we had, if it were possible, it would have been provided.

Anything that could have made it better?
As we both like plenty of space when sleeping a king size bed would have been lovely.

Would we recommend staying here to friends and family?
Most definitely.

Would we stay here again?
Absolutely.

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