Dog Friendly Cottages in Windermere

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Amanda - Verified booking

  It's a beautiful cottage throughout, with everything required for a comfortable stay.

  It was very clean throughout. We stayed during the extreme heat and due to having a dog we stayed indoors during the hottest time of the day and found the property cooling. There were plenty of games,DVD's and books to keep us occupied. I thought I read prior to going that tea towels weren't provided but when we arrived, there were two provided together with a cleaning pack containing a dish wash cloth, scourer, black bin liner, and dishwasher tablets. I took my own dishwashing liquid and paper kitchen towels but that's something I always do. The kitchen is also suitably stocked with every type of pot/pan you require to prepare your own food unless, of course, you prefer to take out. There's a large 60/40 fridge freezer which is more than adequate for a week for 4 persons. There was even a bowl for the dog. There is a small cloakroom off the kitchen that housed the washing machine, hoover, iron, ironing board, mop, washing basket, pegs, high chair, and outside seating cushions. The small backyard is covered in shingle and had a garden table and four chairs. The parasol was found in the outhouse which is secured and opened with the same code as the keysafe at the front of the property. The bathroom was huge and gorgeous with a very deep bath and a separate walk-in shower with plenty of towels provided. There were two toilet rolls provided, so if you require any more you'd have to either bring them or purchase them. There was also a small amount of liquid soap in the bathroom however I'm not sure whether this is provided or whether it had been left by a previous guest. My advice would be to bring your own, just in case. Both bedrooms were a good size and each had double beds, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. There were plenty of coat hangers in each wardrobe which was refreshing as usually, I find they are lacking in holiday properties. A hairdryer and diffuser were found in the chest of drawers on the first floor. I even noted a travel cot under the bed. The bedrooms are on separate floors and on the top floor is a small office-type room housing a desk, chair, futon and wall-mounted tv. My teenage daughter loved it and spent time reading there. The property is situated about a 10-15 min walk from the centre of Windermere and a 25 min walk from Bowness. There is an incline to get to the property from Windermere but it isn't too steep and as someone with a heart issue I didn't find it difficult. However, depending on the route you take, the incline from Bowness is much more difficult and anyone infirm may find it a challenge. There is a corner shop at the end of the road for any essentials you may need. I have three small criticisms and that would be in regard to:- 1. The double bed on the first floor. It's quite soft and whenever my husband turned in the bed the movement was so great it woke me up. 2. A tall mirror would be beneficial on the 2nd floor - there was only a small cosmetic mirror provided. 3. The first aid kit needs to be replenished. One of us developed a blister and need a plaster but there were none in the kit. It's a super property and a great base from which to explore the area and I would definitely return and highly recommend it.

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• Kate - Verified booking

  Since you ask for my opinion here it is….

  , 1. the ‘lodge’ is opposite a Dilapidated lodge , making the view on the ‘patio’ unsightly. 2. the hot tub area is at the back of the lodge near the bins and surrounded by bushes with lots of debris in plain sight, old mop, bottles , cans, old wooden door , horrible smells, flys and potentially rodents as my dog would not settle and there was movement in bushes. 3. the toilet when flushed makes the most horrendous sound which went on for 35 seconds each time, maintenance were unable to fix during our stay 4. the sofa has collapsed and is not fit for purpose, maintenance could obviously not resolve this issue 5. the outside of the property is unnecessarily dirty, needs a good jet wash and the wooden railings have not seen paint on years , even the small touches like hanging basket were full of weeds 6. there is an unclean smell which has been disguised by sickly plug inns. 7. the front door sticks, and there areas of damage in the lodge that should be addressed , I.e broken furniture that could easily be repaired. 8. there are not two decent parking spaces as advertised, if you take two cars you have to strategically park them very close together. Ok, so my experience, we stayed here for two days to celebrate a 70th birthday , we arrived on a Monday to a stone cold hot tub so I called Sykes. The engineer arrived and said the hot tub was too full ( nothing to do with us) and should have been turned on hours ago, he appeared to be blaming his colleague for this. So despite us only arriving at 4pm as this was the check in time we were told the tot tub would take 5-6 hours to heat, needless to say we never got chance to use the hot tub on day one so we were super disappointed as we were only there for 2 days. Plan B was to sit on the patio, however the view of the dilapidated lodge was so unsightly I might as well have taken my 70 year old mum to sit on the car park of the local tip. Plan C was to move inside however the sofa does not seat 6 so then you have to move wooden uncomfortable dining chairs into the living g area, and those sitting on the sofa are equally uncomfortable as the sofa has completely collapsed. Each time someone goes the loo and flushes you get 35 seconds of what sounds like a plane about to take off! This is very disturbing especially through the night. In The first 24 hours I had maintenance in to …. 1. fix the gate as the bolt fell off due to rot and I didn’t want dog to escape 2. To sort the freezing cold hot tub out but the outcome to this was to wait 5-6 hours! 3. To change a flickering light bulb in the lounge above the tv. 4. To look at the collapsed and very uncomfortable sofa 5. To try and fix the horrendous sound coming from under the sink which they could not. Needless to say I had the worst time , hated every minute ,so much so I packed up on night two and left the property at 7am on the Wednesday morning grateful I’m going to get home , can’t believe they are charging £800 for two nights For this less than adequate holiday ‘lodge’ and my poor mums birthday a disaster.

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• Tony - Verified booking

  While generally satisfactory it failed in the following: 1.

  The fire extinguisher validity was years out of date. 2. The first aid kit validity was years out of date, a pack of bandages was partially used. 3. While there was a fire blanket it was not in the kitchen and rather was on a shelf in another room, time would be lost locating it. As it was not fixed to the wall it would require two hands to access. 4. On arrival a number of cups, plates and glasses were chipped and/or cracked. 5. Not all of the pillows had pillow protectors and only one bed had a mattress protector. 6. The oven door could not be closed and although this had been reported by the previous occupant and by ourselves during our stay, it remained unresolved. 7. The draining board area is of poor quality and water does not drain leaving crockery sitting in puddles. It simply require a dish draining rack to be supplied. 8. The most serious issue, faulty door locks, was resolved within 48 hours of us reporting it. However it is of concern that the previous occupants had reported this earlier. The housekeeper used the key she left in the key safe. She would have been aware the outer front door lock was faulty. The back door was impossible to open and had seized up. It is surprising this had also not been noticed by the housekeeper and reported.

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• Amanda - Verified booking

  I feel a lot of the recent reviews have been a bit unfair.

  I was a bit reluctant to book at first because of them but I am glad I did. The lodge itself is a bit tired, but it is clean and well equipped. We where a group of two adults and three teenagers so was plenty of room,but think would have been a bit of a squeeze with 7 ! I did not experience any discomfort with the couch and the beds where really comfortable. We did cook while we where there and instructions of how to use the hob and cooker would have been useful but we worked it out after a while. The hot tub was great we used it lots. It was clean/hot and roomy and was maintained everyday by a member of staff . We had no issues with the proximity of the bin shed that has been mentioned in some reviews in fact if it wasn’t mentioned I wouldn’t have known it was there !! The park is great the pub/restaurant is very dog friendly and nice we eat there a few times. We got passes to use the pool but only used it once but it was ok. There is a bus stop just outside the park to take you to Ambleside/Windermere/Kendal and beyond but be aware they only run until about 8/9 pm. Overall we had a lovely chilled holiday and I would recommend Owls Nook Lodge.

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• Donna - Verified booking

  I will give the good feedback first.

  The property is very clean, renovated very well and the host was very welcoming even letting us in early. It is also very close to the lake, less then a 10 minute walk. The disappointing points is altho it stated there was a garden this is shared with the host family and is not fenced off, so wasn't able to leave the door open for air due to having my dog with me. There are no windows in the property so your only option is to leave the door open, which if you have your dog with you is not possible. The other disappointing thing is you are woken very early hours to banging from upstairs, so not the romantic hiking trip we had planned. The hot water runs out very quickly, resulting in an old fashioned strip wash out of the sink. It was also very cold. The guide left in the flat stated you can adjust the temperature by turning the radiators, but no heating came on. Luckily there are extra blankets in the property. I would definitely go back to the lakes but unfortunately would book a different property next time.

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