Having returned from the Baltic Coast yesterday and not posted about my holiday I thought I would take a slightly sideways view on the experience and talk less about the kids and buckets and spades and sandcastles. All of this, nice as it is, is all so terribly predictable.
It was actually our second consecutive holiday in exactly the same place, including where we stayed and this is what I want to dwell on today for where we stayed was neither a hotel nor a guesthouse, but some kind of hybrid that works for everybody and not least the owners - who are lovely btw.
Effectively, it looks like a massive house and the owners, a married couple, have what could almost be classed as a "granny annex" on one side of the building running up all three levels. The rest of the house, complete with its own front door is for the guests. In fact the owners have two front doors, one that opens into the front garden / driveway area and one that opens into the shared entrance way with the guests.
The bottom floor is equipped with a spacious area for relaxation, including free coffee amenities, a seating area, a space for table football (fuzzball to you Americans!) and air hockey Off to one side is a dedicated conservatory to with a full-sized table tennis table. The whole space leads through to a dedicated kitchen for the guests to use and finally and probably most importantly, when you have young kids, there is a dedicated playroom which frankly is huge. I estimate that it is probably 8 x 5 metres (26.24 x 16.4 ft) that has slides, climbing frames, a child sized castle and lots of other things in as well as a couple of comfortable chairs. Food and drinks are not allowed inside and parents must supervise their own children (although some don't).
Personally, this was the most relaxing thing to do, as the children love it as it is safe, but at the same time adventurous space for them. I even caught myself having a nap a couple of times... Perfect!
The playroom, complete with convenient window from one of the kitchens so we could keep an eye on our kids even from there.
There was an additional playground outside too, only this had a more generous sleeping area.
The view from the rear of the property. The outdoor playground is clearly visible and the big single storey structure on the right is the massive playroom. This year we stayed on the opposite side to the sea view because the road is cobbled and Mama_Rah found it too noisy last year.
The other two floors were not too dissimilar to en-suite hotel rooms the world over, but maybe a bit bigger to accommodate families. Older_Rah had his own bed and Younger_Rah had a travel cot of which there are a few dotted about to take as you need. He won't fit in one for much longer. There was also another dedicated kitchen complete with a table for eating at on the third level (incidentally I am using the word level to avoid confusion with our American cousins concerning floors!). Underneath each set of steps are some other bits and pieces including a vacuum cleaner - and while we weren't told to clean up the implication was clear as indeed it was with the kitchens and generous table space.
Now this is why it is so magical. The location is great the facilities are great but the business plan is even better.
When running such a business as a rough ballpark figure, 70% of the work is catering, 25% is cleaning and 5% is admin. What the owners had managed to do was do away with any catering (by providing facilities), reduced the cleaning and left themselves with significantly less work to do than in a conventional hotel.
Genius!
We may not go back again, but only because the kids are growing up and getting more adventurous and also Mama_Rah is beginning to get a bit bored with the small town. We were conveniently located near a touristic / commerical area, but to get to the beach which was actually very close as the crow flies we had to ascend 5000 steps (ok - I am exaggerating - it's actually 231, but still...) to get there or go about a kilometer and a half / mile to enter the beach by a more gentle slope.
None of this reflect on the quality of where we stayed, the kindness of the owners or our degree of satisfaction with the place it's just that nothing ever stays the same.
As always stay safe and well my friends.
