Our stay at The Cottage Forest Lodge was a mixture of enjoyment and disappointment. We enjoyed sitting on the veranda chatting and soaking up the atmosphere of looking across the back garden to the trees and hills. Various birds came and went especially the brightly coloured parrots. But the seats on the back deck are showing their age and long sleeve shirts could easily be caught by the worn cane if you were not careful.
The kitchen: The standard of the crockery and cutlery was good and there were enough plates etc for the four of us. The number of glasses was good. The cooking facilities of oven, range hood, frypans were substandard in cleanliness and there was no pot scraper to clean the fry pans. There were no dishes for cooking in the microwave. The cupboards required some maintenance but since most of the crockery was on shelves above the sink so the cupboards were not required that much.
The space in the bedrooms did not reflect the photos and there was not enough room in the second queen size bed room to open the suite cases. In our case we used the third bedroom to store our luggage and as a change room.
The wireless internet was not working during our stay.
The cleanliness of the cottage was substandard by any standard.
The description on Airbnb said very little but it did say there was an iron and hangers – the reality was no iron and no hangers and in two of the bedrooms there was no place to hang cloths. Some might describe the cottage a quaint others might see that it is in need of a good face lift with a bit of paint and a good spring clean.
Safety: while the description said no wheel chairs the place was also not suitable for people with walkers or even walking sticks. Older people or people a little unsteady on their feet would find the cottage difficult to navigate as the bedrooms and kitchen were on one level and the living was a step or two lower. For example if you wanted to go to the toilet in the middle of the night from the second or third bedrooms you would have to take one step down to leave the bedroom then two steps up into the kitchen area, walk across a loose board in a hallway and then two steps down into the toilet area.
While on the issue of safety the veranda has two levels and the step down is only a couple of inches not a full step. The entire floor is the same colour and the step is not easy to see. It should be painted a different colour – say bright yellow. All four of us ‘tripped’ on this step at least once.
To finish on a positive note the beds and the heating and the hot water were all good.