Sandpiper Cottage, High Street, Blakeney, Norfolk, NR25 7AL

Wish I had read the reviews first. Took my 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren for 4 nights . Not a lot has improved since the last reviews, some things are worse. The kitchen needs a refit, the fridge freezes all the food as the ice box door is stil not mended. It is not a toddler friendly house. The high chair was moulding away in the outhouse, unusable . The one we were advised to hunt out from another cottage was old , dirty and tatty. Had to bleach it before the babies could use it. The passage way outside the back door ( main entrance as the front door did not work) was weedy , overgrown and dirty . 35 plus cups and mugs did not make up for the lack of egg cups. Seemed to still be stocked from jumble sales. The fancy light shades seemed an unusual quality to have in the midst of dirty stair carpets and mouldy corners of thick dirt. The bath was a nightmare with children, no grip or bath safety mat. When asked if there was a stairgate the manager ? Owner texted me to say she told me the stairs were accessed from the sitting room behind a door. This was not the problem , a gate was needed upstairs on the landing. We were constantly vigilant with the 2 one year olds. The attic bedroom was certainly not easily accessible and there is no warning of this in the details. Clutter clutter clutter everywhere in sitting room. Distracted us from some of the nice art pieces on the walls. The back door mat flung on top of a boot mat was u touchable really dirty . Would have taken no trouble to wash it regularly. A dirty sheet from a previous occupant was on the bed I used . Thank goodness we had opted to take our own bedlinen, may have had dirty ones to use from previous occupants. We were told the British legion hall was opposite. This was not all it was . Seemed to be the local weekend night club venue . Shouting from tiddly people , loud music . Led to disturbed sleep for all. No iron or ironing board. No hair dyer. All in all it made us feel unwelcome as guests and uncomfortable being in such a dirty ,tatty place compared to home . Three of the beds were really uncomfortable and the bed covers were grubby , not washed for a long time. Thank goodness Blakeney made up for it , but we looked longingly at better cared for places which were nearby including the neighbours. Front door couldn't unlock .

The cottage is very tired and dated - it needs at the very least a new paint-job (there is obvious damp in the corners of most of the rooms) and new kitchen units - but this needn't necessarily be a problem, I suppose, if you get a reasonal price.

The dishwasher basically didn't wash dishes, leaving then covered with food, so all washing-up had to be done by hand.

The fridge is very elderly and the door to the freezer compartment is broken off leaving frosted up exposed lumps of ice.

The chain for the plug for the bath was snapped off, so a rusting hairgrip was threaded through the top of it to enable it to be used.

The equipment in the kitchen is mismatched and has seen far better days - it's a though it has been fitted out from a jumble sale.

The main gripe I had with it though, was the fact that it was really unclean.

The carpets and rugs were grubby and the kitchen cabinets were sticky.

When we made up the beds in the children's room, we found discarded cashew nuts under the pillow from previous guests and a dirty pair of socks under a side-table.

The cottage needs a serious deep clean at an absolute minimum, and to be honest, if you are paying four hundred quid to stay here in peak season, you would expect there to be substantially more cosmetic upkeep too.

As a seperate issue, it really is not child friendly and this needs to be explicit on the website. The treble room upstairs is accessed via an almost vertical ladder with no handrail - it wouldn't be possible to put children under ten in there. Additionally, the main staircase down from the master bedroom and the double bedroom is incredibly steep and not safe at all for children under five.

This seemed to me to be the very worst kind of holiday landlord - charging inflated prices for a property that is dirty and needs quite a lot of repair work.

Our first family holiday for 5 years and what a great disappointment this cottage was. Initial impressions were that it was quite dirty and basic. The front door lock didn't work, so security from the High Street was two tiny bolt locks.

I'd asked the owner specifically if the garden was enclosed, she said it was, it wasn't and led directly via a small path onto the main road, not relaxing when you have a 3 and a 2 year old.

My main concerns with this cottage was that for small children it just wasn't safe, the supposed third bedroom is a loft room, which is reached via a step ladder after going through the main bedroom. This room was hugely damp, and the 3 beds in it were squeezed in so tightly you couldn't get between them. My eldest son slept in here, grudgingly.

My other 3 children slept in the twin bedroom, obviously with a travel cot in there, that was a little short on space also. No locks on the windows, and yes my youngest daughter thought it was great to open these and peer out. I had to buy a stairgate to put in this room, as the rather open staircase to the ground floor was also a hit and miss affair, and also had a small cupboard containing a stanley knife and other delightfully child friendly items.

Everything was stained, cobwebs aplenty, two tin openers, neither worked, a broken toaster. And the icing on the cake, an ants nest in the lounge, so we had a lovely parade of ants across the lounge wall all week, with a large quantity of ant powder on the floor, super.

Oh and the cottage is opposite a large pub/venue, with live music on Friday and Saturday nights. The noise went on till about 1 in the morning. After a 5 hr drive was a little unwelcome.

Blakeney itself is a wonderful place, lots to do, brilliant food and excellent croissants at the local deli.