St Lawrence Manor, Salem Close, St Lawrence, Hampshire, PO38 1XN

We spent a fabulous week at the Manor House. There were only 8 of us, so there was a massive amount of room. The games room is terrific with many table tennis games and pool matches being played. The hot tub was excellent (almost too hot!). After a few days the chemicals didn’t seem quite right and it was all sorted the next day - which was very efficient. The pool was fun but is not heated (which was fine for us in the summer). The location is excellent. There is a lovely 5 moon walk to the nearest bay and a 2 min drive to Ventnor. The bedrooms were all comfortable and the bathrooms were basic but all worked fine. The kitchen was very well equipped with LOTS of crockery and cutlery. The views from the front are great with a lovely view of the water. We had a great week and explored the island.

I stumbled upon the original review for this property on this website after my friend booked a St. Lawrence Manor on the isle of wight for a birthday party last March. The review concerned me as it’s quite negative and doesn’t make the place sound great. I kept my concerns to myself though leading up to the get together as it was all booked and with quite a lot of people involved (18 of us in total) I didn’t want to worry anyone else. As it turned out my worries were completely unnecessary because the St Lawrence Manor we stayed in was incredible! If this is the same St Lawrence Manor then either the place has changed a lot since the original review was posted in 2011 or our group had a completely different experience/appreciation of the property. We enjoyed a huge open plan dining and living area, light and bright with French doors to a BIG hot tub (which can’t be the same one as in the original review as ours was positioned at the front of the property to make the most of the beautiful views), a huge games room with table tennis, pool and bar (with mini bar fridges!), two decent kitchens with a serving hatch between them and two huge fridge-freezers (we tended to only cook and eat breakfast in the house, then eat out for other meals on seafronts close by), nice plush comfy bedrooms, and loads of laughs on the tennis court -- It certainly didn’t have the feel of an old people’s home!! The birthday girl stayed with her hubby in the master bedroom which had a huge four poster and some futuristic-looking steam shower/bath in the corner of the room which they said was fun but a bit weird being in the bedroom. The other 10 bedrooms were normal en-suites. We paid £3450 for the week and split between 17 (we covered the birthday girl’s share between us) it worked out about £200 each which is excellent value for what you get! I would highly recommend this property to other groups

At £4250 this was our most expensive property in 18 years together. Feels like an old people's home which is what it previously was and few changes have been made. Dark, heavy furniture and materials. Large reception rooms and bedrooms, some very good but others poor. Shower cubicals in bedrooms not a good idea. Some interior toilets/bathrooms with no expel fan=smelly. Kitchen layout poor for a large number. One of the two dishwashers never worked properly in spite of promises to get it fixed. Splash pool small and not a lot of use. Hot tub OK but badly positioned. Best games room ever - excellent pool and table tennis. £900 cautionary deposit to be paid in advance is well over the top!