Hill Farm Cottage, Hill Farm, Hill Lane, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, PO40 9TQ

Was very dissapointment as description of property claimed that there were great views from property and you could have a glass of wine in garden whilst watching the sunset over the needles this was not possible

Claims to be a short walk to beach this had been closed off because of a dispute with neighbours

Like previous review found oven very dirty and set off alarm every time it was used

Beds were comfortable and lounge was reasonable size

Garden was good size for young children to play.

Be aware there were a number of risks for young children including glass in porch door not being safety glass electrics tended to be run off a number of extension leads

When issues were taken up by letting agent with owners they claimed you could see sunsets and that you could walk across fields to beach but the owners had told me on arrival that you no longer could

They were not prepared to change the description as they believed it was correct

On the positive side it is in a good location is reasonably equipped and the beds are comfortable

Had a lovely week at this cottage. It's perfectly located just a 3/4 minute drive from Yarmouth, and not much further to Colwell Bay and the Needles.

The cottage itself is a beautiful 500 year old building. However, if you're over 5'9" tall, be warned! There are low beams in lots of places and you'll spend your whole holiday stooped over to avoid them. We had quite a few instances where the two tall people in our party had to take a sit down after cracking their heads. Prepare to stoop! It's no reflection on the cottage - that's just the way they built them all those years ago, but it's worth bearing in mind.

We also found the cottage to be quite dirty. We moved the rug in the living room as it was a trip hazard for our baby, and we had to get a dustpan out to clean up the dust and dirt that was under it. We also found the oven to be filthy, so much so that it set the smoke alarms off every time we used it. This was raised with the owner who said they'd have it cleaned, so hopefully it won't be a future problem.

We also had a problem with the owner's dogs poo'ing in our garden. We had two dogs of our own who were always on leads and we cleaned up each time. However we did often come out to see more, which wasn't nice. This was also raised with the owner who cleaned it up once, but it was still a bit of an issue across the holiday.

Overall though, it's a lovely place to stay. The garden is a great size, the BBQ area is lovely on a warm summer evening, and the local area is so peaceful and quiet.

Location. This was the perfect geographical location for us. We usually stay on the other side of the island but we have family on this side and the cottage is no more than 5mins drive from the Yarmouth ferry. That meant drivers and train users alike found it really easy to get here and we could meet them with no fuss as it was only a few minutes away. It's easy enough to drive 5mins into Yarmouth - which has a couple of really nice places to eat and useful shops - though you could also walk it if you fancied (take a torch in the winter). I'd recommend not staying here without a car unless you know you're staying in Yarmouth, but that applies to almost everywhere on the Isle of Wight unless its on the tourist side (west) which has a little train service.

Winter. I want to put the rest of this review in context. We stayed in the depths of winter when the weather was a little cold and very, very rainy. Some of the things we mention below would be entirely irrelevant in the summer months! It was a very wet week but it was January though - so that was expected!

House setting. The house is based on a riding school farm. The riding school had about 36 horses and 9 dogs when we stayed; a couple of our number went riding and enjoyed themselves very much. However, you'd barely notice it was there if you weren't interested in riding; it was perfectly peaceful. The house is attached to the actual farm house (with a separate drive and entrance). This is a rural location and thus it's very dark; until the owners pop up some motion-sensor lights we HIGHLY recommended packing a few torches if you're going in winter as you won't be able to see from the drive to the house.

House. The house is really very nice - and as an added touch the owners had placed fresh flowers around the house and left a little care package of teabags, cake and biscuits, and ice in the freezer. The eat-in kitchen is fully equipped. The living room seats five people comfortably (probably more if they are little people) and there is a tv and wifi which, once we realised we could hop onto two wifi services, worked in the whole house. (It would be worth bringing a chromecast/firestick/roku if you have one as the wifi is about good enough to stream and the tv has an accessible port.) There are four bedrooms. One bedroom is a small single that doesn't have an exterior window but is absolutely fine if you don't plan doing anything but sleep there; the twin room is light and airy. The double room without the en suite is the biggest and has a nice view and is easily the nicest bedroom (though we couldn't see the Needles) and the double with the en suite is a good size albeit overlooking a roof. In the summer perhaps, the downstairs bathroom wouldn't feel cold and damp but as it was winter we avoided it; it doesn't have a proper shower down there and you can hear everything (*everything*) in there, so we used the en suite bathroom almost exclusively - and left a lamp on downstairs at night so the downstairs one could be used then without waking up the house. The en suite has a fantastic power shower and we left the light on all day and the bedroom window open a little to make sure the steam cleared well. This does mean you should consider that en suite bedroom a bit of a throughway if you think you'll all want to use the power shower. That is, don't put anyone in that room who wants to close the door and keep people out!

Parking. (I've not talked about the garden as, it being winter, it wasn't something we used.) The listing says there is parking for three cars. This may technically be correct, there are a few things to note. First, the cars go in one by one, so you may end up playing car tetris if you're not using every car every day. We were asked not to park on the verge outside the cottage gate (which prevented said issue) so we did a lot of moving the cars in and out to get the rights ones out. The owners could usefully re-gravel the drive: in summer i'm sure its fine but in winter it is a muddy mess and the garden gets waterlogged: we lived in wellies for the week to manage the few yards between the drive and the house, and this is highly recommended for winter. It was recommended we kept the driveway gate closed to deter the dogs from visiting: the dogs did not visit (though we wouldn't have minded) and we found it essential to keep the gate open partly because it was very muddy and hopping in and out wasn't practical when it wasn't really needed and also if you have more than one car there's no room to do that.

Nearby. We are biased as we love the Isle of Wight. Essentials are the Garlic Farm for lunch and shopping, with a visit to nearby Arreton Barns to spend some 10p coins on ancient arcade games and sights; Fishbourne Inn for food and a visit to to the bay and pop into Quarr Abbey. Closer to "home" explore Colwell Bay and eat at the Waterfront (and maybe The Hut when it re-opens). In Yarmouth we can't recommend highly enough On The Rocks where your steak is delivered for you to cook on a volcanic rock slab on the table: lovely staff and a fun evening (only open on the weekends in Winter). If you have runners in your group - we did! - make sure they pack reflective clothing as it's dark a lot and there are few pavements.

All in all we had a lovely holiday. The house was warm and safe and well equipped; we love the area, and being able to ride if you like is a nice additional extra. Things to remember to pack: loo roll, soap for loos, j-cloths, everything you need to cook with.

Need a quick weekend escape? Need a wonderful old style cottage with all modern amenities? Need nature all around you? Then this is the place!

What a wonderful weekend we had with a group of friends. A 20-30 minute walk to beach, town, pubs and grocery stores. This cottage was one of the best we've ever stayed at.

The cottage was cozy and warm and wonderful to spend time cooking, playing games and relaxing. The owners next door were super nice and own a horse riding business which we took advantage of.

Welcoming, homely cottage with loads of character. Friendly helpful owners, but not interfering. cannot fault any part of the cottage or the grounds. Well within reasonable distance from all major amenities. Loved it, can't wait to go back. Highly recommended.

We had a lovely week staying at Hill Farm. The accommodation is very comfortable an excellently equipped with everything you could possibly need (right down to a selection of essentials provided awaiting our arrival saving us the bother of that chore of first trip being to the local supermarket !)

The owners are a family who live in the adjoining building and were very warm and welcoming to us and felt like friends right from the off.

My wife and daughter made good use of the riding stables next door (owned by same family) and they arranged some fantastic ri