The single most useful thing we can tell you before you book: we’ll lend you a travel cot, but we ask that you bring the cot bedding yourself.

That catches people out more than anything else, usually at about eight o’clock on the first evening. So we’d rather say it plainly ahead of your stay rather than have you discover it on arrival.

What we can lend you

Travel cots, high chairs and safety gates are all available free of charge, and all three need requesting when you book rather than when you get here. We keep them in the office and put them in the property before you arrive, which means we need a bit of notice to get them in place for you.

Worth asking for when you book:

A travel cot, remembering to pack a sheet and blankets for it
A high chair
Safety gates, and let us know how many and where you’d want them
A parking space close to your door
Any ground-level requirements, particularly if you’re bringing a buggy

We also leave teabags, coffee and milk sachets in the property for arrival, which won’t solve the baby problem but does mean you can make a cup of tea before you’ve unpacked anything.

Getting a buggy through the door

This is the part worth thinking about before you book, because our properties differ quite a bit and a buggy makes the difference obvious.

Most of our cottages and apartments have a single low step at the front door, around 10 to 20cm, which is manageable with a pram if slightly annoying. A handful have considerably more than that, including two properties reached by an internal staircase of sixteen steps and several reached by an outdoor staircase. If you’re travelling with a pram, a car seat and a toddler who has opinions about being carried, those are not the ones you want on this stay.

Our access statement sets out exactly which properties involve what. It’s written with mobility needs in mind rather than buggies, but the information transfers directly, and it’s the most honest picture of the site we have. Have a look before you ring us, then tell us what you require.

Bathing a baby

Most of our bathrooms have a bath with a shower over it, which is ideal when there’s a small person to bathe at the end of the day.

Three of our properties have walk-in shower cubicles instead and no bath. They’re good rooms, but bathing a baby in a shower cubicle is a genuinely miserable way to spend every night of your week stay, so tell us when you book and we’ll allocate you a room with a bath if they are available.

Where the bedrooms are

In most of our cottages and apartments the bedrooms sit on the same level as the living area. For anyone who has spent a holiday creeping up an unfamiliar staircase at nine o’clock hoping the fourth stair doesn’t creak, that matters more than it sounds.

A few properties have bedrooms upstairs, and two have some bedrooms up and some downstairs. It’s on the access statement, and again, it’s worth saying which you’d prefer when you ring rather than hoping for the property you are allocated.

Our two-bedroom apartments come in two arrangements. Four have a double and a twin sharing one bathroom, and four have a double and a single with two bathrooms. If you’ve got a toddler who wakes early and an adult who’d like a shower without an audience, the two-bathroom version is the one to enquire about.

Bottles, weaning and the laundry situation

Every one of our properties has a fully fitted kitchen with an oven, hob, fridge and microwave, so if you use a microwave steriliser it’ll work here, and if you’re weaning you can cook properly rather than negotiating with a restaurant menu.

There’s a washer and dryer in the property too. With a baby that stops being a nice extra and becomes the reason self-catering works at all. You can arrive with less and go home with clean clothes, which is not usually how holidays with small children go.

If you’d rather not do a supermarket run on day one, you can arrange a grocery delivery to arrive before or shortly after you get here. Plenty of guests do this for the bulky things, nappies and formula and milk, and it saves a good hour of any trip.

Arriving with a car full of things

Parking is free and on site, and we have plenty of it, including space for larger vehicles. If you need to be close to your door because you’re carrying a sleeping child and half a nursery, ask us to reserve you a spot and we would be glad to.

There’s an office on site, open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 5pm, so there’s someone to ask if something isn’t working or you’ve forgotten something obvious. Outside, there are communal gardens and walking tracks across the forty-acre estate, which is useful when a toddler needs to be somewhere other than indoors and it isn’t raining.

Shops, a post office and a pub are within walking distance, and there’s a larger supermarket a short drive away for anything you’ve run out of.

Ring us before you book

Here’s the honest position. We match arrivals to departures, and we sometimes have to move guests between properties to make longer stays work, so we can’t promise a specific unit months ahead. What we can do is note exactly what you need and meet it wherever we’re able to.

The families who get the property that suits them are the ones who tell us early. So call us on 0191 371 0251 and let us know you’re coming with a baby, and tell us about the buggy, the bath and the stairs requirements.

Have a look at our cottages and apartments first, then get in touch and we’ll work out which one fits.