Do you go on holidays these days ?

[Grannylorraine]

Update after the worst experience we have ever had. Holiday cottages phoned us and offered to re locate us the let owner contacted them because we asked for extra saucepans no idea what he expected then to do anyway he decided to tell us we were no longer welcome and asked us to leave this was a request by email which we didn't see out of the blue he turned up with a bloke who was nothing more than a thug demanding we leave I was shaking and my hubby was also shaken I went and sat in the car and phoned holiday cottages who advised us to call the police we were trying to pack as we had no intentions in staying holiday cottages tried there best to find us another let but there was nothing available eventually after sitting in the car in Bude we found a holiday park and have just unpacked my blood sugar went up to 18 and now its on its way down I feel completely deflated and drained hubby has just gone on line to leave these horrible people feedback and it's down as cancelled so we can't leave any feedback we think that's why he wanted us to leave so we couldn't leave feedback sorry for the rant

Oh Pam what a dreadful experience, so glad you have at least found somewhere to stay and hope you can get some rest and relaxation after this awful experience.

when we go the caravan in Norfolk, we have a big box of things we take that have been bought over the years as the caravans have very basic provisions, the night before we go,I grab a couple of decent knives, a chopping board, and a couple of my own pans to take. Literally we take measuring jugs, scales, cooking utensils etc. I wasn’t going to take it when we go to a cottage in Cornwall in September as it is costing considerably more than a caravan does during the school holidays in July but based on your experience I think I will.

Hope you can get some of your money back from the Holiday Cottages company and some compensation for such a bad experience and being treated so badly by the owners.

 

[harbottle]

Walsall , Coventry , Stoke

I live in Coventry… have never been to Walsall but have been to Stoke a few times. Never been to Tamworth castle, either.

 

[eggyg]

I always take my own sharp knife, and we used to take a corkscrew, but now most of what we drink has screw tops that’s not so vital. I draw the line at packing a teapot,@eggyg, and most of the last few cottages we’ve been to have had one. In fact, being Yorkshire, the last one had two, a modest sized one, and an enormous one which you could have used to serve tea to a whole building site. Never a tea cosy, though, I end up wrapping the oven gloves round the teapot for insulation.
We are off to Scotland in a few weeks, the last Scottish cottage we stayed in had a Spurtle, in case we needed to stir our porridge.

The teapot we take is for tea leaves and has a strainer for Mr Eggy’s first flush Darjeeling! I’m happy with a Tetley teabag dipped in my mug! 😉

 

[eggyg]

Update after the worst experience we have ever had. Holiday cottages phoned us and offered to re locate us the let owner contacted them because we asked for extra saucepans no idea what he expected then to do anyway he decided to tell us we were no longer welcome and asked us to leave this was a request by email which we didn't see out of the blue he turned up with a bloke who was nothing more than a thug demanding we leave I was shaking and my hubby was also shaken I went and sat in the car and phoned holiday cottages who advised us to call the police we were trying to pack as we had no intentions in staying holiday cottages tried there best to find us another let but there was nothing available eventually after sitting in the car in Bude we found a holiday park and have just unpacked my blood sugar went up to 18 and now its on its way down I feel completely deflated and drained hubby has just gone on line to leave these horrible people feedback and it's down as cancelled so we can't leave any feedback we think that's why he wanted us to leave so we couldn't leave feedback sorry for the rant

That is dreadful Pam. Wouldn’t it have been easier for the owner to just buy another couple of pans? I hope Holiday Cottages are giving you a full refund. We nearly always book through Holiday Cottages and find them to be very helpful, especially during the pandemic when we had to keep changing the dates. I hope they take his accommodation off their books. I hope the rest of your week goes well. We love Cornwall and were in the north of the county last October.

 

[zippyjojo]

I'm so sorry you had this horrible experience Pam and really hope that somehow Holiday Cottages can make sure they don't just get away with it. It also shocked me how little was provided. I've had a holiday cottage for nearly 30 years up on the Isle of Harris and the kitchen is as well stocked as my own - mind you I suppose because there aren't loads of places to eat on the island I saw the need many years ago. I have never involved an agency as find it better to cut out the middle man and I think my guests appreciate that all their dealings are with me so they really know what they're getting. Not that it's any help to you and I really hope that you can now relax and enjoy your much anticipated holiday xxx

 

[PattiEvans]

Sorry to hear of your experience @Pam123 - how very upsetting.

Talking of taking equipment to self catering places. We had a slightly surreal experience a year last September when we were catching a cross channel ferry to France. The security people asked if we had any knives and, having done the crossing lots of times with knives we fessed up to a paring knife and a small knife with a serrated edge as I find often self-catering "sharp" knives are not sharp. They took them off us and told us that if we paid they would post them home. Apparently if we'd had a campervan with a kitchen we could have taken as many knives as we wanted on board! How daft is that?

 

[Pam123]

Oh Pam what a dreadful experience, so glad you have at least found somewhere to stay and hope you can get some rest and relaxation after this awful experience.

when we go the caravan in Norfolk, we have a big box of things we take that have been bought over the years as the caravans have very basic provisions, the night before we go,I grab a couple of decent knives, a chopping board, and a couple of my own pans to take. Literally we take measuring jugs, scales, cooking utensils etc. I wasn’t going to take it when we go to a cottage in Cornwall in September as it is costing considerably more than a caravan does during the school holidays in July but based on your experience I think I will.

Hope you can get some of your money back from the Holiday Cottages company and some compensation for such a bad experience and being treated so badly by the owners.

Thanks we've had a good sleep and are hoping for a ni e day out and a the site manager when we arrived last night gave us a few tips on places to eat so table booked for this afternoon one thing we didn't pack was towels as they were provided the park we are on don't so we have a 17 mile trip to purchase a couple of towels this morning but it's just one of those things holiday cottages gave us a full refund as they were unable to re locate us we found this place through hoseseasons they were fantastic I won't hesitate using them again only thing is we didn't get accommodation with a hot tub which we were looking forward to they were all taken but considering this is a premier lodge for 7 days 405 pounds is brilliant when we get home I will send the holiday cottages all the threatening messages from the horrible people and be claiming compensation I hope youe holiday goes will and yes I would take your usual items if I were you

 

[Pam123]

Sorry to hear of your experience @Pam123 - how very upsetting.

Talking of taking equipment to self catering places. We had a slightly surreal experience a year last September when we were catching a cross channel ferry to France. The security people asked if we had any knives and, having done the crossing lots of times with knives we fessed up to a paring knife and a small knife with a serrated edge as I find often self-catering "sharp" knives are not sharp. They took them off us and told us that if we paid they would post them home. Apparently if we'd had a campervan with a kitchen we could have taken as many knives as we wanted on board! How daft is that?

How strange just reading you post to my hubby he said even in the places we ha e been in the past the knives were never sharp

 

[eggyg]

How strange just reading you post to my hubby he said even in the places we ha e been in the past the knives were never sharp

That’s why we take our own. The knives in cottages etc are useless. I think even in self catering accommodation they don’t expect folks to cook for some reason.

 

[eggyg]

Sorry to hear of your experience @Pam123 - how very upsetting.

Talking of taking equipment to self catering places. We had a slightly surreal experience a year last September when we were catching a cross channel ferry to France. The security people asked if we had any knives and, having done the crossing lots of times with knives we fessed up to a paring knife and a small knife with a serrated edge as I find often self-catering "sharp" knives are not sharp. They took them off us and told us that if we paid they would post them home. Apparently if we'd had a campervan with a kitchen we could have taken as many knives as we wanted on board! How daft is that?

When we went to the Algarve in 2022 it was the first time we’d done self catering, previously we’d stayed in hotels. So the sharp knife went in the hold luggage. On the return to Newcastle airport we were stopped by customs and excise and I had to empty the whole case. I had wraps of spices/herbs even a wrap of Bisto I make up but hadn’t used, and the sharp knife. I thought we were going to be arrested on the spot for drug and knife trafficking! Then they looked at us and thought.. nah!

 

[PattiEvans]

When we went to the Algarve in 2022 it was the first time we’d done self catering, previously we’d stayed in hotels. So the sharp knife went in the hold luggage. On the return to Newcastle airport we were stopped by customs and excise and I had to empty the whole case. I had wraps of spices/herbs even a wrap of Bisto I make up but hadn’t used, and the sharp knife. I thought we were going to be arrested on the spot for drug and knife trafficking! Then they looked at us and thought.. nah!

Yes, if you're flying it makes sense to put knives in the hold. You can't do that on a ferry as everything is in the car. What got me was the fact that the campervan people could take their sharp knives on board! Are they less likely to hijack the ferry?

 

[Leadinglights]

Yes, if you're flying it makes sense to put knives in the hold. You can't do that on a ferry as everything is in the car. What got me was the fact that the campervan people could take their sharp knives on board! Are they less likely to hijack the ferry?

We were on a flight from East Midlands to Scotland with some friends years ago and they confiscated eyebrow tweezers for one of our friends that were in her handbag.

 

[helli]

The teapot we take is for tea leaves and has a strainer for Mr Eggy’s first flush Darjeeling! I’m happy with a Tetley teabag dipped in my mug! 😉

We take tea strainers like these that fit in mugs when we have single cups (we drink different teas most of the time because I prefer herbal and he prefers a good English Breakfast) and a teapot when we share.

 

[eggyg]

We take tea strainers like these that fit in mugs when we have single cups (we drink different teas most of the time because I prefer herbal and he prefers a good English Breakfast) and a teapot when we share.

Did I mention we also take a china cup and saucer for him too! He’s spoiled that man! Otherwise that’s a good idea!