Exploring England #40
Even with careful research and diligent attention to the details on booking websites, there’s no guarantee that what you see is what you will get when it comes to accommodation. On our journey around England, we stayed in eight different places and fortunately all were exactly what we expected. What we usually didn’t expect was the wonderful view we had out the windows of our vacation homes.
Our first night in England was spent in a small family-run guest house in Cranford, a few kilometres from Heathrow. The building was surrounded by a pretty cottage garden, filled with late summer flowers and apple trees laden with ripening fruit.
The only hotel we stayed in was in Portsmouth. As its name implies, the Royal Beach Hotel is located on the seafront. From the top of the shingle beach we could see across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.
Our Airbnb studio near Bridport was the top floor of a converted barn, on farmland owned by the same family for more than a century. The walk up Colmer’s Hill was tempting, but we couldn’t fit it in this time.
We knew from the photos on the website this Airbnb apartment in Falmouth had wonderful views. That was partly why we chose it and we weren’t disappointed. Looking out over the waters of Carrick Roads to the village of Flushing, we were intrigued by the constantly changing colours before us. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the view one morning!
We knew our Airbnb apartment in Manchester would have neither rural nor ocean views, but we weren’t expecting to see a worksite. From our living room we looked into the backyards of the Victorian terraces in the next street. We were fascinated by the renovations over the fence and wondered what the final outcome would be.
Every morning we watched the antics of this hungry little fellow, who helped himself to breakfast from a bird feeder in a tree.
Our next Airbnb home was in Holme Mills, just outside the Lake District. Once again we had beautiful rural views, this time accompanied by the rich rural aroma only cows can provide. The millpond lay behind our cottage and, at the top of the hill, was Lancaster Canal.
On the outskirts of York, our Airbnb cottage was a one in a modern complex located in the grounds of a plant nursery, so it wasn’t a surprise to find a beautifully landscaped formal garden on our doorstep.
While we admired the carefully tended garden beds, it was the local birds who kept us entertained every morning.
In London, we were back in familiar territory. From our studio in Cartwright Gardens, we could see the top of BT Tower above the neighbouring apartment block and, if we looked down, the tiny patch of lawn behind our building.
It would have been tempting to stay home all day in every place we stayed, but after travelling more than 15,000 km to get there we had more to do than look out the window!
It’s those sweeping harbour views for me, Carrol. I’d never have wanted to leave. 🙂 🙂 Have a great weekend!
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Oh Jo, we were sad to leave that place. The view was just beautiful and we loved seeing how quickly it changed depending on sun or cloud.
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My favourite is the Holme Mills view, especially with the mist. But the robin and squirrel are also contenders for top photos!
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Denzil, I love the Holme Mills views too. The early morning one with the mist and pink sky is my favourite but it was so cold I didn’t stay outside long!
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Is that cold by Australian standards (i.e. 25 degrees)? 🙂
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Ha ha, no. It was freezing. I was blowing mist breath.
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I think they are all beautiful or interesting. It’s a pity you had to beetle off to go touristing! 🙂 My best hotel view was in Melbourne when I was woken one morning by a whooshing sound I didn’t recognise and looked out the window of my 15th story room to see a couple of hot air balloons making their way past, so close I could wave to the occupants!
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Yes, if we’d had more time we certainly would have been dawdling. Wow, what a spectacular sight it would have been to see the balloons so close.
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Beautiful Collection of natural photos
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Thank you. I had great subject matter to work with. 😃
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You did good! I have been to most of these places (not Cranford, though I know Heathrow very well), though not always to stay. Love the misty Lake District photo, and yes that rural smell that only cows can provide is very evident around here today!! Some noisy boys arrived yesterday…
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The day we arrived was the Monday of a Bank Holiday so driving to Portsmouth at 5pm was not an option. It worked out well. By the time we were out of the airport, had picked up our car and got to the guest house in Cranford it was perfect timing to go the the pub down the road for dinner and then go to bed. Much nicer to set off the next morning, which was great once we managed to get off that giant roundabout on the right road. 🙂
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So what took you to Portsmouth? Family? Friends? Not the usual tourist place. Unless you went over to the IOW.
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I have a very dear friend who lives in Southsea and we always go to see her. We’ve been many times. I also love seeing the Mary Rose, although we didn’t this time.
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It is interesting in that part of Portsmouth / Southsea. The ships, the Spinnaker Tower and Gunwharf Quay are nice places to visit. I taught in a school there for a term.
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We like that area too.
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My parents and I visited Portsmouth because the first of my family to arrive in America left on a ship out of that port, back before the American Revolution.
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There is a memorial there dedicated to all those who left England to migrate to other countries. It’s great to know your family history.
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Well that IS an interesting reason for visiting the city.
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Such beautiful and interesting views from each place. I do enjoy watching the squirrels and their clever antics. Great planning.
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We don’t have squirrels in Australia so we always enjoy watching them too.
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I had a psychology professor who liked telling stories about animals outwitting humans; one of his best was about squirrels getting into birdfeeders.
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These little guys were so clever and they weren’t worried about getting caught out.
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I think you should start a little business finding places for travelers to stay because I’ve never had a view like any of these. I’d sign up. 🙂
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Thanks Judy. It all comes down to careful research before booking. We have a system. I look and find a few choices and send the links to MR ET. He double checks to make sure they have the facilities we want and then he looks on Google Earth to check the location. He looks for things like proximity to public transport and shops. I always make sure each place has a kitchen, washing machine, wifi and, if we have a car, dedicated parking. We make a good team. 🙂
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Rooms with a view indeed! I couldn’t pick a favourite. Interesting to see your full route too, such a neat loop.
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That loop took us nearly five weeks. We still have so much to see in UK though.
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That’s a good way to do it. I sometimes meet tourists who want to “do” the UK in a few days. London, York, Scotland (all of it!) They must never see anything but roads – and I don’t think most realise how small many of our roads are. Single track with passing places in the Highlands must come as a shock…
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We prefer to do a small area thoroughly. Having said that, we weren’t in Cornwall nearly long enough and could easily have spent three weeks. People do the same thing when they come to Australia. They underestimate the vast distances and think they can drive between Sydney and Brisbane in a couple of hours.
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That’s what I prefer too.
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I dislike it when accommodation disappoints but it sounds like you were really pleased with all of yours! 😀
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Yes Lorraine, they were all nice places to stay and all lived up to our expectations. It pays to research thoroughly before booking.
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What fun to see the very, very different views from the windows of the the places you stayed. By the way, I had my little “Birds of Europe” guide next to me as I just identified a bird we saw today in Portugal – so I confirmed that the birds you saw were great tits (upper photo) and a European Robin (lower photo) – but I bet you already knew that!
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Even though we’d like to be, we’re not knowledgeable about birds so we didn’t know their identity. Thanks for sharing.
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When my parents and I visited London, my father spent nearly an entire afternoon in a park getting photos of new birds.
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Mr ET likes taking photos of birds but we don’t always know what they are. 🙂
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It’s great that all the accommodation was up to expectation. Your research paid off but it’s also good to know that people care about providing good accommodation; truth in advertising etc.
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That is all very true. There is never a guarantee. But I’ve found it pays to scrutinise the photos very carefully because they often show details not mentioned in the information. Also, Mr ET looks on Google Earth to check the surrounding area. We found one Airbnb place in York that looked perfect but when he checked it was located right between all the train lines of the two main stations. Having said that, the one time we had an Airbnb place that wasn’t up to scratch, we got an immediate response from Airbnb and a large discount on our next booking.
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That’s impressive. Good to know that Airbnb is so responsive.
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For some people those trains would be a plus. LOL
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True, although you would need to be a passionate train lover. There were so many lines coming into the station around that house.
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I love this post what a great idea. You certainly got a kaleidoscope of beautiful views my favourite being the harbour! Not so much that building site!
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I thought that at first too Ting. But we were quite intrigued by what they were going to put in that extension. And the squirrels made up for the building mess. They were so cute and funny.
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What a trip you made. I didn’t know what Airbnb was so I looked it up. this is not something for me at all. That building site view was bad but other views were great! Cool trip!
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The squirrels made up for the building site. They were so cute. And we were actually quite interested in the renovations they were doing on the building.
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Carol, what a trip and what amazing views. Such great pics. It really does pay to research doesn’t it?
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We think so. We do love being spontaneous on a trip but when it comes to knowing we have a nice place to stay, research works best for us.
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Couldn’t agree more. It’s all part of the fun and anticipation.
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What a beautiful adventure, Carol. I love that harbour view. The photos are amazing xxx
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Dianne, that view was gorgeous no matter what time of day. I could happily live in that little house.
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Delightful Collection of common photographs…
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Ah, you’re making me miss England. I studied there for my MA and every time I went out into the countryside I found myself thinking, this is the land that inspired Tolkien’s beloved Shire.
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The countryside is beautiful. As Australians we are always astounded by how green it is.
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Looks like you made all the right choices, Carol. Love the sweet Robin. 🙂
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We don’t have robins here, so we do enjoy watching them. They are sweet little birds.
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How wonderful to have such views in every place you stayed. I love them all. The converted upper floor of the barn sounds particularly appealing. So most of your trip you used Airbnb? We hadn’t used it much before, but we ended up loving our Airbnb apartments in Budapest and Prague. I’m going to try to use them more in future trips.
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We used five Airbnb places on this trip and loved them all. The secret, as with anything booked online, is to read everything carefully and study the photographs to check for details. We’ve been using Airbnb for years and have only ever had one place that wasn’t as advertised and Airbnb was very responsive to our comments.
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It’s good to know you’ve had such positive experiences over time with Airbnb. We’ll have to use them more often. 🙂
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