Budle Falls, Bamborough, Northumberland

It's not often I admit to having a perfect holiday - it can always be better eh? But we've just come back from 5 nights at Budle Falls in Northumberland, booked through Coastal/Country Retreats and my god it was perfect.

Budle Falls is a small barn conversion (2 bed) situated next to the owners property on a small holding. It's been taking visitors since June 09. The owners were obviously close by - but we did not feel so - except when our 2 year old was running round with delight seeing the chickens, sheep and ducks and riding on the little child size tractors with their 3 year old. The cottage was compact but had everything you needed and we didn't feel cramped. In the cottage there was a wealth of toys for our son - placed in the cottage specifically for his age group and including mega blocks and an incredibly impressive collection of Thomas trains, tracks and associated buildings, books, dvds, dressing up clothes - we took a small bag of favourite toys which he barely opened. We wee even told that if there was anything he'd want and they didn't have they would get it for us to save us bringing ours on the journey - service! Less fun but also essential there was also child size plates, bowls, cups and cutlery, high chair etc etc (anything we wanted really).

For the adults there was a full Sky package (home from home), Wii and huge selection of DVDs, plus board games, a nintendo DS and games .... it goes on...... just in case it rained (we were lucky - it didn't). When we arrived there was a selection of marmalade, honey, cake etc from northumberland, fresh flowers on the table, a bottle of wine waiting, and milk in the fridge.

We spent the 5 days making the most of the beautiful Northumberland coast including visits to Holy Island, The Light railway at Etal, Bamborough beach, Dunstanborough castle, Alnwick Gardens etc.

The cottage is 5* rated and is not at the cheapest end of the scale, but we feel that it provides good value for money to know that everything is catered for and there is literally everything on hand, and everything you're used to having at home, without the need to shoehorn it all into the car.

Last year we stayed at a different Coastal retreats cottage and had a similarly fantastic experience and would thoroughly recommend using them.