Posh Hotel vs Yurt in the Countryside...which won?

[PavlovtheCat]

The yurt, hands down!!!!!

Well, let me compare my two experiences this last week. To celebrate mine and DH's first anniversary, we stayed for one night in a posh hotel in lyme regis and then we spent 4 nights in a http://www.luxurydevonyurts.co.uk/about_us.htm luxury yurt in Ottery St Mary in Devon.

So, let me compare

Posh hotel - £195 for night, inc dinner, bed, breakfast. £6 for travel cot, no food supplied for DD.
large double bed
Fantastic view from the hotel room over the Seafront
Short walk from hotel to seafront.
Great grounds for DD to play in.
Able to leave car the next day for a couple of hours.
Baby listening service - free.
New bathroom.
Bottle of wine to celebrate first anniversary delivered to room - £38, minus corkscrew!
High tea for children, delivered to our room - £8.00
Coffee in the garden - £5
Breakfast included - no place set for DD, had to ask for high chair and set of cutlery.
No table with a view, despite requesting, to celebrate 1st wedding anniversary.
Not much smiling in restuarant, evening or breakfast, felt a bit uncomfortable.
widescreen television on the wall.

Yurt - £195 for 4 nights, plus £30 for luxury hamper on arrival.

Fantastic location, close to farm, but not visible, in Ottery countryside.
Lots and lots of open space to play in, free access to all land to explore
Yurt furnished to high spec, with very comfortable double bed, duvet and throw, great sofas, lovely furinishings, books provided, torches, lanterns, candle holders.
Wood burner in yurt - right in the middle for warmth
Wood provided for wood burner/camp fire - allowed to forage for own in the woods too.
Able to leave car on farm for the duration.
Visitors welcome to come and have tea with us (and camp over if they wished).
Camp kitchen - sheltered by a wooden hut, everything provided that was needed, crockery, water butt, gas for stove.
Tea/coffee/sugar - free
Tea/coffee at the farm while children played together - free
Bottle of wine to celebrate 1st Wedding anniversary - complimentary as a token touch.
Breakfast - gourmet breakfast cooked on camp fire, provided in hamper (organic).
Eggs - free from farm chickens every day.
Baby sitting offered - not taken as we wanted to stay in the yurt/by fire in the evenings.
Massage services/tennis lessons offered.
Guide to local places to visit/map of walks provided.
Peace/quiet tranquility - in abundance.
Two Collie Dogs - provided free!
Smiles and warmth from owners.
No television.

I am sure I can think of more for the yurt - can you tell which one I preferred.

We realise that we are perhaps not hotel people, we don't do it often, and this 'luxury' to us, just well, in comparison felt like a waste of money, for what we received in service, were everything additional costs, right down to one paper in the morning, compared to the yurt where we were treated like well, like us! Little touches here and there, thoughtful things such as eggs for brekky, not asked for or expected, but appreciated and made the experience all the better.

To top it off the weather was perfect all week - I did not want to leave. I could have stayed there forever. We have booked for a weekend next year already!

I have shown DH this thread and your link.
I think I have persuaded him to take a yurt holiday next year. although we are looking at the Lake District and thanks to Google have found several sites with yurts.

looks lovely, but have a question - was the stove thingy scary in that was your DD likely to set fire to herself? Have 3 small mad DSs bit pyromanicy. Do you think would be stressful?

Spooky - YEY! You will LOVE it, I really did find that it was as warm as our front room, probably warmer as the burner was very hot! Near the lake district would be great! There is also one in Cornwall that looks good, we might try that too - it has its own bathroom yurt - with a stand alone victorian tub that sits next to a wood burner and is right under the clear roof so you can see the stars!!! Wonderful!

lilyfire - we needed to be cautious around the wood burner, and ensure DD knew it was 'hot like the cooker'!. It also had a fireguard around it to keep them out. I was a little apprehensive, but to be honest, its so easy to keep an eye on where they are. The burner has an 'oven' door, and unlike an open fire, you would need asbestos fingers to open it without the tools provided, by which time, hopefully you would know they were in there! DD is 2.3, and was fascinated but surprisingly great around both the wood burner and the open fire. She had fear, which was fine by us! And when we were outside, she was too (although she ran in and out, we did not just let her play in there for more than a minute or two without one of us there)

So, to be truthful, you do need to be on guard, but its not an open fire, and with a guard, is not easily accessible - no more so than an open fire in your own home (you might not have one?).