Gitcombe is superb. Luxury cottage accommodation with an indoor pool. It is in the UK. Really, that’s all I need to say. Most of their bookings are return guests, stay a few hours and it is obvious why.
It delivers (amongst a lot else) the one thing we’ve really really missed – swimming, in the warmth! I’ve booked hotels before based on pools (hello Chedi Muscat) and for a bathroom (Bela Vista). I booked a cottage at Gitcombe because it came with an indoor pool. It’s also a stunning example of countryside self-catering accommodation that is luxury and with every last detail covered.
Staying at Gitcombe is superb and reason enough to take a staycation in a cottage in Devon, rather than rolling the gauntlet of a trip abroad. As much as I miss overseas travel, and indeed hotel stays, Gitcombe reminded me just how good a staycation can be and how many hotel qualities you can find in a cottage holiday.
Gitcombe is somewhere rather special and I’m very grateful I stumbled across it! I’m equally grateful thay when our planned March trip had to be covid-cancelled that we found a sneaky gap to reschedule! Because I had to choose a smaller cottage I was able to lengthen our trip too!
This is a place where you want for nothing.
There are nine properties on the estate, at the end of a long driveway in a sleepy valley. Unless you go looking for the other people staying in the other houses you won’t find them. The grounds are big, everyone has private space, and there are plenty of facilities to go round. If you want it there’s also wifi!
We stayed in Coach House, it sleeps 4 in two bedrooms. The master bed is king size with plenty of storage, there’s a large twin room which also had space for our toddlers lilo (I’m not quite ready for him in a bed and he see’s travel cots as challenges to escape from). There’s a massive whirl pool bath in the bathroom! Downstairs is open plan with a big squidgy sofa and two big armchairs, a kitchen table, a kitchen with every implement you might need (even to do some baking which I contemplated on our rainy day) as well as a downstairs loo.
Outside the house is a large gravel frontage with table and seating and BBQ as well as a little garden hidden away up some steps that catches the evening sun. The estate houses sleep between 4 and 13 people so there’s something for all groups. 4 of the cottages are in a terrace and would be great for families travelling together.
Gitcombe truly has everything to make a family stay straight-forward – left for us was a potty, sink stool, table booster seat, kids cutlery and plates, bed guards. There’s also a massive toy cupboard on site (with buckets, spades and crabbing sets) and a brand new climbing frame. And when it can reopen, there’s soft play too. We had as much on hand to help us as any family friendly hotel would have provided. But importantly it came with space, privacy and quiet that a hotel can’t offer in the same way.
Talking of hotels, there is also a lot for adults that you would want from a hotel – an indoor pool, a hot tub, the summer-time outdoor pool, expansive grounds, REN smellies, comfy bed linen and towels. Literally the only thing I didn’t have was a dressing gown, or a branded pen! You can even book tennis coaching and spa treatments if you wish!
When it comes to food they’ve thought of this too – and they have alliances with some excellent suppliers that deliver to your door. Supper that is ready to cook, grazing boards, wine merchants – we took advantage of this and upped the ante on our dining at home with Dartmouth Fine Foods and Michael Suttons Cellar. Local pubs in Cornworthy and Dittisham also do takeaway and it isn’t far to either Totnes or Dartmouth for a meal out.
The attention to detail at Gitcombe is second to none, and the accommodation is really well put together. It is a home away from home.
There’s such a lot on offer in the local area. If you leave the sleepy enclave head for drinks on the waterfront in Dittisham or crabbing on the jetty, catching the ferry over to Greenway and on to Dartmouth, a trip to Totnes, Sharpham vineyard, countless cute coffee shops and pubs, and more beaches than you can choose from.
Proof of how good it is here is that we rebooked to return next year in a bigger property – The Retreat – before we even ended this first visit!
