What makes a holiday cottage ‘luxury’?
Luxury: ‘great comfort, especially as provided by expensive and beautiful things and location.
Something that gives you a lot of pleasure but cannot be done often’
What makes a holiday cottage ‘luxury’ or ‘luxurious’? It’s a good question. ‘Luxury’ is a much abused word and we hesitated before using to describe North Cottage Cromer. But then when our guests started describing the house as ‘luxury’ we gave it more thought. We also began asking our guests what ‘luxury’ meant to them?
The Luxury of Location
Arguably the location of North Cottage Cromer is one of its greatest luxuries. Guests can walk to the beach directly through the park. There are no roads to cross. You’re at the beach almost as soon as you’ve left home. There are no worries about who’s driving, where to park, how expensive parking is. If you forget anything it’s no big deal. You can even go home for lunch! Staying this close to the beach makes going for a swim before breakfast easy, and for us it’s best start to a sunny day by the seaside.
Acres of Space
The sheer size of the house is another luxury our guests enjoy tremendously. There’s a space for everyone and everything. The whole family can relax, play games, chat and spend time together in the enormous Garden Room. We’ve tried every way we can to describe just how big the Garden Room is. It’s large, huge, enormous. It’s 74 square metres. Here’s another attempt, apparently according to the website ‘The measure of things.com‘ you could park 5 cars inside it But please don’t try to do this!
The Garden Room has enough comfy seating for all 12 guests to spend time together, play games, table football, chat or watch TV on the luxurious 55 inch screen. Prefer some peace and quiet? That’s possible too in the inviting conservatory, surrounded by lush exotic plants. Or you can cosy up by our wood burner in the spacious Living Room. Even the bedrooms are large.
The Luxury of Natural Beauty
North Norfolk is classed as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. It’s easy to see why. The coastline inspires awe. The rolling fields, and hedgerows set the scene for the largely rural area. There are salt marshes, sand dunes and wildlife aplenty.
The gardens at North Cottage Cromer are often singled out for praise by many of guests. For a house, almost in the centre of town, to have such a large walled garden is a very big surprise.
There’s plenty of lawn available for boules and badminton and a terrace for dining and drinks. There’s also a herb garden, a secluded ‘secret’ garden with exotic plants and a courtyard stuffed full with pots of architectural plants. We take great pride in the plants and the gardens and we hope you’ll enjoy them too. We know from our guests that spending time together in the garden here becomes a very special part of their stay.
Sparkling Clean
Inside the house, cleanliness is very important to us and our guests really appreciate it. We don’t accept any pets, ever, and the house is always ‘no smoking’. That helps maintain our high cleaning standards.
We’re meticulous about making sure the only thing you have to do when you arrive is unpack. You won’t need to re-wash dishes, vacuum floors or wipe tables. Everything in the kitchen is spotless, the bathrooms sparkle. The furniture is cared for and the beds are inviting. We’re surprised to hear all holiday cottages aren’t like this, but apparently they’re not. We’ve even been asked by some guests if anyone has ever stayed here before, which to us is one of the greatest compliments imaginable.
The luxury of easy parking, and easy walking
Leaving the car parked safely inside the gated, gravel drive is another luxury for guests who appreciate a break from driving on holiday. You can walk everywhere in Cromer easily to the beach, bars, cafes, shops and restaurants. There is no need to drive for your entire stay if you don’t want to. You can eat out and enjoy a drink without any debate about ‘who’s driving?’
We’ve thought of everything (apparently)
Another thing we’re often told is that we’ve ‘thought of everything’. ‘Everything’ is a very long list. But many guests scratch their heads and look thoughtful when we ask; ‘is there anything else we should provide?’. We’ve equipped the house with quality furnishings, comfortable beds, high spec appliances and lots of cooking equipment. We provide books and games, comfy sofas, and a lovely space. No wonder they look stumped trying to think of something.
Call it luxury but it’s a home from home.
We’ve spent a lot of time travelling and we’ve stayed in some great places. There’s one luxury hotel where they greet returning guests us by saying ‘welcome home’. That makes us smile. We hope North Cottage feels like that. Call it ‘luxury’ but we’d rather it feels like home.
