My wife and I chose Ash Meadows as a convenient overnight stop on our journey from Devon to Scotland to visit our daughter. It’s a guest house situated outside of Kendal town centre, which is either a good point or a bad one depending on your preference. It’s a reasonably long walk into town but there is a Morrisons supermarket almost next door.
The welcome we received from Phillipa and Peter was delightful. They were really friendly and helpful and keen to make us feel almost at home. Our room was lovely – light, airy, clean, comfortable – with some little extras you wouldn’t normally expect such as fresh ground coffee and fresh milk for the tea! There is an nice lounge where residents can sit, although we weren’t able to make the most of this because of what happened just after we arrived. The breakfast room was also very nice, and the standard of freshly-cooked food far better than most of the hotels we’ve stayed in. There was also a great range of fresh fruit and yogurts to choose from, which we really enjoyed.
There has to be a “however” – unfortunately. The road outside is very busy at times, and our room was on the front, which made it a bit noisy. Car parking is on the roadside. There is a school next door and we had arrived at the end of the day – the busiest time for traffic. While we initially parked in front to unload our luggage, I had intended to move the car into the school car park when they had all gone home. As our bad luck would have it, a passing minibus managed to crash into the front wing of our car, showering it in shattered glass from its door. We weren’t in the car, fortunately, but were very worried we wouldn’t be able to continue our trip. It was only thanks to our two hosts and their neighbour that we were able to clean the glass off the car. They were so helpful – above and beyond what you would expect – that we cannot thank them enough. Without them, and the AA breakdown guy who assured us the car was still driveable, our trip would have been ruined.
The accommodation at Ash Meadows is great, the two hosts excellent, but parking is obviously an issue. They said they’d been there 6 years and always parked on the road, without ever having a problem. It seems it was just not our day.
“B&B website”:http://www.ashmeadowsguesthouse.co.uk
