“Although we enjoyed our stay in Fuchsia Cottage we feel that there are couple of items in the description that need editing.”
Firstly to say that you should be able to park ‘around the grass triangle or along the cottage’s garden wall’ is inaccurate. Fuchsia Cottage sits on the narrow and steep Old High Street and to park anywhere near the cottage is impossible. We managed it once in 10 days, fortunately the afternoon before we left, which was useful when it came to loading up the car. We were actually asked by one of the locals to put something in the visitor’s book about the parking! As we were not newcomers ...
Firstly to say that you should be able to park ‘around the grass triangle or along the cottage’s garden wall’ is inaccurate. Fuchsia Cottage sits on the narrow and steep Old High Street and to park anywhere near the cottage is impossible. We managed it once in 10 days, fortunately the afternoon before we left, which was useful when it came to loading up the car. We were actually asked by one of the locals to put something in the visitor’s book about the parking! As we were not newcomers to Boscastle, we were able to find parking on Doctor’s Hill (Tintagel Road) at the back of the Boscastle House B&B. Anyone visiting Boscastle for the first time would surely have found parking their car very stressful. The description also states that it is a ‘short walk to the harbour and shops’. The walk is not long but not short either. Those that know Boscastle, will be aware that the walk down to town ( whichever route you take) is very steep and quite a ‘climb’ back up! For anyone with mobility issues, this would prove difficult, possibly impossible and needs pointing out. I found the double bed incredibly uncomfortable and as a result my already dodgy back ‘went’. I spent a week trying to cope with low chairs , steps and lose paving. Fortunately after seeing an osteopath, I was able to enjoy more walking etc at the end of the 10 days. It was unfortunate and not something I’d anticipated when booking the cottage.We both had issues with the shower over the bath. No matter how hard we tried, more water came out of the tap than the shower! We found the key collection times confusing as the blurb states entry from 15:00 but that the key safe was available from 17:00. I am not sure whether this is due to Covid 19 but we were left unsure and arrived at 16:45 having driven round for three circuits trying to find somewhere close enough to unload the car.
Fuchsia Cottage is charming and enjoys views to the coast from the garden, main bedroom and bathroom. Generally it is well equipped and we found everything that we needed. Possibly some of the food items I.e packets of biscuits, opened mustard and frozen items left by previous residents should have been removed? I think in the light of the current pandemic, it would also have been useful to have hand sanitiser provided. We had taken our own and also cleaning materials fortunately.
In spite of our comments we did enjoy our stay in Fuchsia Cottage but were grateful that we had some local knowledge!
- Mrs Batho, September 2020
