Family Friendly New Forest Hotel
I used to hate taking my two beautiful toddlers to a hotel. My time was spent keeping them quiet, so they didn’t disturb other guests. Their time was spent jumping on the beds and shrieking with excitement at the novelty of it all. So, when I was lucky enough to run the Cottage Lodge Hotel I was determined to create a room that would be a pleasure, rather than a pain, for guests with toddlers.
My daughter, now a teenager, helped designed it. She knew exactly what she wanted in the room. She was looking for outdoor space, a little excitement, a big bath and mattresses that could be jumped on. On the other hand, I was concentrating on a room where noise wasn’t an issue and the adults were treated to a little luxury.
The result was the Gillies Holt room. For your children it has a small garden to stretch their legs, an exciting set of stairs on the outside of the building to climb… just like going up into a tree house. The children’s mattresses are on the floor…. so jumping is encouraged on their own mattresses. The bathroom is a good size, so children can be bathed and wrapped in warm snuggly towels without being cramped. For the adults there is a beautiful silver/grey king size four poster bed with a superb medium/firm mattress that is a combination of interior sprung and memory foam. There is a separate space to put all the stuff that children need when you go away and it has a door to close, to keep them out. The push chair can be left underneath the stairs at the bottom with the rain cover on it.
Best of all it has triple sound insulation. So the children can jump on the floor mattresses and shriek with delight and no one can hear them, so the adults can relax.
The Gillies Holt is one of our new rooms and is part of a suite of three new rooms that are often used as a family space. Each room has a small garden. The Gillies Holt is family friendly. The Morant is a twin that is dog friendly and the Tom Hayter is a king size double. We often have three generations in the same area: Grandma/pa, mum and dad with children and uncle/aunty.
When it comes to breakfast we have a small private dining room off the main dining room with a door that can close. So little people can be little people.
We wouldn’t call ourselves a completely family friendly New Forest Hotel. But, the Gillies Holt is a great room for families to share.
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