Wedding Anniversary

6th Wedding Anniversary Weekend | Cliff House Holiday Park Suffolk | UK Staycation Review

Saffron BakerLeave a comment

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary, it’s crazy how fast the time has gone we try to mark it each year with a memory or a trip away. This year we decided to explore Suffolk a new place neither of us have been before and we took the boys along with us.

We stayed in a lovely cottage with a hot tub onsite at Cliff House Holiday Park, we chose the site as it has easy excess down to a stunning beach. 

Now arriving at the cottage, we did have some issues, you know I’m always transparent and honest with everything we do, so I don’t want to say it was all perfect. 

The hot tub hadn’t been cleaned… and you may remember from our last wedding anniversary trip click here to read that I caught a severe throat infection from the chemicals they had used. I know I’m crazy for even booking somewhere else with a hot tub so when we arrived of course it was the first thing I checked and it was dirty… I headed over to the front desk to ask if it had been cleaned and they confirmed it had been missed of their list that morning. You guys know me, germs are one of my biggest fears and with everything with Hot tubs in the past I freaked out.

They came and sorted it straight away but the hot tub was never the right temp, was kicking out brown froth and just wasn’t ok so we didn’t really get to use it which was frustrating. But if it had of all been cleaned, I’m sure it would have been lovely. 

The cottage was comfortable again a few issues but nothing that would spoil a holiday, I would recommend if booking bringing your own little hoover and some cleaning products 🙂 that sort of vibe. 

The stairs to the cottage were very steep and curve round, I wouldn’t recommend for small children or anyone who struggles to climb stairs, I felt worried about the children coming down them and there 8 and 10. The cottage itself has 3 bedrooms sleeping 5 people. The toilet and shower are downstairs.

Master bedroom with double bed
Twin Bedroom with 2 single beds
Single bedroom with single bed
( I was tempted to send the husband here so I could star fish the bed! )

The site also had places for people to camp, mobile homes along with some static homes which would be lovely to rent out. 

There were a few shower blocks on site that we could see along with toilets all close to the camp sites. If camping is your thing, I think it would be really lovely.

It’s a dog friendly site, and lots of people had their pets with them. There were also some wild rabbits hopping about which was super cute to see, we even had one run into our back garden. 

They had a fantastic play area for the children, with plenty for them to do. The site had a bar and restaurant with pool tables.

I took a photo of the menu so you can see the sort of prices. I couldn’t see a child’s menu so not sure if that’s something they catered for. 

 On site there is a tiny shop with the bare essentials like milk and bread. The main exciting thing about the site was the access down to the beach, steep steps lead you down to a beautiful coast line. We were there in the last weekend of April and it was HOT we got so lucky with the weather;

It felt like a private beach with it being pretty empty at parts of the day which felt so lovely. I have posted a TikTok and Reel of our time check them out here and here

We noticed near buy there were a couple of lovely looking woodland walks which sadly we didn’t get time to go on, that would have been a plan if the weather had been to chilly for the beach but we were blessed with sunshine both days, to the point where the husband got a cracking tan! 

Few things to note if you’re wanting to have a holiday at Cliff House Holiday Park… we did not see a shop or service station for well over half of the journey (we travelled from Coventry in the West Midlands) so pack everything you need for the weekend plus the kitchen sink… I took breakfast lunch and dinner for every day, drinks and lots of snacks which overall made the whole trip a lot cheaper but obviously meant we needed to pack more. The site itself is disability friendly from what we could see, but the beach defiantly is not, unless locally there is another access point you can drive too which is more disability friendly, but again with how low down the beach is to the cliff, I’m not sure how steep a ramp would be.

The actual beach is a mix of the sand and stones, so the kids found it very painful to walk on it, recommend bringing crocs or sliders. We tried the water shoes but they got full of sand and stones. It as very windy down on the beach and we were pretty cold when sat still, so even though its hot and you burn the sea breeze defiantly got us, so I would recommend packing a scarf or blanket, shawl type thing to drape over you. The waves when we went were lovely and calm, which made us relax a lot more for the children splashing around. It was too cold to fully submerge yourself into the sea. 

If you decide to stay in one of the Cottages, they say they provide you with basics like tea coffee etc but they don’t, we would recommend bringing spare towels which we did, all your tea coffee, salt pepper, toilet paper etc and if you plan on cooking then your oil. They do however have a dishwasher which was super handy. If your needing some help on what to pack See my list here of essential things we always take on holiday with us! The cottage says it comes with a BBQ but it doesn’t, it comes with slabs to put a BBQ on, we luckily brought a portable one from £1 with us.

It was so lovely to get away the four of us and spend some quality time together, I’m excited for our next little mini holiday weekends away in June. You guys seem to love when I share our trips away so of course I will document and tell you all about them on here. 

Have you got any summer trips planned? I would love to know,

Saff xo

5th Wedding Anniversary Weekend | Heath Barn Suckley | UK Staycation Review

Saffron Baker1 Comment

I cannot quite believe we have been married for 5 years! The time has flown by, if you have known us for a while you may remember for our first wedding anniversary we went away and stayed in a cottage with a hot tub, well that’s exactly what we wanted to do for our 5th.

We searched high and low for Hot tub weekends away that weren’t too far from us in Coventry. The criteria we had was no more than an hour and a half away, must have a large electric square hot tub, none of those quarter things or the wooden plunge ones I’m seeing everywhere. Must have no one overlooking and in the middle of an open field so we feel secluded with great views. I don’t want any light pollution so we can see the stars.

We finally came across Heath Barn near Worchester and found them through Snap Trips but there hosted by Cottages.com

We booked it from the Friday – Sunday 2 nights costing us £345

Check-in was 3 pm but we arrived around 5 as Luke had to work Friday, the drive was so lush we could see the Malvern hills and loads of countryside.

When we arrived, the setting was beautiful Heath Barn is surrounded by sheep and you can see views of the Malvern hills.

The converted barn was the perfect space for the two of us, with a double bed, shower and kitchen. See my little video of our trip here.

Sadly the next part of this post is negative, I am always transparent and honest with you and would never recommend something without sharing our experience. We didn’t have the best experience with the host and the problems carried on after we got home.

We got to experience the Hot tub the first night but sadly the second night the hot tub had issues and wouldn’t work, of course, contacted the host and no one was around to help us when we asked for someone to come and help. Instead, we were asked to read manuals and try to work out what the error codes meant on the tub, we used google and all sorts to try and fix it (we both have 0 experience with hot tubs), meaning the main night, Saturday we had chosen to celebrate relaxing in the hot tub under the stars didn’t happen. Because of this I really wouldn’t recommend the Barn we have since tried to be in touch with the owners and have been ignored. I’ve also been in touch with Cottages.com and been ignored such a shame because they have a great location and barn. It was also advertised with WIFI which we were told a day or so before that this wasn’t the case. Check out was 9 am which on Sunday shops and places don’t open till past 10. Just a few negatives but you guys know I always like to be honest with you. If we didn’t have the issues, it’s a place I would definitely go back to from the setting. Things took a turn for the worst when I got home.. will explain in a little bit why.

Anyway, Heath Barn is about a 20 min drive from the centre of Worchester, we headed out to explore the streets, do a spot of shopping and visit the famous Cathedral which is free to enter a rare thing these days.

If you know me then you would know I have a fear of churches and cathedrals, but this one has a completely different vibe and is absolutely stunning, so I did well to get around the whole thing without freaking out.

Despite Saturday evening not going to plan we had a lovely time the two of us, the no internet thing meant we had a detox from our phones and just enjoyed being in each other’s company. We haven’t had us time like what in what feels like forever. We sat and listen to music and podcasts together and spent hours chatting with no disruptions. I am going to upload a reel of our time on Instagram because the place was stunning, so be sure to have a nose over on there.

Thank you for the lovely messages we received on our anniversary!

Here’s to the next 5 years and beyond

So when we got home, I started to become unwell with blisters forming in the back of my mouth, shortness of breath, fever and feeling really unwell. Ive had my tonsils taken out as a young adult and the pain was on par with the pains I had after surgery. Went to the doctors who said I had caught a severe case of a strep throat infection they think was caused by breathing in chemicals from the hot tub, what we think has happened is the host has put too much chlorine in the water that when heated up its evaporated into the steam which ive then inhaled. The blisters went right down my throat it hurt right down into my chest. Antibiotics weren’t working and in the second week as I was getting worse and worse, and not being able to eat I went back to the doctors who gave me 24 hours to improve or it would be a hospital trip with a drip.

This has now majorly put me off hot tubs, apparently you can get it from pools as well if you swallow water and the chlorine is high, who would have thought I could be so ill from steam and chlorine. I did smell overly strong which I now know for the future is a warning sign.

Anyway I’m slowly on the mend now, I have sores in the back of my throat and it’s still tender but nowhere near as bad as I was thankful, I have been warned it can creep back now that I’m off antibiotics so have everything crossed for me please that doesn’t happen.

Sorry to be so negative, but I said to you I would share our trip and I’m gutted it was ruined and now tainted with me being unwell, I’m just grateful to be feeling more myself. I will keep you updated if anyone gets back to me at the bottom of this blog!

Saff XO