Weekend away

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

Our trip to Bath! | The Old Parsonage

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It’s been the longest time since myself and my husband have been able to have some quality time together, so this was so needed! Stay cations are very popular this year, I hope by sharing what we did and where we stayed could help inspire some of you to book a weekend away!

We had one night and a day and half to play with including travel. We thought where would be great for us to visit. I’ve always wanted to go to Bath and explore so that was our destination of choice! More information and photos will be going up on Instagram here

Looking for hotel availability in Bath however was a struggle and the prices were coming up way to high we were booking last minute. We decided to have a look on Airbnb and found the perfect in a far prettier location around 30 mins car drive from Bath.

Saturday morning, we traveled from Coventry to Bath and found the best parking to be in the Underground car park by the train station thanks to my brother who has been there plenty of times. That was super handy to know so wanted to share with you in case you’re planning a trip soon.

We had a lovely mooch around the shops but were most impressed by the gorgeous buildings! The vibe was so lush, it very hot day and everyone was out living their best lives. The seagulls though, wow they were the size of dogs, I’m not even exaggerating the wingspan were huge and nearly took us out! We had a nose in the Markets and seen some cute looking afternoon tea places! The Rugby was on so it was packed out but well worth looking into to book a table. We had a look in the charity shops and couldn’t find that many, the ones we did go in I was disappointed in, the prices seemed very high and nothing major stood out to me! We did see some of the streets one of my all time favorite program Bridgerton was filmed!

Once we had finished in Bath we headed on the lovely drive to our accommodation. The location of where we were staying was perfect! There’s a cute farm shop at the top of the road and we were within 3 -minute walk from The Farrington Inn Pub which served gorgeous food, very reasonable prices. We were right near a supermarket and local shop and petrol station if you needed any essentials.

The Old Parsonage

Such a cute little barn conversion with everything we could possibly need for our trip, towels, soaps and shampoos, tea coffee sugar, breakfast cereals for the next morning. Kitchen area and comfy bed. Couldn’t really fault it! Would highly recommend and would go back and visit if we were wanting to explore other places local.  It was perfect for the short time we were there. The shower was amazing! We paid £101 for the nights stay.

Of course, we took our Urban Brownies treats with us! Although we did lose a couple to the heat in the car, they tasted even better melted!

We checked out the next morning and headed to Weston-Super-Mare around an hour from our accommodation… yes, I wish I had done our research me and Luke were completely oblivious. It was packed, we parked the car up and could see the sea was very far out, we couldn’t understand why no one was in the sea, we knew it was a good few mile walk but couldn’t understand why people hadn’t walked it apart from the odd group half way down the beach… so we start walking, we keep walking and then the ground started to get a muddy sticky texture, my Crocs were getting stuck but we carried on and then BAMB we step onto a muddy patch and my leg went straight down I was stuck in this quicksand like texture up to my hips! All very funny, i wish we got photos or would of loved to have seen it from someones else view! Luke had to pull my out and we lost my Croc he had to reach in and hunt for it luckily it was found but sadly I had snapped one of the straps! Luke continued on, I couldn’t risk it with my crutch, and he didn’t get much further when a group of girls said it gets a lot worse! We felt defeated, I just wanted to dip my feet in the sea!

So, we walked back to the car covered in mud, I even had it on my face, chest everywhere. A long car journey home covered in mud but at least we know not to take the kids! I won’t be in a hurry back there anytime soon! After speaking to family and them laughing saying were mad, we should know you cant reach the sea until it comes in made me think what’s the point why do people go and sit on the sand if there’s no sea! Mind blown!

We had such a lovely weekend though; it was great to get away and spend time together!

Have you visited Bath or Weston-Super-Mare?

Saff XO