Sykes Cottages www.sykescottages.co.uk Review

“I stayed at Swift Barn cottage in Norfolk a few months...”

Written on: 13/08/2010 by robjns2277 (3 reviews written)

I stayed at Swift Barn cottage in Norfolk a few months back and I must say I had a very enjoyable, very relaxing break there. The cottage was in a good location; it was close to Norwich city centre and the coast was close enough for a day trip in the car. Being close to Norwich, it was the best of both worlds, as we were able to enjoy a city break and a country retreat (the cottage is in a peaceful rural location). The cottage also happened to be a part of a delightful working farm. As an urban city slicker, it made a refreshing change waking up and drawing the curtains to an active farm landscape every morning. The cottage (or barn conversion) itself is of a high standard; the furnishings are open-plan and modern with lovely, quaint touches like exposed oak beams and stained glass windows. There was also a nice courtyard area where you could sit out in the evening with a few drinks and enjoy the view. I've seen a few reviews on here criticising Sykes. My own personal experience with them was fine - everything was friendly and efficient. My only criticism was that we had to go through a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth to get a short break. There was a lot of back and forth, as we tried to get our head around their convoluted short break policy. If you are a cryptographer, you won't have any problem understanding their short breaks, for the rest of us mere mortals, it's a bit more difficult. But we got there in the end. Overall verdict: cottage was very nice indeed and we were able to merge a city break and a country escape type of break - 5 out of 5.