5 minutes into exploring for our evaluation of Shell Home in Bournemouth, my daughter turned to me and requested severely if the house owners would possibly promote for 1,000,000 kilos – not a nasty first response to our weekend break, a style of luxurious self-catering in Bournemouth with children.
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Alas, neither she nor I’ve 1,000,000 kilos mendacity round however luckily a keep at this five-bedroom home prices so much lower than that – plus you’re solely a brief stroll from Bournemouth seafront and seaside, in addition to it being an amazing base to discover Dorset.
As a result of this vacation home is an actual gem for a household break by the seaside – learn on to see my full evaluation of Shell Home Bournemouth to find why.
Shell Home Bournemouth evaluation: Important statistics
A part of the small Seashore Hideaways assortment, the Shell Home is one in every of two properties providing luxurious self-catering in Bournemouth – the opposite, The Seashore Home, sleeps as much as 20.
The Shell Home has 5 bedrooms and usually sleeps as much as 12, though there’s an choice so as to add two additional beds and sleep 14.
There are three bogs as properly – two en-suite and one household lavatory – plus a rest room downstairs, a small backyard space, together with well-equipped kitchen, lounge and eating room.
It’s dog-friendly in addition to child-friendly, if you wish to deliver your (well-behaved) four-legged buddy.
There’s no parking on the property itself, though there’s a parking lot a few minutes stroll away which prices £11.50 per day. You may e-book in 24-hour slots on Ringgo, and there isn’t a no return coverage, so that you simply want to recollect to start out a brand new parking session as quickly as the primary one runs out.
There’s additionally some on-street parking close by if you could find an area, however do verify the restrictions. Alternatively, Bournemouth station is round 5-10 minutes away by automobile, with loads of points of interest in strolling distance of Shell Home.
Shell Home Bournemouth: self-catering with children
The very first thing you discover as you stroll in to the Shell Home is how trendy it’s. In every single place you flip, there’s one other eye-catching element, an expensive contact, an decoration to covet.
Normally when you e-book a luxurious self-catering property, there’s one thing I want I might deliver residence with me – a bit of artwork maybe, or in a single case an enormously gentle sheepskin rug. I believe the Shell Home may be the primary time the place I’ve wished I might packed the whole contents of the home into my suitcase although!
There’s clearly been an enormous quantity of thought gone into the renovation of this Bournemouth home, from the necessities within the kitchen to the design particulars within the bed room, the color scheme, even the selection of art work on the partitions.
After a two-hour drive from west London, and a brief stroll from the close by automobile park, letting ourselves in had gone with no hitch – the check-in particulars had been emailed over earlier that day.
However being greeted by a collection of welcome treats is all the time an added bonus – a basket within the kitchen was crammed with biscuits, crisps and chocolate, whereas a bottle of rose prosecco rested within the eating room on a gold octopus holder (which caught my eye simply as a lot because the fizz!)
Tempting although it was to take a seat straight down in one of many cozy seats, open the prosecco and put my ft up, there was much more to discover.
Downstairs, the lounge has two large squashy cream sofas, all dotted with throws and cushions, and a collection of little tables tucked within the center.
As we wandered over to take a look at the TV and a number of the different ornaments on the little tables and partitions, we found there’s even a small passageway working parallel to the corridor which takes you again by means of to the kitchen.
The 2 armchairs within the kitchen truly grew to become one in every of our favorite spots, with the spring sunshine streaming in and just a little desk subsequent to one of many armchairs for a drink and one in every of our welcome treats.
The kitchen itself has every little thing you would possibly want – multiplied by a dozen. Looking by means of cabinets and cabinets, I additionally got here throughout a gold cocktail shaker and matching ice bucket, an ornamental vase which appeared to have been impressed by octopus tentacles, and a few fairly glass plates, for starters.
Fairly other than all the sensible stuff, plates, mugs, glasses galore (together with for white and purple wine, beer, cocktails and who is aware of what else), saucepans, cutlery, chopping boards, sieves, wood spoons…
Definitely there was nothing that we wanted that we couldn’t discover: the fridge had milk and orange juice in too, plus there was tea, sugar and low pods for the Lavazza machine, in addition to varied different odds and ends.
The home is equally stocked with dishwasher tablets and fundamental cleansing provides as properly, together with binbags and washing up liquid.
The oven had no difficult settings and whereas the dishwasher was barely temperamental the primary time we used it, even that didn’t trigger us any issues.
In truth, there’s a lot within the kitchen, that I utterly failed to identify one other cabinet for a number of hours – opening it, it turned out to comprise a canine bowl and treats, varied tins and different odds and ends.
Past that, the eating room was already set for 2, though you might simply match 12 individuals on the benches across the desk for a giant household meal.
The bathroom is tucked away on the again, whereas the doorways open onto the little backyard, with one other desk, additional chairs and a barbecue for good climate.
The garden is astroturf, so that you gained’t be as much as your knees in mud when you’re unfortunate sufficient to be staying after heavy rain both.
By this level, we have been already totally gained over, earlier than even exploring the bedrooms.
Throughout our keep, the additional bedrooms have been locked so I didn’t get to peek inside, however there are two additional rooms with king beds (every with area for a further roll-out mattress), and one other with king mattress and two single bunk beds.
Nevertheless beautiful they’re, I nonetheless assume we got here off properly, with a four-poster mattress and en-suite lavatory in every.
The primary had a gentle purple color scheme, in addition to loads of the – by now anticipated – luxurious particulars, together with seaweed-themed artwork mirroring a number of the items on the steps and within the hallway.
The second, in the meantime, had jungle print artwork and a inexperienced color theme, with curtains drawn again across the four-poster king dimension mattress.
And, like Goldilocks, I attempted each to seek out out which king dimension mattress was juuuust proper. With squashy pillows, and a beautiful supportive mattress, I slept superbly in every.
Each en-suite bogs had a rainhead bathe over a shower (plus a handheld bathe, so it pays to show the knob the correct approach except you wish to be unintentionally sprayed while you change it on!) and a few beautiful Noble Isle toiletries.
There’s loads of area to your personal toiletries across the sink too – one in every of my largest bugbears is when there’s room for a toothbrush and never a lot else.
Plus a separate household lavatory on the highest flooring with twin sinks and a walk-in bathe, so even if in case you have extra individuals staying, there shouldn’t be a lot of a wait within the mornings!
As ever, it’s the little particulars which set the entire place aside – starfish knobs on the drawers, shells dotted round, seaweed art work, crops (largely synthetic however the form that are so convincing, it’s important to rub the leaves to verify).
It’s not onerous to see why my daughter fancied proudly owning the Shell Home and residing right here completely!
So are there any downsides? Fairly actually, not many. You do have to consider the price of parking on high of the keep, and when you’re planning an extended go to than our weekend break self-catering in Bournemouth, it’s price dropping the baggage off by the home when you can.
The stroll is just quick, however it’s barely uphill – we had no bother however solely wanted to deliver sufficient for a few days relatively than a fortnight by the ocean.
The streets close by aren’t all the time probably the most picturesque a part of Bournemouth both, however it’s a trade-off we have been comfortable to make for its comfort.
Solely a brief stroll to the West Cliff zigzag path main down from the clifftop to the seaside, you’ve acquired seven miles of sand to take pleasure in, in addition to supermarkets and loads of locations to eat inside strolling distance as properly.
You might be on the Bournemouth Oceanarium in lower than quarter-hour, in addition to the pier, whereas it’s solely round 20 minutes to the Alum Chine tropical gardens within the different path. In case you are driving, you might be at Poole in round 20 minutes too.
On gloriously sunny days, it’s tempting to spend your entire time on the sand or out on the water. However on a cloudy March weekend, I wasn’t sorry to be spending time indoors.
With our fish and chips on a number of the ornamental plates, an amazing evening’s sleep forward, and loads of locations to curve up and calm down, this specific style of Bournemouth self-catering with children is well some of the trendy methods to benefit from the seaside.
E-book the Shell Home: luxurious self-catering in Bournemouth
You may e-book Shell Home instantly through the Beachhideaways web site (in addition to the Seashore Home when you’re searching for someplace greater).
The property can be out there on different web sites together with reserving.com.
For extra concepts of the very best issues to do in Bournemouth with children, take a look at my high picks in addition to concepts of issues to do in Dorset with children and concepts for Dorset within the rain with children
Disclosure: My keep at Shell Home Bournemouth was free for the needs of evaluation – all opinions stay my very own (and my daughter’s). This publish accommodates affiliate hyperlinks – any purchases you make are unaffected however I could obtain a small fee
Seashore picture courtesy of Depositphotos, all different photographs copyright MummyTravels