I hope you’ll indulge me in a little diversion from fashion to tell you, briefly, about our family holiday last week. The notion of a holiday changes, somewhat, with the arrival of children. I no longer spend hours choosing the books I’ll read, if I get through a chapter it’s an achievement. With Laurie just 3 months old, we decided to play it safe, brave the UK weather and holiday in one of my favourite places, Dartmoor.
Lower Elsford Farm
We stayed at Lower Elsford Farm, which we picked because of all its amazing child friendly amenities. Not only does it have 32 acres of beautiful countryside to explore, it has a heated indoor swimming pool, games room and children’s outdoor play area. It’s also a working farm, which meant there were an abundance of sheep and cows to satisfy Daisy.
Collecting the eggs
It’s wonderful how small simple things please toddlers, and if they’re happy we are happy. One of our favourite activities was collecting the eggs each morning and then enjoying a fry up. Though the hens were quite lazy and didn’t lay until 9/10am, there were more than enough eggs to go around. One morning we ended up with 9!
Luxe interiors of Lower Elsford Farm
There are 4 cottages onsite, all of which have been refurbished this year to a fantastic standard. I like my creature comforts, and if I’m paying to go and stay somewhere I like it to be nicer than my home. Hence we never go camping! There was a cosy wood burning stove, well-stocked kitchen (including weighing scales to make a cake), beautiful tiled bathroom floor, fluffy towels and heating in abundance. We were never cold. We were given a hamper on arrival of afternoon tea, which was so lovely. On a more practical level it was super kid friendly, stair gates by every set of stairs and cot and highchair provided. To see pictures inside the cottage please click here.
Child friendly activities on Dartmoor
Even in November when many tourist attractions are closed, there is still plenty to do on Dartmoor. We enjoyed; walks around National Trust’s Parke, fish & chips at Finn McCools (Teignmouth), a trip on the Dartmouth Steam Railway, lunch at kid friendly Cafe Alf Resco (Dartmouth) many country walks and daily swims in our own swimming pool.
It was my husband’s birthday whilst we were away, so I arranged a baby sitter (thank you mum & dad!) and I took him for lunch at The Rock Inn, in Haytor Vale. The 2AA Rosette restaurant, lived up to expectation. Roaring fires, local ales and beautifully presented food that tasted delicious. I had the rump of lamp followed by triple chocolate pudding and my husband a duck scotch egg with chilli jam followed by treacle tart. It was a real treat!
We stayed in Torfield cottage and booked through cottages.com or you can book directly through their website here.
We recently stayed at a child friendly bed and breakfast Weeke Barton, to read my review please click here.
We paid to stay at Lower Elsford Farm and this is not a sponsored post.