Medland, Chudleigh

We stayed at Medland from the 28th august to 4th sept, the house accommodates eight and we were a party of seven, myself, my daughter, her 3 children teenage children and my two grown up sons. first when we arrived we found the house located on a single lane road as cars parked in parking bays up and down the street two way traffic was impossible, when we approached the entrance to the drive it was housed by a brick wall arch, the width of this just slightly wider by a few inches than by qashqai, my daughter, driving a honda civic , entered the drive first, having to swing the car in from the opposite side of the road over to the drive entrance then reversing to straighten up a little before getting her car in, i then did the same, i was not able to get the car in without closing in my wing mirrors as the road is quite small and i found it difficult to get my car straight enough to get in, bearing in mind we were holding up traffic the whole time we were trying to do these maneuver's. it was apparent from the start that the drive was going to be an issue, when you park on the drive you are literally stuck against a wall as you exit your car, your doors cannot open fully, my car doors were stuck on the wall at one point as my sons exited making the car lift slightly jamming the doors into the wall, i myself on the drivers side ended up stuck against the wall and foliage hanging there catching my cardigans every time i exited or entered my vehicle. on the 3rd day of our stay after a morning out we arrive back to the house and on turning into the drive i hit the wall drivers side door, it has damaged my car quite badly on that side and i will now have to claim on my insurance to have it repaired. on the fourth day my daughter did the same, she caught the passenger side of her car and ripped off her wheel arch trim in the process, the entrance to the driveway is so ridiculous that it made returning home a nightmare and neither i nor my daughter will ever rent this property again especially after beccy told us day 2 that 'no one has ever hit it' yet there is a note form them in the visitors book stating that you should be careful but they don't mind if you hit the walls?? on entering the property we found it to be relatively clean although there were cobwebs within easy reach in the dinning area and toilets but we considered this an oversight as the property was cleaned the morning of our arrival according to the write up. when we booked the property the pictures on sykes website of the bedrooms showed, 2 rooms containing 2 single beds and 2 rooms with double beds, when we arrived there were 3 rooms of double beds and one room of 2 single beds, we ended up using an airbed we bought with us, unbeknown to us one of the beds did indeed separate into single beds, that was the bed i was using, but as we had sorted out sleeping arrangements for all the family we decided to keep it that way. the beds themselves i have to say were the worse i've ever slept on on holiday, i couldn't get any sleep most nights, they were painful to lie in, the quilts were so thin you may as well have just had a sheet over you and the pillows were flat, my daughter ended up using cushions from the sofa downstairs just to aid her sleeping position better. there were 2 bathrooms both had showers in, the bathroom on the left as you go up the stairs had several of those glass bricks down one side of the door frame, this meant as you are showering anyone can look through and see you quite clearly, none of the adults used this bathroom. such a stupid idea for a family holiday home. my bedroom was the first on the right as you walk down the landing, it faces the road, one of the windows does not close properly, try as i might i couldn't shut it securely as it seems to have dropped from the frame which stops it fitting properly, so i had noise all night from people and cars and workmen turned up one of the mornings making a terrific noise, no one could sleep through that. the dinning area was suitable with adequate seating at the dinning table for eight people, however the lounge only has sofa seating for five people!! there was a bean bag too but when you rent out a holiday home for eight you expect all eight to have a seat, this meant that the teenage children would have to sit on the floor or our family had to split into 2 groups with some in the lounge and the rest in the dinning area. there was a sofa in the dinning area to seat two people but it was leather and the back cushions just would not stay upright, it made it look untidy and uncomfortable to sit on. the kitchen was a good size however the sink is situated in the corner housed in the work top and so far back that you get back ache trying to wash up as you're constantly leaning right over to use it. very uncomfortable. now we had planned on eating out or fast food most nights while there however the village we were in had very little by way of choice. rominoss was ok which serves pizza, kebabs etc but the chip shop is open rarely, when it does open its for about 2 hours, it was the most ridiculous chip shop i've ever come across, the beaches were approx 30 mins away on average so picking up fish and chips and getting them back warm was impossible, eating at the beach wasn't an option either as i have a dog so we would have had to eat outside, the wind chill for that week made it impossible to do that too it was just too cold. one of the nights i decided we would cook instead, a big english breakfast for tea was what's needed, but low and behold only one small frying pan and a wok?! for eight people? that took sometime cooking for eight that night, another night as fast food deliveries to the village were almost non existent i decided to cook sunday roast, looking for the oven user manual was a waste of time as there wasn't one, eventually we had to google it, again another annoying incident that could have been avoided if some thought had gone into it. on the plus side though there were plenty of board games and puzzles available which we all enjoyed playing. i did check the bedding and mattresses and both were clean and the sheets smelled freshly washed however when we wanted to use the washing machine we opened the door to a chronic stench of stagnant water, we had to put it on a quick cycle empty just to get rid of the smell, it was vile, another annoying incident. the garden is surrounded by brick walls so perfectly secure for the dog, some of us smoke so we used the garden alot however there was only enough seating for four this time, a rickety bench that seats two and two deck chairs, i had bought two deck chairs of my own to use on the beach, we ended up using these in the garden and the remaining person had to sit on the concrete steps. at night there are no garden lights so you cant sit at the end of the garden as you cant see a thing. i have been holidaying in places like this for many years and my honest opinion of this one is very poor overall. damage to 2 cars due to the ridiculous width of the driveway, hardly any sleep due to unpleasantly uncomfortable beds and the struggle to get a choice of food from local takeaways. all in all we believe this holiday home needs work, the entrance to the drive needs to be increased and it is quite possible to do so at a cost but would be worth it for peace of mind for those of us who struggle getting in and out of confined spaces, so if you value your car avoid this property. myself and my daughter have never in the decades we have both been driving ever had an accident, we have never claimed on our insurance and now both of us have to do so at a combined cost of 2,500 with the cost of the property rental of 1,400 our week away has now cost us 3,900. completely unacceptable over driveway access. there is no on road parking those spaces are taken up by residents. not enough thought has gone into the amount of people it is suppose to cater for, seating and cooking both let the home down. the area is pleasant enough except the food availability but my thanks do go to the lovely gentleman in the local pet shop who helped fit my dog with a new harness lead and collar after mine broke, he was incredibly helpful. to sum up, if you are a large party wanting to rent this property i suggest you contact them first to see if they have made any changes to actually accommodate eight people, if not i suggest you find somewhere else this is not suitable at this time. i do not recommend this holiday let. however my family and i enjoyed all the activities we undertook on our explorations but when you're walking around for miles day after day you really need a comfortable bed to get a good nights sleep and enough lounge seating so you can all sit comfortably together that's not possible in this property. i would also suggest white bed linen and towels, i prefer to know its clean rather than dark coloured sheets and towels, we took our own and only used our own towels.