Welcome to my post, all about Southview Holiday Retreat, Middlesborough.
Who else loves the quiet life? The strong need to get away from the hustle and bustle. Switch off your phone and just relax.
As a family, we have busy lives, between working full time, school admin, childcare and fitting in precious time to make family memories and have fun. Sometimes it’s just necessary to switch off completely.
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PLEASE NOTE – all images are courtesy of Sam – founder of Mummy Conquering Anxiety blog and are copyright
Making a holiday booking with a lack of reviews
I’ve talked in my previous review blog posts about reading reviews before booking a holiday, a meal or visiting somewhere. You can usually tell the fair reviews from the people who just want to have a rant. Check out my Places to Eat reviews below:
However, sometimes you need to take a chance on a holiday venue when they have just set up and are brand new. When we booked this holiday through Hoseasons, there were only a few reviews added. As such, we had to take that chance.
We are here now
I want to visit places myself before bringing you reviews. We are currently on site now and these are my comments about the place:
Accommodation & value for money – We are staying in The Wainstones pod, which is slightly more roomy than the standard one.
Surroundings – absolutely beautiful & breathtaking views.
Service – friendly, checking in with us but not disturbing our peace.
Nearby places to visit – Stokesley. Great Ayton, Whitby, Middlesborough.
Relaxation factor – 100% relaxation, even with a fiver-year-old.
A base for visiting other places – the perfect base for venturing out and about each day.
I am going into a lot more detail below, so keep reading about the 6 Amazing Reasons to Book a Holiday at Southview Holiday Retreat, Middlesborough
Accommodation & value for money
The accommodation is what sold the holiday to us, in the first place. We paid £399.00 when booking direct through Hoseasons. And only paid a £10.00 deposit. Booking in advance allowed us to pay the holiday off in chunks. I didn’t think this price was bad, considering we have a Monday-Friday stay, the first week of the UK school summer holidays AND the addition of the hot tub and amazing view.
We had everything we needed in the pod. A small kitchen area, without an oven, but other amenities such as a microwave, hob, kettle and toaster.
We managed to make some lovely homemade meals, like spaghetti bolognese. And even managed a full fry-up, to make fry-up wraps!
Surroundings
The pod overlooks the Cleveland Hills and as you can see from the pictures below, the view is stunning, breathtaking, and relaxing and it’s amazing to overlook this every morning. We decided to spend our last day mostly hanging around the accommodation, so we can live in the moment and enjoy this beautiful view.
Service
The site is run by a father and son team and from the first text message, to get instructions for how to enter the accommodation, they were lovely and friendly.
The instructions for staying were comprehensive and provided all the information we needed. And the friendly visits, stopping by our pod to check if we had everything we needed, were one of the highlights of our holiday. The little one loved saying hello!
Nearby places to visit
As a family, we purposefully book places to stay, where we can use them as a base to explore the area. And this time we took the opportunity to reinstate our English Heritage Membership and visit some amazing places on the way here and during our stay.
A few of the nearby places you can visit during your stay:
Stokesley – this is a market town, with a coop, bakers, lots of pubs, bistros and other amenities. We visited to grab some lunch at the local bakers and food supplies from the coop.
I would say that from what we experienced, the town isn’t geared towards families and children. Eating-wise we would have been looking at overpriced bistros (I say this because our five-year-old simply wouldn’t eat the food there) or pubs with strange service times or that don’t allow children. As a couple, we would have loved a village like this. But luckily we were able to grab some food and return to our accommodation to chill out in the hot tub.
I will say there are lots of amazing shops for little ones. Boutique-style clothing and toys for young ones. We loved exploring the array of charity shops – we even picked up some bargains, including a branded walking coat for my little one and a nice dress for me.
Great Ayton – This is a picturesque small village, which we passed through on our way to Whitby. All the details you need about the amenities available can be found here.
Helmsley – we passed through Helmsley on our way here and decided to revisit the town the following day, to make use of our English Heritage membership and visit the castle.
It’s a lovely Yorkshire town, with shops, a beautiful square and lots of cafes and pubs along the river. We had a great time walking around the town, after our trip around the castle.
Relaxation factor
This trip was 100% relaxation from the first moment we arrived. Absolutely beautiful views. An enclosed garden was a must for the little one. It also came in handy when one of us wanted a rest in the afternoon, the other people could use the patio to chill outside and provide some much-needed space, away from one another. The small balcony out to the front of the pod also provided another space for someone to relax in.
A base for visiting other places
In terms of distance, staying here is a great base for visiting other places. You have the choice of nearby market towns, which are up to about a 30-minute drive. Some are just 5 minutes down the road, in a car.
Whitby
The longest drive we did was Whitby for the day. The picturesque seaside town was busy and we were tired after the trip but we got to see our favourite seaside town, without the price tag of staying in a £300.00 a night hotel in the centre of Whitby.
It was about a 49-minute drive to Whitby from the accommodation.
One of the main reasons we visited Whitby was to take our little one to Whitby Abbey. As a couple we have visited a few times, but it was time to introduce her to the amazing views and history. She loved running around and taking pictures.
I will be writing a post about Middlesborough and the wider area, and some other guides for this local area – so look out for this by subscribing to my blog, to be alerted when a blog post is released.
Final thoughts
I hope you enjoyed reading all about our stay at Southview Holiday Retreat, Middlesborough.
