This old fisherman's cottage is very quaint, of that there is no doubt. But, it is not without quite a lot of faults that are down to the owners and managers of the cottage.
Because the cottage is away from the road, it is difficult to locate on a sat nav, and we ended up at a dead end on the road that leads down to the harbour. This road is so narrow that only one car at a time can be on it. So, as you can imagine it was an absolute nightmare parking the car, unloading it and then moving it a quarter of a mile up the road to a car park.
The cottage is very small and just about caters for two people. The kitchen has facilities that you would expect e.g. fridge and cooker. But, surprisingly, the fridge does not have a freezer box in it and for some odd reason the owners have not installed a freezer, and instead, have put in a dishwasher. When you consider that the cottage is very small, there really doesn't seem much point having a dishwasher because I can't see anyone having big dinner parties that requires such a thing.
Also, there is a table and chairs that does take up a large space in the kitchen area that would only require a very small fold out table, and folding chairs.
Similarly to this, for some strange reason, there are two, quite large, three seater sofas that take up an awful lot of space that could be used in a far greater way.
The same applies to the bathroom space. There is a big shower cubicle, a toilet and a sink. Next to the sink, on the right, is a floor to ceiling cupboard, that is separated into two halves. The top half is locked? And the bottom half is being utilised for cleaning equipment? There is nowhere to put washing items, as the bathroom cabinet is big enough for only a few items.
The bedroom is what you would expect and has in it a small double bed, an old double freestanding wardrobe and an old wooden chair. Now, let the fun begin with sleeping. Personally, I would have expected a medium/firm mattress that was fairly new. No. What you get is a mattress that is so old that the springs are well beyond their boingability that you sink down to the slats on the bed frame. Now, I suffer from quite a lot of mild spinal complaints, and this mattress exacerbated all of these ailments to the point that I struggled to move first thing in the morning. It is far from comfortable and needs changing.
The cottage is also damp and there is a dehumidifier in the lounge that really needs to be on all of the time to take the moisture out of the air. The damp is bad enough that there is a visible patch in the corner where the TV is.
If there had been more reviews on this cottage there is no way my wife would have booked us for a full week and only have booked us for three nights as, despite the fact that Staithes is very pretty, there is nothing to do, apart from visit the two pubs and maybe visit the Captain Cook museum, and to spend any longer in the cottage would require a couple to be very happy in their own company and to do a lot of travelling to other places.
Wether or not the cottage was part of a bigger house at some point, I am unsure, as there is the top part of Grimes Nook, which is also rented out. Because of this any movement from the visitors above can get very annoying, very quickly.
I would love to give a better review of the cottage, but, there are too many things that made it a forgettable venture.