Sandpiper Cottage Amble

Sandpiper Cottage, Amble, is one of the largest stone built homes in this lovely sunny part of Northumberland. It is light, airy, warm and stylish, furnished and equipped fully with everything you could need and all of excellent quality, kept up to date by owners who care about your holiday experience

It is 100m from a beach, piers, river and harbour and a short walk to the shopping street, as well as being a peaceful location with a lot of good walks straight out of the front door in all directions. You don’t have to use your car every day.

The beautiful village of Warkworth and its ruined castle is two miles away, or a good riverside, off-road walk,and we are in a great location to explore the best of Northumberland. Everything is within reach. Beautiful beaches at Warkworth and Alnmouth are a few minutes drive, and inland you are quickly into the stunning hills, endless space and stone villages if Northumberland. We have 50% bookings from regular guests who have been coming for years as they know each year they will find the house improved.

We have comfortable beds and bedding, feather or synthetic, the two living rooms and main bedroom have flat screen TV’s. We have chosen to carpet the house, it is Northumberland, can be chilly, so we have gone for comfort every time.

We love the kitchen, it is separate but opens to the rear living room, as well as having absolutely everything you could possibly need to cook as you might at home. It is a home, it’s definitely more than the usual holiday rental.

We do take one well behaved pet, with its own bed, and only downstairs please There is great walking straight from the house, and right on the Northumberland cycle route with bike storage in a locked outhouse. There is private off road parking behind the house, the front street is one way, not busy, and you can park at the front door if you prefer. The area is completely safe.

There is also the old relaxing experience of having one main shopping street, which provides you with almost everything fresh you could want. There are small supermarkets there (a bigger one on the outskirts of the town) wet fish shop, good butchers, greengrocer, chemist. The boats deliver their catch to a pop up shop at the harbour, they write on the board when they will open, as the boats dock, and the fish is superb.

We love our house, our family do too, the children adore being there. It is a mix of modern and traditional, not your slick wipe clean holiday home, but somewhere everyone can enjoy with two living rooms, both with TV’s, so you watch separately and all in comfort.

Both the main bedrooms are very large, much more so than I can portray in a photograph. A lot of local properties have made two bedrooms out of three, but our third single bedroom is also quite large, however it does give onto the bathroom so is only suitable for a child who would sleep through the odd bathroom night visit! All have very comfortable, new mattresses, and great bedding, summer and winter duvets, lots of pillows, a TV in the main bedroom on a lovely old reconditioned chest. The main rear bedroom is very peaceful, with a 5ft bed and the front twin room is a large square with plenty of space round the beds, also quiet overnight with good double glazing in all bedrooms. All rooms have lots of lamps, no glaring lighting, except where you want it, overhead in the kitchen.

The bathroom has a full bath and a new electric shower, nicely beige, with John Lewis coloured towel sets provided. You only need to bring beach towels.

We have been renting since 2012, and are always full, though we do manage to keep the prices below the average, as all we want to do is keep it and maintain it well. Nothing is allowed to fall below the standard you would expect in your own home.

Oh yes, there is a properly paved back terrace, with a low stone wall and small exit gate, secure for your pet, with a circular table and chairs for coffee or lunch on those sunny days. It gets the sun there most of the day.

The front living room we think of as the summer or afternoon room, as it is lovely and sunny from late morning, whereas the rear living room has an original 1890’s huge burgundy fireplace, and is furnished in burgundy and gold colours with a cosy rug, where you can draw the curtains and snuggle up.

Alternatively, Amble now has lots of restaurants, very eclectic, some not cheap, and also lots of takeaways of all kinds, and most of them really good, with the added bonus of being able to walk to all of them from Sandpiper.

Could I sell it better, probably, but what I do know is if your criteria is comfort and value for money, then even amongst the now large choice of rentals in Amble, you won’t do better, as both inside and outside the house, there is a lot of space, apart from being attached at either side, though with 2ft thick stone walls, it is well insulated. We are right by the beach and piers, but away from the busy harbour. It really is just lovely to be there.