Easedale Studio Apartment

There's a bedroom in our kitchen!

Easedale Studio Apartment

Accommodation
in/near Grasmere, Cumbria (inc. Lake District),
England North West

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Review added: 02/08/2011 11:35
By: Debbie (£13.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"Looking for a relaxing Lake District self catering holiday, we were drawn to Easedale Studio Apartment for its central location in the Lakes just 4.5 miles from Ambleside. From the Lake Lovers website the apartment looked well laid out with a little character from the eaves and beams so decided to pay the higher Premium pricing for late July which came to over £400 (inc £25 booking fee & £20 GHK).

Keys had to be collected from the Lake Lovers offices in Ambleside. Luckily we had Sat Nav as the directions provided by Lake Lovers were for those coming from the South rather than North. Parking was a huge issue though and we didn't want to park at Hayes Garden World with the signs saying anyone leaving their car would get a £10 fine and £50 clamp but eventually found somewhere further along the road.

Keys had to be collected from 3pm and access to the apartment was from 4pm but didn't cause us too much issue as we arrived at the apartment at 4pm. Again, parking was a huge issue. There is designated parking for each apartment but the spaces are extremely tight and there's very little room to manoeuvre. You end up doing a 9 point turn and boyfriend had to climb out the passenger door each time.

Easedale Studio Apartment (flat 6) is right at the top of the building so we had to go up and down the two flights of stairs a few times with luggage and food. The first thing we noticed was…

There's a bed in our kitchen

I knew the apartment was likely to be cosy but I wasn't expecting the living area (2 chairs), the bedroom and the kitchen to be in one room. It was really quite claustrophobic at first. At least there was a separate bathroom. Browsing what we had, we were quick to notice there was only a hob, no oven. There was a fridge and it did have a small freezer apartment which we weren't expecting as it said there was no freezer. We found the guest book and although it only had a few entries in it a lot of previous occupants complained about the parking and the fact the shower didn't work which unfortunately was also true when we tried it out the next morning and it continuously switched between boiling hot and freezing cold.

After our initial shock from the size of the place we decided to make the most of it and get cracking with a delicious meal only for the whole apartment's power to go off. By this time it was out-of-hours for the office so had to call the emergency number. Considering we had £100s worth of food in the fridge/freezer it was a good few hours before anyone showed up to fix the problem. Poor guy also managed to break the light shade but at least we had power. Unfortunately minutes after the guy left the power went out again realising it was the hob that was the cause of the problem but we then knew how to put it back on at the fuse. The smaller hob worked so we managed to get a meal out of it but it wasn't the best start to the holiday.

As we'd arrived on the Saturday and were not happy about the accommodation we decided to go down to the Lake Lovers offices the next day. You can imagine we were not happy getting to the office door to find it shut when quite clearly the door was etched with the words 'Office open hours – everyday' (as did the leaflet with contact details). There was a sign on the door which then said it was closed on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it meant another trip down to complain on the Monday. On the Monday we gave quite a lengthy list of complaints, but all they could do was send out an electrician. The said one would be sent out that day and eventually the problem was fixed but we still couldn't use the shower. The only positive to that was being 5'7 there wasn't a lot of room to stand as the base of the bath was also angled so had to avoid hitting my head and elbows off the sloping ceiling.

Even with the windows open, the apartment still got quite hot during the day. There was a fan which we had on for hours but with the electricity playing up didn't want to keep it on through the night. The temperature really wasn't helped by the fact there was no ventilation in the bathroom (extractor fan didn't work) so the heat from a bath was filling the small space. Luckily having a bath wasn't as bad as the shower. The only problem we did have was again the hot water being incredibly hot while the cold water wasn't particularly cold nor as fast flowing so had to wait for ages with just the cold water running to cool the bath to a usable temperature. If running water anywhere in the apartment we couldn't use the other taps. The cold water was also a problem with the kitchen sink so couldn't get a refreshing cold drink of water as it just wasn't cool enough even if running it for a while.

Utensils wise, there was a decent amount. Could have done with a pot though. Most of our meals were cooked in a frying pan or in the microwave. All our meals had to be carefully considered since there was no oven. There were plenty of glasses, cups and plates. I think there were 4 sets of cutlery but only two tea spoons. Washing up liquid was provided as were dishwasher tablets for a non-existent dishwasher. We had to change the bin quite often as it would start smelling with it being warm in the apartment but luckily there were just enough black bags. There's numerous bins by the car park for recycling too.

Dining was a bit of a laugh. Only after reading the guest book did we discover there was a table in the 2nd drawer to pull out. Decent length for the two of us but it really wasn't comfortable sitting on the wooden stools – the table was just too low for them.

There are nice views from the two windows but even at 5'7 I was up on tip toes to try and look at them. A lot of the view was trees/hills but there was the river to the back and the car park to the front. I was surprised at just how quiet Grasmere village was during the night considering it was bustling during the day with tourists. Only on our last night did we hear singing but even that didn't last long.

The apartment seemed pretty clean but there was a rug which was full of dust. I tried vacuuming it but the vacuum just didn't suck anything up. It caused quite a bit of sneezing during the week. The bed wasn't the comfiest either. Could feel the wooden slats through the mattress but after daily hiking was tired out enough to get a good few hours sleep. There was small LCD TV on a movable stand so we could swivel it round to watch TV while eating/cooking or lying in bed. The information provided said there were only 4 channels with a really good signal but thankfully there were far more Freeview channels than that and had no problem with a signal. The apartment did have character but I don't think boyfriend was too impressed at nearly knocking himself out a few times hitting his head on the beams. Poor thing!

There are 5 other apartments in the same building owned by Beck Allans and getting a peek in while they were being cleaned they looked far bigger than ours. I was a bit surprised to see 4 or 5 people going into the room opposite ours. Felt really sorry for them though as there was an elderly gentleman having to climb all those stairs so the rest of the family told him just to stay up there instead of having to keep walking up and down so with regards to accessibility I wouldn't recommend Easedale Studio. It also wasn't the easiest getting out the bath with no handle/sloping ceiling. Easedale Studio has a Saturday changeover while it seems the other apartments change over on the Friday so there was a bit of noise on the Friday morning. We could only ever hear people in the hallway rather than in rooms so it was peaceful.

Mobile phones/internet:
O2 – great signal
T-Mobile – no signal (in Grasmere in general)
No Wifi

Grasmere village really was lovely and it was a good base for exploring the Lake District. I just really wouldn't want to stay in the same apartment again. I'm just glad I didn't mind being in my boyfriend's company in such a small space for a week. Just glad we had great weather for the week so we were out every day. As it was self catering, there is a Co-Op on Broadgate just at the end of College Street and to the right. We had to visit quite a few times during the week and found they were nearly always out of bread and rolls so I'd recommend getting some shopping before you visit."

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