“This is our second visit to this lodge, the first being in 2021 during Covid restrictions.”
We travelled with my 6 year old son, parents and little dog. Overall this is a lovely lodge, hence why we returned. The location is the selling point, you are a 5 minute walk to Bowness and right near the lake. Fallbarrow is a lovely park, the staff can’t do enough to help and the facilities are amazing. Our son absolutely loved the play park and games room. My mum had hurt her leg prior to travelling so was going to struggle with mobility during our holiday so hired a motor scooter for the week, we were worried how she would manage on the park however there were no issues at all.
There were a few points to the lodge which we felt for the price could be improved. First was the cleanliness, I stayed in the bedroom with the two single beds and overhead wardrobes, I popped two pillows on the top as didn’t need them and when I came to get them down before we left they were absolutely thick with dust. I would imagine anyone suffering with asthma may be affected by this. Skirting boards and tops of wardrobes don’t need to be done after every guest, but maybe a once a month deep clean could be arranged. Other than this the day to day cleanliness was great. The pans weren’t the best, and only one frying pan. Back in the day they were obviously very good quality, however now seem very used, big and bulky. You would struggle fitting more than one in the slim dishwasher. I bought a pan set from Lakeland and actually opened them to use the frying pan for the duration of our stay.
Secondly was the lack of gate, we remembered this from our first visit however it wasn’t an issue then as my little boy was still very little and not left unsupervised, and we didn’t bring our dog. I did read the owners comment before we arrived about bringing a stair gate, however this wouldn’t have been possible travelling with a child and dog and lots of luggage! I’m glad I didn’t however as the gap would be two big for any average stair gate to cover it. We ended up using two rattan chairs and a stool, meaning we were then only left with two rattan chairs to sit in the sun on the decking, for 4 adults and one child. There were other two other patio chairs and stool but these were not very comfy for sunbathing. If you are travelling with young children or animals I really would consider this, I get the actual lodge is pet and child friendly, but having an unsecured decking leading to 4-5 steep steps really isn’t. I would hate to think of a reactive dog getting out and hurting a passerby by, dog or small child!
