We had a lovely four-night stay at The Vista, staying in property number five. On arrival, we were really pleasantly surprised by the property itself. It is beautiful, spacious, very well laid out and generally very well equipped, and the hot tub was fantastic and kept clean regularly.
The location is great, although I did feel the advertising was slightly misleading in terms of the setting. The Vista is actually situated on the edge/back of an existing holiday park. The other holiday park is perfectly pleasant, but this wasn't quite what we had expected from the description of The Vista. The shared swimming pool is also part of the wider holiday complex rather than The Vista itself. It is booked in time slots, which makes complete sense, but we hadn't realised this in advance and, because our itinerary wasn't fixed, we weren't able to make much use of it. We also didn't particularly fancy going into the other holiday park to use the facilities, so in the end we didn't use the pool at all.
The property itself was lovely, but there are a few small touches that could make a real difference, particularly given the price point. Only some of the bathrooms had hand soap, and each toilet had just one toilet roll. Luckily, this just about lasted four days for our family of five, but a few spare rolls would have been appreciated. The bedding was perfectly adequate but didn't feel quite as luxurious as we would have expected for the price of the property.
There were some other small housekeeping issues. The washing pods had unfortunately got wet and were unusable, and the towels left on the beds were damp and folded, so I had to hang them out to dry. I did let the team know about this.
On the positive side, the house was very well equipped, with washing-up liquid, dishwasher tablets, utensils, cutlery and basic essentials such as pepper provided. The team were also always available via WhatsApp, which was extremely helpful. We had some issues with the Wi-Fi and they came to help us rectify it. We eventually discovered that Apple devices need to be running the latest operating system, but unfortunately our children's iPads weren't up to date and, without Wi-Fi, we couldn't update them. As a result, the kids were Wi-Fi-free for the entire four days — probably not necessarily a bad thing!
We also brought our dogs, for which we paid an additional fee. Our only issue was that the individual gardens aren't enclosed. This meant we had to keep a very close eye on the dogs, particularly alongside our disabled child, to make sure nobody wandered away from the property. A small amount of fencing around each garden would make a huge difference, particularly given that only some of the properties are dog-friendly. In the end, we actually arranged for a friend who lives nearby to collect our dogs, as it was easier for us.
Overall, though, these are relatively minor points. We had a really lovely stay and the property itself is beautiful, comfortable and in a great location. With a few extra little touches and some clearer information about the setting and shared facilities, I think it could be exceptional.
We would definitely consider booking again and would recommend The Vista to others.