Over half term we decided to book a few nights away. We settled on the Lodge at Sunridge Retreats near Plymouth because of its amazing facilities. It used to be a dairy barn, but it was absolutely gorgeous inside.

My husband took charge this time and did the groundwork picking somewhere for us to stay. What a fantastic choice he made too. It was quite a long drive there, but it was wonderful once we arrived to have a dip in our own hot tub to relax after the journey. We spent more than we usually do on this type of break (£900 for three nights). But it was an indulgent treat. We have been working so hard lately we needed the downtime. Also, you definitely get what you pay for as everything was very comfortable and stylish.

The Hub

Plus, the boys were pleased because they had access to the Hub, although it did make coaxing the boys to leave the accommodation and have a day out tricky. The Hub had an Xbox and a retro games console with 4000 games! I liked refamiliarizing myself with some of those classic games from my childhood like Altered Beast. I finally got a chance to complete it!!!

Another highlight was the projector screen at the Sunridge Retreats hub it was the whole size of a wall and incredible quality. It was fun to watch a family film together on the five metre screen. We were hoping for one film a night as the bare minimum, but the boys had other ideas, monopolizing the screen for their gaming! So, we were relegated to the Smart TV in the Lodge itself.

Fishing Lake

Then they had a fishing lake exclusively available for anyone staying onsite. It was a lovely peaceful spot and although we didn’t catch any fish you could see plenty of activity in the lake. Splashes which indicated that there were some decent sized fish waiting to be caught (and then returned to the water!).

Plymouth

It was a short drive to Plymouth, and we enjoyed a few hours there. We had a lovely lunch at an Italian called Trattoria Capri after having built up an appetite from our walk to Smeaton’s Tower. It was on Southside Street, which seemed a good spot for lovely shops too.

We stocked up on handmade fudge from Roly’s. The Chocolate Orange flavour was a delight! Then we spotted a flapjack shop so naturally we had to make a purchase there too. Flapjackery flapjacks were such a treat, the toppings were very indulgent. I wish we had bought a few more flavours.

As I was in Devon, I thought I had to also have a Cream tea. We went to the Tudor Rose Tearooms. It was a cute set up with the tea cosy for our pot.

Thinking back to the tea cosy has side-tracked me to looking at different ones on ETSY. I quite fancy having my own for my little spotty red teapot at home.

Random picture of me with a cactus – just because it took my fancy!

Salcombe

The following day we headed to Salcombe to have a walk about and lunch out. We ate at the Victoria Inn which was a cosy pub with friendly service and tasty meals. We stopped at The Bake House for a cake to go! Then headed back to the Hub at Sunridge Retreats as my boys couldn’t bare being away from it for too long!

We haven’t been to Devon in ages (probably since this Diggerland review in 2016!) so its been nice to have a return trip to the area and see some new places. Although perhaps next time our accommodation might not be quite so singing and dancing. I think its nice to splurge every now and then and enjoy the finer things in life – now back to beans on toast for tea!