Our weekend at Knoll House Hotel

Ah the British summer.

It always seems to cause a lot of discussion everywhere I go. I don't have a problem with it. In fact, I love summer! Having said that, I don't really know any other summer, but I hear this one is "very special".

Anyway, with that in mind, this year mami and papi decided we would stay in the UK and explore areas around here. We started with Cornwall back in April and I got to go to the playa or beach for the first time. It was soooo cool!

Mami had been planning where to go next when she received an invitation from a place called Knoll House Hotel in Studland Bay, Dorset. They wanted us to come and visit for a weekend and review their accommodations. After speaking with them and seeing what weekend would be best, we were booked for early July.



Knoll House Hotel has a long history of being a holiday hotel for families and believe me when I say kids are most welcomed. No one looked at me funny when I was running the halls!

We arrived on a Friday afternoon in time for lunch and we were greeted by the staff who knew our names and had a table reserved for us in the Children's Dining Hall.

Yes, they have a dining hall especially for us kids and a play room too. The idea is for us kids to have lunch (or tea at 5pm) first and then when we are done, we get to play and stay with the childminders while mami and papi go and have lunch in the main dining room. You know, so they get "alone" time. I didn't mind. I need a break too.

The hotel also has a 24 hour kitchen. Meaning you can come in and out of it as you please. Get milk, tea, coffee at any time. It was like being at home! Just walk in, open the fridge and pour your milk.

The hotel provides childminders at night. You can pay extra if you want to leave the hotel, but during dinner time, once we are in bed the childminders stay outside your bedroom door to take care of us. And if you can't sleep (like me!) they would call mami and papi to come back up. Now, we think this is great if you can get to sleep before 8pm, but mami felt too much pressure to be seated for dinner by 8.15pm (which is latest you can be served) and one night mami missed most of the dinner.

During the day we splashed around at the great big pool and a really cool playground for kids. There is a huge pirate ship and the longest slide I have ever seen! Even papi fit in it! This provides hours of fun.

But what we liked the most were the beautiful surroundings. We would walk out of the hotel through a field and down to the beach. The water was just the right temperature and we had a great weekend full of sun. There were lots of other families around and the hotel even packed our lunch to take to the beach!

Knoll House has won many awards for being child friendly, and we give up two hands up! However, we feel that it was difficult to stick to the hotel's timings for lunch, dinner and tea (if you are full board) and mami said she felt she was at a summer camp! Oh, and there were no TVs in the room. Not sure why?

Some may not like having to stick to schedules while on holiday and so this may not be "every one's cup of tea". But the general feeling was that there was a long history of families coming year after year. There were grandparents, parents, kids and dogs enjoying time together and families seemed to all know each other with a strong emphasis on quality time.

You can book a room at Knoll House Hotel either for full board (all meals included) or half board. They are open from just before Easter through November.

We were invited to stay for a weekend (full board) for the purpose of this review. All accommodations were paid for.