Bow Cottage, Salcombe

Bow Cottage is a characterful old cottage at East Portlemouth, on the quieter side of the Salcombe estuary, with views across the water from the front rooms. It takes one dog, and the position is lovely, but it comes with a specific drawback that dog owners should understand before booking, because it is the thing guests with dogs raise most.

The garden is not attached to the cottage. It sits offset from the building, which means a dog cannot simply be let out of the door; every trip outside has to be supervised, and guests have found themselves steering their dog away from a neighbour's garden by mistake. The space itself is small, sloped and often overgrown, so letting a dog out in the wet has meant coming back in soaked. Guests have been clear that had the arrangement been described properly at the booking stage, they would have chosen elsewhere.

What the cottage does well is position and comfort in parts. The beds are comfortable, the kitchen is well equipped, the views from the main bedroom are genuinely good, and the beaches are close. East Portlemouth is reached by single-track lanes and sits across the water from Salcombe itself, so the town is a ferry hop rather than a walk. That is quiet in a way that suits some dogs very well, but it is not somewhere to stroll into for dinner.

Condition is the other theme. Cleanliness has been a repeated complaint, with hair and cobwebs left from previous stays, rugs that smelled of dogs, and stained soft furnishings all reported. Towels are not supplied as standard. The stairs are steep and irregular and the floors slope, which the cottage's age explains but which makes it a poor fit for anyone unsteady, and the walk back up from the beach is a long climb. At 3.9/5, Bow Cottage suits a fit couple with one easy-going dog who want quiet and a view, and who do not need to open a door and let the dog out.