Passage House Hotel

Passage House Hotel sits on the Teign estuary at Kingsteignton, just outside Newton Abbot, and the setting is the thing everyone agrees on: water on the doorstep, a nature reserve close by, free parking in quantity, and roughly twenty minutes' drive to either Dartmoor or Torquay. For a dog that combination is hard to beat, with estuary paths for the morning and moorland within easy reach for the afternoon.

Dogs of any size are welcome in designated dog-friendly rooms for £20 per pet, per stay - a one-off charge rather than a nightly one, which makes a longer visit comparatively cheap for dog owners. Cats are not accepted. Guests who have brought dogs describe the hotel as very dog-friendly and the staff as the strong point, and breakfast is served in a conservatory looking out over the river.

Two things to go in with your eyes open about. Some rooms sit in separate lodge buildings away from the main hotel, and those buildings have no reception desk and doors left open around the clock. No incidents were reported, but it surprised guests enough to mention, and it is worth asking to be placed in the main building if that would unsettle you. The grounds have also drawn a complaint about dog mess left in the walkways, which is the kind of thing that matters more when you are the one arriving with a dog.

The wider picture is more mixed. The hotel has been working through a refurbishment, and reviews from that period describe hot rooms, tired fittings in the older wings and a breakfast that did not land; the overall guest score sits at 7.5 out of 10, which is modest. Dog-specific feedback is positive but limited in volume, so the 4.2/5 paw rating is best read as an encouraging early signal rather than a firm verdict. Passage House suits owners who want the estuary walks and the easy parking, and who will ask for a refurbished room in the main building when they book.