Luxury stay on Burgh Island, Devon

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• Location: England
• Holiday Type: Beach

• by: stevespeller
• on: Thu 24 May 2012

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We aren’t luxury type of people. Our normal idea of a holiday would be loading onto a rickshaw with our rucksacks or walking across the Pennines to a homely B&B.

But 20 years ago we had our wedding reception at the Burgh Island Hotel in Devon and we recently returned to celebrate our anniversary. The price was high and we were nervous about the dress code and parking our Berlingo in the resident’s garage. To add to this, England was covered in a blanket of snow and there were travel warnings advising us not to travel unless absolutely necessary. However we didn’t need to worry, our journey from West Sussex to Devon was beautiful and the roads were conveniently quiet. The view of the island and the Art Deco hotel as we rounded the hill at Bigbury-on-Sea was magical, taking me right back to my childhood when we holidayed nearby and to the wedding.

We, and our slightly battered car, were met at the garage with no sign of a superior sneer and taken by landrover over the sand spit to the island. The hotel was luxurious in the very best ways, wellington boots in various sizes, waiting at the door, friendly and totally un-intimidating staff. Our room had a balcony with a view, a deep cast iron bath and under-floor heating, a great mod-con in the huge 1930s bathroom.

Now we were here the dinner suit and evening dress that we had brought with us seemed exactly what we wanted to wear and we posed in front of the huge bathroom mirror and took pictures of ourselves before heading downstairs for cocktails. It soon became apparent that two weekends after Christmas with outside temperatures well below freezing wasn’t the most popular time of year at the hotel! But this suited us, the food was delicious and inventive, and when we requested a song that wasn’t on our entertainer's normal repertoire, she and the pianist, looked it up on the internet during their break and came back and performed it…that’s service.

Walking for six hours past all your favourite childhood haunts, along one of the most beautiful and unspoilt stretches of coastline, in low winter sun with the one you love - this was luxury to me. Taking a tractor across the sea as the sun sets and eating a mouth watering meal that you don’t have to, and couldn’t cook, even more of life's little luxuries. And finally - a pint of scrumpy in the island’s 14^th century pub, before falling asleep to the lapping of the waves, that’s our idea of perfect luxury.

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