Suffolk Yurt Holidays!
For my birthday this year I booked exclusive use of the whole site at Suffolk Yurt Holidays in Woodbridge. I’d originally just booked the cottage for us, but when I realised I could book out the 5 yurts in a package alongside the cottage, having it all to ourselves at an extremely reasonable rate, I roped some family and friends in for a party weekend to celebrate turning the big four three! I just thought oh why not?! Big celebrations shouldn’t only be for zero numbers, celebrate everything worth celebrating I say, and we all though let’s do it!
It’s so far removed from camping at Suffolk Yurt Holidays, I’m not entirely sure the word glamping covers it either. It’s luxury, very definitely, but at an affordable price!
The cottage has two bedrooms, a double and a twin, as well as a sofa bed in the lounge which can also sleep two. It’s decorated impeccably with everything you could possibly want or need for your stay and it just feels SO comfortable. We were welcomed with a bottle of wine, some biscuits and, though we’d brought our own, without realising it would be there for us, the cottage had everything else you could need in the kitchen from dishwasher tablets to food seasonings, with coffee and tea, as well as a milk in the fridge. Not only that but little touches like nappies and sanitary products were in the bathroom drawer for our use should we need too. The comfort of the cottage is absolutely perfect and the crowning glory is the private garden with its pièce de résistance, an outdoor bath!
The garden area swings around the side and back of the cottage with a fire pit, hanging egg chair and table and benches as well as deck chairs on the other side next to that glorious bath which points out onto a cornfield vista. I spent so much time in this bath, which was better than any hot tub you could wish for, and it was SUCH a treat. Big enough for two, or a real solo swim in a tub for one. Perfecto!
The yurts, though smaller than the cottage of course, also sleep 6 with one double bed and two double futons which can be pulled out. They, again, are decorated beautifully with lots of thoughtful touches such as hot water bottles, black put blinds upon request, and lanterns. All you need to bring is your towels for the communal shower block, which serves the yurts, and you’re flying. They are real little treats of a glamping experience with chests of drawers to unpack yiur clothes into and boxes of bedding to make up the futons if you are a party of more than two.
As well as the whistle clean shower and toilet blocks the yurts share a communal kitchen with an area for each accommodation. Again thoughtfulness to holiday maker’s needs has been implemented and there are oils and salts and seasonings in abundance as well as milk in each of the full size fridges which are there to be utilised by their corresponding yurt. Next to the kitchen is an undercover, outdoor dining area with enough tables and chairs for each yurt to sit and eat communally, or, if they prefer, each yurt has its own table and chairs under a wooden pergola, alongside garden chairs and a hammock in the private setting each yurt is placed.
Among wild flowers in abundance the pathways are cut out between yurts, the cottage, a big fire pit and the main area in the middle which sits under the giant oak tree. A rope swing is the focal point for the main congregating area with deck chairs, a beautifully fun tree house/play structure, a mud kitchen, play tractor park and table tennis table. At one edge lies the bar area which, when accommodation is booked individually, is stocked with drinks to be paid for in an honesty box. When you book the whole place like us the owners will take the stock away so that you can stock it with your own drinks.
Whether booking as solo units or a group, Suffolk Yurts can offer pizza nights with wood fired pizzas taking the hassle from dinner. We actually didn’t do this as we brought platters (you know me me) to share and had a BBQ but they do come highly recommended.
The bar became a hub for us with the beautiful seating area beside it where we spent most of our time as we made cocktails into the night and enjoyed music which we could play through the WiFi speakers and, indeed, the singer we hired to entertain us for my birthday evening. I highly recommend Ben Goble Music who was recommended to me by the owners and often plays at the site. He performed for two hours solidly, took requests, allowed gate crashers to his mic and was thoroughly entertaining. We paid £250 for his talents and it was well worth it for the focal point of the main evening providing us a real party atmosphere!
On the other side of the main oak tree area is a play barn with things for the children (big and small) to be entertained inside. A projector screen to watch movies or sport proved a hit with our older ones, while the smaller of our brigade enjoyed the freedom of roaming and playing while eyes were on them from the sidelines. There are also tennis courts with all the equipment to borrow (so you can choose not to bring your own Tennis Rackets if you don’t have them) just a short field walk away – we didn’t do this but we played rounders and did an exercise class as a group finding not enough time in the day to fit all the fun in as it was!
It was a perfect weekend. Idyllic in every way, from the company, to the weather! However, regardless of our fabulous friends, family and the glorious sunshine, Suffolk Yurt Holidays have made everything as perfect as it possibly could be so I imagine even on more grey days this place would hit the mark. There is a small honesty shop on site selling essentials and a village shop up the road as well as lots of beaches a shirt drive away if using it as a holiday base (we, however, didn’t want to leave)!
Owners Jane and Paul haven’t just thought about things ahead of time, they are there to make everything run smoothly at camp too and while we barely saw them really, they stealth like swooped in to clean the communal areas, replenish toilet rolls and take rubbish away maming everything continue to be gorgeous even with the riff raff in town. When we had questions, suddenly they’d be where we needed them to be – it must be a very clever skill they’ve honed because we felt totally left to our own devices, yet they appeared when needed, what more could you want?! And what brilliant hosts!
They even allowed us a late checkout due to the (lucky for us) fact they had no one coming until the next day. The Love Island style bar seating area allowed us to shout “we’ve got a text” when they sent us that invitation to stay a little longer, and as everyone read it the smiles grew even bigger.
We all said before the second night that we would need to go back, and we had the next two summers locked in and booked before we’d left. Suffolk Yurts is very in demand and it’s easy to see why. We couldn’t get my birthday weekend next year having to opt for a June date instead which is a shame but we took what we could because something is definitely better than nothing, and we booked the same weekend again for 2024 instead. Had to get in there before it went so now we’ve two trips to look forward to!
Prices for this place are so reasonable too which I really like because they haven’t made unattainable or elitist – this is one luxury weekend most of us could save up for and have as a treat (boy, it really is a treat)! This year’s prices are £320 for the weekend for each yurt, which makes the cottage the same price when booked as a whole place booking. The cottage otherwise is a tiny bit more but seriously, well worth it! It’s also worth noting that they do also allow a couple of tents at £25 per pitch, per night if you have the whole place booked. Ordinarily not, of course, but when in a big group they were welcoming of this and we had two tents join us for our weekend. It was easy to nestle one away into the wild flowers and another on the far side of the oak tree meaning we could have more of our lovely family and friends join us. Perfect!
Take a look at my Instagram reel of the accommodation here:
We absolutely cannot fault Suffolk Yurt Holidays in anyway, I scrabbled around trying to find something to critique and really, there’s nothing. In the end I managed to say to Paul that the cottage oven door gets rather hot and without knowing that it could potentially be a small hazard. He immediately said he was going to put a warning sticker on it and that’s them in a nutshell, they want to make everything perfect. And it is! Even when things were less than ideal with two little ones who arrived happy as Larry but by evening had a a bit of a tummy bug. Nothing we could do bit ride it out and Paul and Jane were just so kind. We had a bed linen incident (small children plus tummy bug equals, you do the maths) and they couldn’t have been calmer or more thoughtful to us. The bed linen is so gorgeous and comfortable, much nicer than which we have at home, and I was so worried about it but they were just kind and said it would be sorted. This was such a lovely gesture from them and so appreciated. I just could have kissed them for that!
Have a look at my Instagram reel of our brilliant stay for my birthday and a peek at some of the pictures I took when there. They aren’t anywhere near as extensive or ad well thought about as they would be usually because something about this place made me switch off a bit. I didn’t are a group shot and missed taking loads of others which I’m a little annoyed with myself about now but hey, in the moment I was just enjoying because how could I not?!
Thanks for having us guys, it’s not often something exceeds expectation but this weekend 100% did. It’s also probably the very first time I’ve arrived somewhere and thought it looked BETTER than the pictures! It’s not that the pictures are bad, quite the contrary, it’s just that Suffolk Yurt Holidays is very special indeed!
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