Freebies? What do you think?

I'm writing up my last trip, which was to Suffolk. It was strange, because I often go there anyhow, but it was different with my "work" hat on. For a start, I got free stays in a hotel and in a holiday rental home and I also got a free meal out. Here's a photo of my dessert at the meal -home made blackberry and mint ice creams. It was very good.

I liked the view from my bedroom at the hotel, directly overlooking the sea. It was exhilarating in the morning to wake and see it glittering outside the window. (the sailboat is a model on the window sill) and good to have breakfast outside in the sun. In fact it almost felt like the South of France (I mean the South of France in March - the Suffolk coast's never steamy - but so beautifully clear and bright.)

And the holiday home was very near the beach, sunny, well equipped and well furnished and it had a nice little back yard where you could do a BBQ or just sit in the sun all day.

Yes, there was sunshine, a rare thing indeed this summer in England, but I was lucky to get a couple of days of it.

You'll notice I haven't given names of these places. That's because I'd like to know, would you like me to name and recommend places that I like on this blog? Some are freebies, some are not. but these all were. And I'm always in two minds about freebies.

Most of them, in fact, are worth recommending, but one or two aren't. Not that they are bad - in fact, I only remember one that gives me a bad feeling to recall. It was a holiday cottage in Cornwall, which was lovely in itself, but directly overlooked by the farmers who had converted it from an outbuilding. And the farmer's wife was AWFUL! Not only was she constantly peering out of her windows at us, disapprovingly I thought...

but she was livid when we told her the toilet paper had run out. There was only about a third of a roll when we arrived, but she made me feel really guilty, as if we had been lining our nests with toilet paper or doing kinky things with it. "I expect my guests to buy their own extra toilet paper" she said haughtily. "I'd never make any profit if I gave everyone extra rolls of toilet paper. And the same goes with extra washing up liquid!"

So we drove ten miles to the nearest shop... and didn't much want to come back.

And there are other places that have absolutely nothing wrong with them but I just don't like them because I'm awkward or ornery or generally out of sorts.

For instance, I once spent a weekend in a fancy spa literally crossing off the hours till I could leave - and I hadn't done that since boarding school! The place made me feel like cutting my throat. The treatments made me feel like a zombie, there was nowhere to walk or explore locally, just miles of huge fields (I didn't have transport) I hated the food, hated the decor, hated the ambience, and I was in a country where I don't speak the language. The other guests were paying the equivalent of £1,500/$2,300 for a weekend there, and loving it.

I didn't write anything about the place. I wasn't prepared to lie, but telling the truth really wouldn't have been fair to them.

Anyway, there were no issues with the places I stayed with in Suffolk - I loved them all. I am pleased to give them a mention by name in the article. I like to feel that I'm encouraging people who try hard to offer a good product.

But do you want me to tell YOU about them and others like them? Let me know.