While others were in Norwegian fjords or on African safaris, I ventured ten minutes walk away from home for my staycation. Back at Chez Tidalscribe Cyberson Two and DIL Two were ripping out the bathroom. Not as scary as it sounds as Interiors are their business and this was their 49^th bathroom.

My holiday home was a seaside let, a top floor flat with a balcony – not alas that yellow house of character with the turrets. A search revealed plenty of Air B&Bs near my house, including next door ( a converted garage ), but I thought I should enjoy a cliff top experience. I wanted a cliff top house when we moved to Bournemouth, but few were available, let alone in our price range.

I know other female bloggers go solo round the world on motorbikes or yachts so it is not very adventurous to go home for Cyberson’s home cooked meals and to collect anything you have forgotten… and to water my plants… and the garden as the heat wave had continued unabated.

What made it different from home? I was nearer my beach hut and the open top bus stopped almost outside. I could have my breakfast on the balcony and watch the world go by. At any moment, however early, there was always a dog walker on the cliff or a jogger on the pavement or a cyclist on the road. There was also traffic on the coast road, it was much noisier than my quiet little road.

There are clifftop views such as lighthouses looking over wild waves crashing on rocks and houses with back gardens on the edge of cliffs. There are still houses right on the edge in Southbourne, but lots more have long since crumbled down with the sandy cliffs, leaving only the roses and shrubs that once grew in their garden clinging to the cliffside.

However, I still had a view and at night there was the black sea straight ahead and to the west the lights of Bournemouth and Swanage and early in the morning sunrise from the bathroom window.

Inside it was clean and tidy with everything you could want if you were actually living and cooking there. The décor was white, literally, from the paint work to the bedding and towels. The only items not white were the artificial lawn on the balcony and the impossible to lift dark blue pottery mugs the size of hefty jugs. Lucky I could pop home and get my bone china tea mug. The bed was very comfortable, the sofa not so. I managed to work the television and get the WiFi so overall a good experience and I still miss the patter of tiny feet – the slip slap of the early morning joggers before the traffic got busy.

Have you been on a Staycation or had any holiday let experiences, good or bad?