Penmere Manor Hotel

Conveniently located near Penmere railway platform; free overnight parking; generally clean, staff helpful, room spacious enough for two people, but overlooking a flat roof. Pool a good depth. Room heating, once we turned radiator on, worked well. Pleasant-smelling collection of bathroom toiletries. The only continental breakfast option was a packet of Alpen Müsli and a pot of yoghurt. Nice lawn, dilapidated outdoor pool and pool house.

Breakfast was very disappointing. Incredibly salty bacon, my son's scrambled eggs looked like they'd been made of dried egg powder - rubbery, colourless, tasteless. The toast was much too dark, no fresh salad/vegetable / continental breakfast option, except for a packet of Alpen Müsli and a pot of yoghurt. They didn't even have any ham/salami/sausage, just slabs of cheese, but even that only on request. The breakfast 'buffet' was just a disaster. Tinned grapefruit/prunes/very unripe apricots were poured into a bowl as 'fruit', no fresh fruit option, either. No tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, lettuce, nothing. Just dry cereal. Poached egg was ok, but only ate one of the two as they looked so unappetizing and were rubbery on the outside. Yuck. There were some croissants, only one of us had half of one, not very fresh. No other bread option, like seeded/rye/gluten free or rolls at all. If you're English and was brought up on dry, tasteless cardboard cereal and cold milk, you'll probably love the breakfast choice. Swimming pool - very badly lit with ancient wall sconces, shower in changing room broken, pool towels tiny and thin, have to be provided by staff, as they're not left in the room. Bedroom - lights very dusty and cob-webbed on ceiling; windows don't open; tea/coffee making tray with old-looking biscuits didn't inspire us to want to have anything. Pot didn't look clean. Bathroom had only thin net curtain, so we had to shower with the light off, otherwise everyone from the gym would have been able to look straight at us, having our shower. Bathroom fittings, except for the actual bath, very old, the towel warmer stayed resolutely cold. Very few hooks in the bathroom, dotted in weird, useless places.