Chalet Saunton review: a happy return to Saunton Sands

There is great pleasure in “firsts”: first toy, first love, first car. The same is true of travel, where going somewhere for the first time can open you to new experiences, environments, people and flavours you never knew existed before.

But there is also a pleasure in returning to those places you have visited and come to love – going back to a museum to marvel again at a favourite artwork, returning to a restaurant for a particular dessert, or checking back into a familiar hotel or Airbnb you have stayed before.

So it was with The Week’s visit to Chalet Saunton, a location we reviewed a few years back, just prior to the Covid pandemic. A few years later, we returned to find out what, in the interim, has changed and what has remained the same; and to indulge in the sometimes underappreciated joy of the familiar.

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The suites and views

The most striking thing about Chalet Saunton, aside from the elegance of its interiors, is the breathtaking view from its balconies. Each of the suites in the hotel offers the exact same vista, out across Saunton Sands, an idyllic three-mile stretch of golden sand that backs onto the Unesco-protected Braunton Burrows Biosphere Reserve.

The shallowness of the drop-off means that the beach expands and contracts enormously depending on the tides, and the chalet’s position at the top of cliffs that overlook the beach from the northern edge mean huge and shifting skies, which always offer something new.

Come here in summer and you can expect long evenings of deep rich sunsets, while winter offers more pastel-coloured skies. Storms engulf the chalet in driving rain and fog regularly descends over the whole scene reducing everything to impressionistic shadowplay. Plus there is the sea, that ever shifting mesmeric chimaera that invites you just to sit and contemplate.

We remarked on this in our previous review, but coming again and at a slightly different time of year gave access to this new range of colours and weather conditions.

Also nice to see the apartments themselves bathed in slightly different light. Our apartment (number 2) remained beautifully appointed with a large open living space perfect for entertaining, and therefore ideal for a destination with a group of friends or family members. It was perhaps a touch more lived in, but that is to be expected given that the entire complex had barely been open only a few months the last time we visited.

The rear bedrooms are also far enough from the living space that it is a great place to visit with children (which this reviewer has one more of since the last time I visited). Neither the two-year-old nor the baby were woken by music-playing, TV and dinners we enjoyed in the living room after they were tucked into bed.

Eating and drinking

The surrounding area also offered a selection of restaurants and pubs that we had enjoyed the last time round and a few new openings that have since emerged.

Most notable among the newbies was New Coast Kitchen in Croyde, which opened its doors in October 2020 – surely the most daunting time to try to mount a new hospitality venture. But visiting here it is easy to see why it not only survived the pandemic, but thrived through it. The food is cheffy and experimental enough to impress, but hearty enough to satisfy. One of those places that feels both homely and flashy in just the right mix, where you could feel at home in your most casual jumper or dressed up for a date night.

The Beachside Grill overlooking Saunton Sands, which we enjoyed last time, welcomed us back and is still a solid option for lunch or dinner. And we were determined to go back to Number Eight, a pub that dazzled us last time we visited, and has only improved in the interim, if that is possible. Definitely worth the half-hour drive to Bideford.

Things to do

For golfers, next door to the chalet is Saunton Golf Club, which offers two championship courses and is listed at No.78 in Golf Monthly magazine’s top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland.

The region also continues to attract keen surfers and watersport enthusiasts, for obvious reasons. Saunton Sands, we suspect, will be hosting surf fanatics in 100 or even 1,000 years’ time. Some things change, some stay very much the same.

No place like home

“No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” This quote by the Chinese novelist, philosopher and inventor Lin Yutang, speaks to the joys of homecoming. Which is part of why many people in the UK seek out a holiday home. In fact, according to government figures taken just before the pandemic, 772,000 households in England had second homes.

Worth mentioning in the context of this review because currently one of the apartments in Chalet Saunton is currently available for purchase. So if you come here and decide you want to return regularly, or even live here, the opportunity currently exists.

Chalet Saunton is an ideal getaway and a great place to see the wonder of Saunton Sands. But don’t be surprised if your one-off visit has you longing for a return.

Arion McNicoll was a guest of Chalet Saunton. Apartments sleeping up to six guests start from £550 per night on a self-catering basis. For more information on visits or to enquire about purchasing an apartment, see chaletsaunton.com or call 01271 890514.