Heidi's Grasmere Lodge

Stayed here on our Coast to Coast adventure and thoroughly recommend it. Accessed by a security code you are allocated a room which in my case was very spacious indeed. Overlooking the centre of Grasmere with its own private balcony/terrace. No evening meal but plenty of places on the doorstep. We wandered over to the pub opposite without a need to book on a busy bank holiday. Breakfast in Heidi’s cafe attached and accessed from inside.

Heidi’s is an amazingly friendly cafe in the centre of Grasmere. Humans and dogs are well looked after by Craig and the team who serve great coffee and food as well and delicious breakfasts. Dods get their own towels on rainy days as well as water bowls and treats .

I will say that I did not book my stay at Heidi’s and would not choose a zero welcome accomodation like this myself, my walk company did the booking. This is my experience: I was walking the coast to coast path and on the day I arrived in Grasmere it had been raining heavily though had stopped by the time I reached Heidi’s, all clad in scaffolding. I found the door with its keypad and then had to grapple through my wet rucksack to find the six digit keycode. This worked and I entered to be greeted by a scrap of paper in a wooden stand which invited me to search for my door key in a drawer. This drawer was in the same room I was now in. The room also had doors to the cafe, the toilet, the laundry and the stairs up to the rooms. I missed the sign inviting me to take off my boots because two ornaments had been placed in front of it. I spotted it later though the array of footwear could have given me a clue. I hiked upstairs and found my room, Room 4. My luggage didn’t arrive till 90 minutes later so I wandered around the town before returning to freshen up. The room was spacious with a double bed, clean and tidy. It also had two low beams down the length of the room with sharp edges which I was to bump my head on several times during my one night stay. The ensuite is huge with a bath as well as a seperate shower. Though if you wished to have a bath being low in stature would be a help as the ceiling sloped across the bath so anyone of my height (6’) would have fun and games. During my wait for the luggage a lady staff member (I do not know her name) advised me that the transfer company had been very late at the time. So next morning breakfast was in the adjoining cafe. The choice was poor, a selection of mini cereal packets, fruit juice and maybe some yoghurts. I ordered some mint tea and egg, bacon and tomato. The mint tea was great, served in a sort of cafetierre and tasted great. The cooked breakfast was another matter. The bacon was the toughest I have ever encountered in my life, I could not cut through it at all, it was a serious chew. The tomato was cooked whole, so I supect that the tomato and the bacon had been in a deepfat fryer. In short this was by far the worst breakfast I encountered on my week of walking. In fact I could not wait to get out of the place it was awful. Gem, it is not!