Knowing we wanted to stay in the New Forest and do some bike riding, but also realising my wife and I had left it until the last minute before a 3-day holiday weekend, I was finding no accomodation available, but amazingly Walcot House had a vacancy due to a cancellation.
I rented a car at Southampton Airport, and quickly and easily found the hotel.
The room was a bit small, barely bigger than the bed itself, but neat and tidy, and we had a television with good reception, and the bed was comfortable.
The classic English breakfast fryup was served by a chatty and outgoing husband Steve while his wife Marie did the cooking.
The village of Fawley was a good place from which to set out to see the highlights of the New Forest, such as Beaulieu, only 3 miles away. In fact, you just go a couple of minutes to the west, and already you're in the countryside.
One 'odd' thing about this property, which I learned from looking on a mapping website after booking, is that you're adjacent to the largest oil refinery in Europe. This made me a bit aprehensive, however, during my stay I noticed nothing, and if you didn't read it here, you'd probably never notice either. The direction of the prevailing winds, from west-to-east, means that you're getting fresh air from the sea and across the New Forest all the time.