Villa Lavinia on Hambrough Road, is fantastic, with sea views. The beds are comfy, the food at the Hambrough is superb, the staff are delightful and the villa is clean and really relaxing and a great option to staying at the main hotel, if you like your independence. Except for one thing. If, like us, you're coming from a busy city, the thought of parking wars won’t be on your list of must haves for your holiday on the Isle of White. The first evening we were startled by a violent banging on the door, we met the first of our new neighbours on either side of us. We had parked on the road outside of our house, and maybe 10cm outside of the alignment of our house and next door, the road in front of our neighbours parked car was empty?! The neighbour was aggressive in the extreme shouting at my 75 year old mother and reminding her we were only renters and how many properties he owns for some reason, he made my 80 year old father come downstairs and move his car, we ended up parking down the road just to stop him shouting, it was frankly horrible and quite humiliating. The second evening, my Father took great care to make sure we were parked correctly outside our house to the mm. This time it was the husband and wife from the other side returning, thumping on...Villa Lavinia on Hambrough Road, is fantastic, with sea views. The beds are comfy, the food at the Hambrough is superb, the staff are delightful and the villa is clean and really relaxing and a great option to staying at the main hotel, if you like your independence. Except for one thing.

If, like us, you're coming from a busy city, the thought of parking wars won’t be on your list of must haves for your holiday on the Isle of White.

The first evening we were startled by a violent banging on the door, we met the first of our new neighbours on either side of us. We had parked on the road outside of our house, and maybe 10cm outside of the alignment of our house and next door, the road in front of our neighbours parked car was empty?! The neighbour was aggressive in the extreme shouting at my 75 year old mother and reminding her we were only renters and how many properties he owns for some reason, he made my 80 year old father come downstairs and move his car, we ended up parking down the road just to stop him shouting, it was frankly horrible and quite humiliating.

The second evening, my Father took great care to make sure we were parked correctly outside our house to the mm. This time it was the husband and wife from the other side returning, thumping on the door and shouting, they were even more aggressive, again for some reason reminding us we were just renting the property, they said the parking space outside of the villa was also there's, for their 2nd car, as well as their own house, basically they have commandeered the villa’s parking as their own. They told us they would carry on shouting until we moved, which is what they did, they stood in the street staring at us through the window until we moved, the hotel unbelievably left us to sort this out and actually phoned us in the end and asked us to move, so we did, this house has no proper available parking until the hotel gets to grips with this ridiculous situation.

What the villa has been allowed by the neighbour at No:5 in the way of parking is a small sliver in front of the gate to their own garden, only these two neighbours make sure no one can actually park there, well maybe with a Smart car, by carefully positioning their own vehicles for maximum disruption as close as possible to the boundary of the villa they have set themselves. If you do manage to maneuver your vehicle into this odd sliver of land you wouldn't be able to access the garden, making me believe the lines indicated in front of the small garden gate, show an area not to be parked in for access, rather than the sole allocated area for the house.

If I was here with my family, our estate car, buckets and spades etc, this would be a major issue not being able to park outside the property. The house sleeps 10 people, so  be prepared to park at the main hotel which is a short walk away.

What’s unbelievable, is the hotel hasn't sorted this issue out, and has appeared to accept what is going on, if this was my property I would be sending a solicitors letter to the neighbour at no:5 who has commandeered the Villa's parking for their second car and checking with the land registry office for clarity, as one house taking the parking spaces of two properties can be easily contested.

Sadly these neighbours really changed the good vibes we arrived with, we never got to park the car anywhere near the house for the rest of the holiday and they watched our every move, incase we dared try and park outside of our 'rented' house again, it was a very odd experience and very uncomfortable, though we loved the house and hotel we would never choose to put ourselves in this toxic environment out of choice. I'm just glad my children weren't with us, and didn't have to witness what can only be described as the neighbours from hell.More