Sluttery Travels: The Officer's House, Sussex

Sussex is one of the most beautiful parts of England. It's got the perfect jealousy-inducing balance of countryside and seaside and it's only 90 minutes away from London. It will always be one of my favourite places to escape for a weekend and I don't get the chance nearly often enough. While I'm a huge fan of boutique hotels and snuggly robes, I absolutely love self-catering holidays. There's no one to tell me what time to have breakfast (or tell me off when breakfast is nothing but tea and chocolate biscuits), I'm free to do what I like and cooking is so much more fun in a huge kitchen. The Officer's House in Rye Harbour ticks all of these boxes.

Dream kitchens have islands in. That's a Sluttery fact.

The house is actually owned by our friends at The Gallivant Hotel, just a few miles away in Camber Sands, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the UK. Even in early March. Incidentally, Camber Sands has the best excited beach dog to people ratio I've ever seen. Well done, brilliant dogs everywhere.

We sat at opposite ends of the table like they do in costume dramas. It's really very silly. Frances made us watch The Voice while we were eating steak and drinking Pina Coladas. See? It's easy to just fall into chilling out and reading books and doing exactly what you'd do at home, but somehow it's loads better.

It's a charmingly decorated house. One of those places that feels instantly comfortable and you find yourself trying out all of the many chairs and sofas.

The house is packed with board games (there's even a proper poker set which was totally wasted on us) and some excellent books. Frances and I fought over who got to read the 1940s edition of The Bedside Esquire. It's incredible, everyone should have a copy.

Bedrooms are 'slept hours longer than I planned to' comfortable and simple and I like that as much thought has gone into the twin rooms and kids rooms as the rest of the house. I nearly slept on the top bunk. I do wish the rooms had clocks in. I honestly had no idea what time it was for the entire weekend.

Prices start at £950 for a week, and the house sleeps 8. The only major downside? If you don't drive, The Officer's House might not be for you. The short distance from Rye and the drive to beautiful Camber Sands won't be a problem by car but it's just slightly too far out of town to walk and the cost of several taxi rides rack up over a weekend. So all I need now is for someone with a car to drive me back so I can stay for an entire week. That's the best plan. If you've got four wheels and want somewhere to stay on a lovely break, The Officer's House is close on weekend perfection.

We were guests at The Officer's House and we're feeling really bad about accidentally stealing their Prince CD.

Sluttery Travels: The Gallivant Hotel, Camber Sands

A trip to the beach in February? I'd never been to the Sussex coast before and had no idea what to expect but was adamant that even if the weather was bad I was going to build at least one sandcastle. Nestled just behind the sand dunes of Camber and surrounded by the Romney salt marshes lies The Gallivant which after a 4 hour drive down from the Midlands was like an oasis as it appeared around the corner.

With only 18 rooms The Gallivant is small and full of cute little personal touches. I was shown to the Beach Hut room which had a HUGE comfy bed to flop down onto and soft puffy pillows. A little pot of homemade biscuits waited next to a big teapot and selection of teas, the biscuits lasted all of about 30 seconds as I was famished, a huge bonus of travelling alone is extra biscuits. There was UHT milk which is always a bit of a disappointment in hotel rooms but there was a little note to say you could just call for fresh milk from reception (on a very cool retro phone next to the bed).

I fell in love with the rubber duck, he costs £5 to take home. 

There was a huge flatscreen TV, a DVD player, and you can borrow movies from a big selection at reception. I opted for "Inception" and discovered that you can easily see the screen from the bath, so promptly ran a big bath and watched Leonardo DiCaprio until I went super wrinkly. You could buy pretty much anything that's in the room from the big fluffy bathrobes to the biscuits to the books that they leave there in case you get tired of watching movies in the bath or playing on the beach.

How stunning is the beach? And this is FEBRUARY!

Oh the beach! The Gallivant is the only hotel in Camber Sands and is literally a stones throw from the beautiful sand dunes and 5 miles of stunning sandy beach, a beach that is pretty much deserted 350 days of the year. It's all yours.

This handsome chap was staying at the hotel

Whenever I'm on a beach I instantly wish I had a dog with me to play with, this would be a perfect opportunity for me to use the Borrow a Doggy site but The Gallivant have got this covered. You can take one of the owner's dogs, "Camber", off to the beach, he'll even pull you up the dunes (now that's service), I definitely think more hotels should have dogs for you to borrow. If you have a dog already though that's cool as well behaved dogs are welcome at the hotel so you can all enjoy a beach holiday playing in the dunes.

Meet Camber, he wants to be your beach buddy

If the weather is being somewhat uncooperative for beach shenanigans and you want to go out and explore, you're surrounded by stunning countryside to venture out into. Camber is just a 5 minute drive from the gorgeous historic town of Rye so I hopped off in the car to have a mooch about. Rye is packed with loads of great antique shops, artist galleries, old book shops and lovely places to pop in for a pint of local ale or two and we covered loads of great things to get up to during our Sussex Week special.

This awesome car seat was in a shop called McCully & Crane, I definitely want one

The Gallivant is basically a bit of a haven for food lovers as they have a bounty of incredible produce right on their doorstep, and they know what they're doing with it. I visited during Rye Scallop Week and ate the freshest, sweetest, most perfectly cooked scallops I'd had in years.

Chapel Down vineyard is also just up the road so the drinks list features not only wonderful locally made wines but also the most fabulous lager called Curious Brew that's made using the champagne yeast from the vineyard. It's stunning, I was so impressed I headed to the vineyard the following day to pick up a few bottles!

Dinner was amazing, their salt marsh lamb was absolute heaven and served perfectly rare, but it was after a mouthful of melting dauphinoise that I actually wanted to go into the kitchen and hug their chef. Do not leave without ordering their signature dessert of tarte tatin, it truly is a thing of sticky, indulgent beauty.

No matter how fuzzy your head is the following morning make sure you get up early enough to get breakfast though because it's ace. Their homemade banana bread was a particular highlight (I had 3 big slices, well there's fruit in there so it's fine, right?) and everything is local, made to order and perfect to set you up for another day on the beach.

French toast and banana bread = ace hangover cure

All the staff were super friendly and made me feel totally at home from the moment I arrived. Doubles start at around £135 per night including breakfast and they have a whole range of different packages from "Dog Lovers Escapes" to  food lovers weekend packages that include 5 course tasting menus and cookery school breaks or you can hire the entire place out for a wedding weekend (they have a licence and gorgeous marquee).

The sky seems a whole lot bigger in Camber

I really fell in love with the The Gallivant and can't wait to go back (I might even get to build that sandcastle), and at just an hour's drive from London it's the perfect, laid back beach getaway for food lovers and dogs alike who fancy a bit of unspoilt deserted beach life.

I was a guest of The Gallivant.