Anyone who thinks a family holiday – one with a fairly well-behaved almost-three-year-old son, and a fairly well behaved almost-five-year-old labrador – is a ‘holiday’ in the traditional sense, is mad. Breaks with domesticated dependents are driven by regimentation, not relaxation. Early dinner reservations built around a strict 7pm bath, books, and bedtime slot. Morning walkies allocations informed by the percentage chance of a breakfast meltdown over kid-sized pancakes. Afternoon beauty spot visits dictated by car nap durations. That sort of thing.
In hunting for Time Out London’s most family-friendly stays, these are the lessons my (currently) heavily pregnant wife and I have learned. Survival requires blueprints, team sheets, and serious R&R priorities – that’s roles and responsibilities, not the other one. The Mole is not only the perfect proving ground for this, but also a testing ground for those looking for their own first foray into the family getaway wilderness. Wilderness being the key term here: the former Devon golf club turned lodge-based resort is, depending on your taste in Netflix documentaries, in the wholesome or horrifying middle of nowhere.
Why stay at The Mole?
The Mole is mostly made up of 58 self-catered lodges spread across an immaculate 125-acre grounds. These homey-feeling kit houses are for those who want to get away as a family without the dread of ruining any fellow guests’ stays with your gang’s screaming, barking, and emotional breakdowns. With that anxiety out the way, you can seek out that genuine quality time you’ve come for. Partly because you’re forced into it, owing to being one hour from the distractions of mass civilisation (Exeter is 30 miles of slow-going countryside driving away), but mainly because the facilities here are geared up for it. As well as your classic pool and playgrounds, there’s a huge roster of free outdoor activities and tutorials to book and enjoy as a family, from axe throwing to frisbee golf, pickleball to archery. It’s dead easy to fill your days here without leaving the estate. It’s worth knowing, though, that the activities revolving around pointy, sharp, and dangerous things (read: the fun ones) are only suitable for kids and adults over the age of four.
What are the rooms like at The Mole?
Firstly, spotless. We opted for the aforementioned self-catering option, staying in one of a row of two-bedroomed glass-and-wood lodges sat on what has to be a tree-lined former fairway. In the open-plan ground floor, you’re getting a surprisingly well spec’d kitchen (an American-style Samsung fridge, induction hobs, dishwasher, prep knives that actually cut through foodstuffs), a living area with comfy L-shaped sofa and flat screen TV, and decking with a private hot tub. Upstairs, a twin room, bathroom, and en-suite double. The six-foot windows in the master bedroom frame a melange of trees and bring glorious Japanese forest bathing energy to your wake-ups, especially in autumn when burning hues ignite the foliage.
You’ll also be taken aback by the thick-piled carpet throughout the house, which feels far too luxurious to risk laying down inside a dog- and child-friendly abode. It’s hard to find any real drawbacks when you can get all this for as little as £96 a night, but the only real flaw in our lodge was how creaky it was underfoot – definitely a symptom of its quick-build design. Every step upstairs was like treading on a loud goose, so here’s hoping your little one is a deep sleeper. Creaky lodges not your thing? Then go for one of the rooms in the manor house for a more trad hotel experience.
Where shall I eat at The Mole?
The Mole has a tiny outpost with essential supplies, and there’s a quaint village shop a short walk from its gates, but all you self-caterers best know that the nearest supermarket is 30 minutes away, in sunny/seedy Barnstaple. Luckily, you’ve got three ways around this little inconvenience. First, The Mole offers a (mostly) locally sourced family fry-up kit that it can pop in your fridge before arrival. The generously sliced bacon, chubby bangers, fresh eggs, new potatoes, mushrooms, and tomatoes will last you a couple of days.
Second, as part of its resort-wide WhatsApp service for any questions or requests, there’s a deliver-to-your-door food service. It’s basic fare – salads, pizzas, burgers and chips – but handy if you don’t fancy cooking for a night.
Finally, the restaurant. This place should not be as good as it is. With its patterned dining room carpet and colourful chairs, it looks every single one of the 195 miles that separate it from the cult übercoolness of London’s Carbone. It looks very… prawn cocktail. But the lengths this place goes to to work with local farmers and seasonal producers, and prepare their farm-to-table fare with the utmost skill and care, is a bit of a blindsider. It’s classic pub food, sure, but done really well with the right ingredients. The chargrilled 8oz local sirloin was my star choice from the grill menu – cooked exactly how I’d requested, sourced from a farmer and butcher the chef was on first-name terms with, and with the right amount of indulgent aged funk to it.
What is the service like at The Mole?
Considering my visit was in low-season October, the place was packed with staff whizzing around the pristinely manicured and kept grounds on electric golf carts, always with a wave, always with a smile, always with a ‘hello’. Very countryside, you know? It’s an authentic type of friendly that carries right the way through the young staff here, from reception to restaurant. It raised a valid question: how can a resort in the centre of absolutely nowhere employ and retain such a huge number of really fantastic, energetic, young staff? By housing them in great facilities on-site, was the answer I got from my waiter at dinner.
What are the facilities like at The Mole?
A few areas of The Mole, including the slightly chilly indoor pool and its changing rooms, felt quite ‘local council facility’ in their need for a polish and fixing up. But for the most part, everything is solid – for example, based on me peering through its gates, I got the impression that the closed-for-the-season outside pool was a bit special. Indoors, there’s a slightly jarring mashup of bowling alley entertainment (read: crack for kids) in the main communal area, and manor-style charm where a subterranean cocktail bar and country house lounges await. A bit wonky, yes. But each serves its specific purpose based on family mood. Which, as any parent knows, could flip on a dime: you’re only ever one decision to cut a carrot into batons WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ROUNDS away from a nuclear tantrum. And when it happens, you’ll be glad of the soothing neon lights of the Pac-Man machine. One essential that it does lack, though, especially while on your potty-training journey, is an on-site laundry service. You’ll really feel it when they tell you how far away the nearest launderette is.
What’s the area like around The Mole?
Absolutely charming if you’re of the digital detox persuasion. Utterly nightmarish if you’ve got emails to check, you idiot. Luckily, I’m well versed in the art of reversing up green lanes and navigating fields of sheep with a dog, so the billion-acre estate vibe of the woodlands and walks outside The Mole’s gates wasn’t wasted on me. At one point, while son and wife napped after a long morning on the huge Saunton Sands beach, I treated myself to a stroll along one of the resort’s recommended public footpaths. So spectacular was the route that I was slightly nervous I’d strayed off the path and would be chased off the land by Lord Waftington-Corduroy and his Irish wolfhounds.
If you’re in the business of quaint boozing, the award-winning Exeter Inn (a 10-minute stroll from our front door) is a podium topper. Friendly staff, slightly suspicious locals, kid friendly, local ales and lagers, horse brasses, a hearth, and a resident dog begging for an ear scratch? This is country life, baby!
Why should you book a stay at The Mole?
Holidays with a toddler are never going to be easy. But they can be easier with the right amount of space, level of service, amount of activities, and dosage of nap-inducing fresh air. If this is your first foray into family breaks, then book away. Just bring plenty of spare pants for the kiddo.
DETAILS
Address: The Mole Resort, Chittlehamholt, Umberleigh, EX37 9HD
Price: From around £96 per night
Closest transport: Umberleigh Station is a 13-minute drive away