Heather Beach Cottage

Description

. Most of our time is spent in the beautiful green and brown woods of the Catskill mountains. However, every summer for more than 25 years we have packed up and migrated north to Heather Beach on Northumberland Strait where it is exquisitely blue! In the 1990’s we took our children, these summers we take our 4 grandchildren.
. This is truly a simple beach cottage. It is not a luxury accommodation! Really just a step or two above camping… It is all about the amazing beachfront location and the stunning view.
. This rustic cottage has electricity, hot running water with an outdoor shower. There are two tiny bedrooms - one with a queen sized futon bed, the other with four single bunks. This is a terrific place for little kids, gentle ocean, warm water, bike riding, exploring the beach - gathering a bounty of clams and mussels for dinner! [at certain times in the tide cycle] And for grownups who like it quiet, reading, painting, baking bread, and contemplating the deep blue sea. At low tide, you can walk for a couple miles on the edge of the world! This is not blanket to blanket, umbrella to umbrella beach but wild and authentic.
. There is an efficient air-tight wood burning stove for the occasional chilly evening and a large covered porch overlooking the sea and incredibly beautiful sunsets many evenings!! That’s the Northumberland Straight with Prince Edward Island just barely visible 10 miles distant.
. The regular season is summer – June through mid-September. July and August have the best beach weather. We have owned this since 1990 and enjoyed a few weeks every summer there, it’s our favorite place in the world! Late spring and early fall can be wonderful there, but you might have occasional need for the woodstove. While the calendar may only show open dates for the summer, if you are interested in the booking earlier or later, contact us.
. We never thought about sharing it until we discovered Airbnb. So when we decided to offer it, we saw it through new eyes - hey, we need to do work! It had been fine for our family, but not up to par for sharing. So in the summer of 2014 we got to work - cleaning, painting, wallpapering, etc. For the past 25 years, it’s been our very rustic beach retreat – with just an outhouse. That was fine for our family. In summer 2015 we had our first few Airbnb guests, and it was fine with them, too, we received favorable reviews. Nonetheless, we decided the time had come to invest whatever it took [a lot] to install a flush toilet. So now there is one - not luxurious, just a toilet in an adjacent storage shed.
. The cottage still feels like a throwback in time – an antique. For example, In the photo of the wood stove, you will see that on the floor of the living room we have kept the antique linoleum, dating back to the 1930's or 1940's. We have kept the wood shingle siding despite the headache of continual need for painting. Most other cottages along the beach have gone to vinyl or aluminum siding.
. There's an airtight wood stove. A month earlier or later than the summer season can be great, or can be a bit chilly for swimming. Even in summer, once in a while the north wind blows in and a fire is welcome. We keep a supply of firewood for the wood stove.
. It is beachfront. The beach is red sand, the water temperature in summer often gets up to 72 to 74 degrees. In 2015 one day the sea was 78 degrees. It varies quickly, and can be 76 one day and 68 the next. You have your own beach in front of the cottage, and, there's a public beach that’s more sandy, and with a lifeguard, a 10 minute walk to the east. The cottage is about 25 feet in elevation above the beach, so one can climb down the steep slope to the water, or walk 300 feet down the road to a public stairway.
. The shower: It's an outside shower that we find delightful - when the sun is high in the sky, the water spray makes little rainbows around you. And you're looking out across the Northumberland Straight to Prince Edward Island - heaven.
. Getting there: We usually drive - 750 miles from our home in Woodstock, New York. Our favorite way, but more costly, is to take the overnight sleeper coach on Via Rail Canada. One drives to Saint Lambert, a few miles outside of Montreal, [free safe parking there] catches the sleeper coach about 7 PM. Dinner is served in the dining car. Sleeping in your suite on the train is most refreshing. You arrive Amherst, Nova Scotia the next day at lunchtime [about 20 miles from the cottage] and pick up a rental car. If you're a train buff, and have the time, you can take the train all the way from Manhattan – Amtrak connects to Via Rail Canada in St. Lambert. If your time is limited, you can fly into Moncton, New Brunswick, and rent a car, about an hour’s drive to the cottage.
…One now needs a passport to cross the border.
. We want to emphasize the cottage is simple, plain, not at all fancy or modern. It’s a step up from camping. We love it, most guests love it, but a few guests are disappointed it is not modern, as you can see from negative reviews. Given our forthright description, it is disappointing to us that those guests booked it rather than figuring out that it wasn’t the right retreat for them.
. Trash, recycling, and composting must be separated, instructions will be posted. Pickup for each is only once every 2 weeks, therefore when you get there, there may be trash or recycling in the shed waiting for pickup on the next pickup date. On the night before the pickup date listed on the schedule which is posted on the fridge, it needs to be put out by the edge of the road. -- trash is one week and recycling another.
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Updates for 2019:
We have wifi. In addition, in the nearby town of Pugwash, there is the local library and the public site, known as the “CAP site,” both of which have free wifi and the use of their computers. There is a TV with a built in DVD player and a DVD rental store in Pugwash, no cable TV. The bedroom with the bunk beds works for our four grandchildren age 4 to 9 are fine with it, but due to comments from guests, we suggest adults only plan to use the queen futon bed and the twin sleeper sofa. Towels are provided.
. . We wish to address what we feel is inaccurate and unfair criticism. That is the review from August 2017. We encourage you to read our description in full, as we have done our best not only to say what we love about the cottage, but also some things that would cause some prospective guests to prefer another cottage. We have 7 listings on Airbnb from Florida to Nova Scotia and care passionately that our guests have a good experience. At the bottom of the review section is a link to the than 700 reviews of our properties – to give you an idea of the experiences of our guests over the past several years.
Insects: In 2018 we purchased two insect zappers to get rid of houseflys. Although they are quite effective, the downside is that – even if housekeeping has been done shortly before your check in -- the devices are likely to have the insects that have been zapped around them. We just want it understood that this is not a fault of the housekeeper, it’s because the device is working. As for mosquitoes -- usually there are none during the day, but at dusk -- 8:30 or 9 PM, sometimes they come out, so after dark, plan to go inside.

Rev. 20180926