We needed to isolate for 5 days due to COVID as we entered the country. As a family of 5, we figured a roomy place in the country would be superior to a small hotel room in London. This was a good call.
The historic barn has been converted into an absolutely beautiful, modern house with 2 full upstairs bedrooms and a small bonus downstairs bedroom adjacent to the kitchen. Each upstairs bedroom has an attached bathroom, one with a great full-sized tub, the other with a high-flow rain shower that puts ours at home to shame. I’ll miss that.
We had to stay put during our stay because of NHS requirements, but the wifi at the barn was good, and the smart TV had Prime and Netflix, and we could cast to it from our phones. We enjoyed hanging out on the couch and watching the horses in the field on the hillside. The whole farm is very picturesque.
The owner was very welcoming. On arrival, we found many treats awaiting us in the kitchen; butter, local milk, cheese, a rustic loaf of bread, homemade jam (sooo good!), eggs, sausages, bacon, fruit, wine, and an entire homemade cake! It was all wonderful.
When we did need to go buy food, we did experience some location-based complications. Our cell signal was weak, so some of the NHS daily tracking calls had trouble getting through, even with wifi assist. Sometimes Uber would not find a driver, and it would only work if we were on wifi. The bridge at the train station was closed to vehicles for construction, so the solution is to walk to The Stepping Stones pub on the other side of the bridge and get on their free wifi to try to get an Uber. They also sold us some groceries and a lovely takeaway supper (call ahead 1 hour before.)
Down at the Stainsbury’s in Dorking there’s a Starbucks across the street whose wifi you can use, though we couldn’t find an Uber driver back. We ended up calling a local taxi service, who were wonderful.
The walk to the train station is brief and lovely, but the lane is narrow and you share it with cars for 2/3 of the distance.
When it was time to leave it was raining, and the owner drove back and forth to the train station bridge to ferry our whole family and our baggage to the train.
I would definitely come again. The Flint Barn exceeded our expectations.
