I recently stayed at The Retreat in Portsmouth. The outside is utterly charming. When someone says "guest house in England", this is the exaclty the visual that comes to mind. The individual rooms/suites are lovely and spacious; complete with modern features including flat screen televisions and jetted bathtubs. The owners are accomodating and simply fun to be around. They provided me and my collegues with dead on recommendations from pubs to shopping. I would stay here again and would recommend The Retreat without hesitation.

We have just spent a night at this lovely guesthouse which has only just opened. From the moment we walked in on Saturday afternoon we received a wonderful welcome by the owners Mark and Sian who encouraged us to sit in the lounge and relax with pots of tea and biscuits. The guest house is more like a beautiful home; uncluttered, full of light and character with four individual bedrooms which are all of a good size with spacious en suite facilities. We were in the Cooper Room, but we had a guided tour of the other three rooms, which were equally as nice! Everything about The Retreat is so tasteful and the dining room is no exception. Our breakfast was excellent, my partner had the full English which he said was well above the usual bed and breakfast standard. I was offered a huge choice of cereals, yoghurt which was kept chilled on ice, toast, a selection of pastries and Sian prepared me a platter of sliced fresh fruit. We felt comfortable enough to linger over the selection of morning papers that were thoughtfully provided. We would have loved to stayed longer but this was a fleeting visit to see my daughter who has just started at Portsmouth Uni. Mark even lent us some tools to put her flatpack furniture together! We came away from the Retreat feeling that we had met two really lovely people who were passionate about providing very special accommodation and took pride in giving a first class service. It's not the cheapest accommodation in the Portsmouth area, but you certainly get value for money and we will definitely be coming back to The Retreat.