Splendid isolation at Borth Cottage

I have to be honest, if the photographs on the website hadn't been so attractive we would never have driven an arduous six hours to reach Borth Cottage just outside Abersoch, north Wales. Millennium night spent in a dank old house in nearby Nefyn had perhaps, unfairly, put me off self-catering in this part of the country for some time.

Borth Cottage is a little different. Once off the motorway, it is still a long and winding route to its front door but, even on a wet night, as we drew up we could see we were somewhere special.
Sat facing the bay on the scenic, windswept Llyn Peninsula, known unofficially as Cheshire-on-Sea, Borth Cottage is part of a new venture from entrepreneur and millionaire Simon Nixon, co-founder of Moneysupermarket.com and Simonseeks. He has now turned his attention to property: Simonescapes are upmarket holiday homes — Elkstones in Chipping Campden, Cotswolds is now available and, for me, the more interesting Little Polgarron opens in Booby's Bay,
Padstow early next year with interiors by Jill Stein, Rick's ex-wife. Location is everything.

Nixon originally bought Borth Cottage for his own use. He is a man who can probably have anything he wants and so it is a pleasant surprise that this house is kitted out so tastefully without obvious ostentation — well, if you discount the large H to the front of the house for helicopters to land on, an indication of the type of person who stays here (Sir Alex Ferguson was a previous guest), and the requisite playboy hot tub.

Natural materials are used throughout — wood, stone, slate, glass, steel — so that although the look is distinctly high-end and contemporary, it is undeniably an appealing and relaxing place to while away a weekend in. Especially considering we had rocked up with four children under 12 — my three lively nephews, Jonny, Pablo and Louis, and our own daughter Maya. The house sleeps 12 in total.

The £70,000 Bulthaup kitchen is open plan with a proper five-ring chefs-style cooker — perfect for feeding all eight of us house guests. A stunning glass cube extension houses the dining table and links the kitchen to one of the two living rooms. We used this one more — with a PlayStation 2 and plasma television it was cosier and more family friendly than the larger cinema room with a 50in television with Blu-ray player, shelves lined with books and art. Just off this area is a sauna tiled with Fired Earth tiles — all the en-suite bathrooms are wet rooms stunningly tiled with variations on the same brown theme, and like a hotel there are local organic Celtic Herb Company toiletries in the bathrooms.

On closer inspection Borth Cottage is brimming with designer names such as B&B Italia Charles sofas and Foscarini Caboche glass wall lights. The bespoke staircase is made from glass, steel and oak, and here hangs a Tom Dixon mirrored copper shade.

The master bedroom has an egg-shaped freestanding stone resin bath sat on a glass platform, as if floating on water, in full view of an oversized arched window with beautiful views across Cardigan Bay to Snowdonia. With no blind or curtain I felt too shy to bathe with the world as my audience — instead letting the children jump in and out of it fully clothed. Someone had to use it.

In fact, unwittingly, the house proved very child friendly. Relentless rain stopped a treasure hunt outside so instead I hid sweets for the children behind objects dotted around the place — paintings (most sourced by Nixon himself on his travels) and Grecian urns. When it didn't rain we explored the landscaped garden.

The beach is just a few minutes down a narrow lane to the front of the house and faces the soft outline of the mountains of west Wales and St Tudwal's Islands. The west island, with an active lighthouse, is owned by adventurer Bear Grylls. You can walk along the coast, past the beach huts to nearby Pwllheli for fresh and crispy fish and chips.

On our last day we took the children down to the beach for some sea air before the long drive back. The choppy, frothy waters of the Irish Sea nipped at the younger one's wellies, while Johnny, the oldest, got slighter damper than planned, ending up walking in right up to his chest.

He looked as bedraggled as Withnail (from that classic film, Withnail and I). We marched him back to the comfort of the house to get dry before leaving for our more humble homes. Who wants to be a millionaire? At that moment I think we all did.