On the road again: Paw Paw Place, Melville, South Coast, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Another one that looked so lovely on the website but failed to deliver in reality. We should have run the other way when we turned down the seemingly deserted, eerie road and arrived at the white and rust(ed) gate!

The entire house is in desperate need of maintenance - the locks on the doors are all so rusted we were surprised they had not fallen out yet. The downstairs smelt like 3 dogs had been sleeping in the bedrooms.

Although it is within walking distance to the beach, you are also right by the railway line.

I hardly slept at all here because of the area it is situated in. We normally sleep with windows wide open for air but we didn't feel safe doing that here.

There are no burglar bars on the upstairs windows, only an alarm for security. As you have to lock yourself in from the downstairs (with the rusty doors you'd never be able to open in a hurry), you pretty much feel like there is no escape if anyone did decide to break in.

The best feature was the patio, you could see a patch of sea here and there through the trees (not one paw paw!) and bushes.

Great features:

* Spacious undercover patio

* Plenty of beds if you are travelling in a group

Not so great features:

* Location and condition of the property

Price: If you are travelling as a big group, great for a budget break.

Would we go back: No. Never. (Yes this is the other one of the two places we'll never go back to)

Recommended for: A big group of friends looking for a cheap holiday. I think you'd sleep better if there were more people to keep an eye and ear open.

The host/s: The owner was friendly enough over email, we never actually met. I didn't appreciate that he took over a week to return my deposit when we left the place cleaner than when we found it.

For more information and bookings:
www.wheretostay.co.za/pawpawplace