The Joiners Arms

We stayed in The Tweed Suite. I’ve always wanted to stay and it was so worth booking for a special anniversary, as felt very luxurious! There’s loads of space, beautiful bedroom with the most comfortable bed ever, a huge beautiful bathroom, sitting area with TV, mini fridge and your own outdoor big area with wood hot tub, settees with low table and a teak wooden table & chairs for 8 people! We were left an anniversary card and bottle of chilling Prosecco on arrival to our room, which was the kindest surprise! This will no doubt have been Teghan’s thoughtfulness , the Joiner’s Arms Manager, who is the loveliest person in charge of a venue we’ve ever met and keeps us coming back for more lovely stays. Thank you so much for another lovely stay, can’t wait to book again!

We booked this on the morning of our trip. We arrived 30 minutes early and were told it was 15.00 earliest check in so we had a pint. We were shown to our room and it was lovely. Very quirky and loads of space. We booked the dinner, bed and breakfast deal and the food was delicious. Breakfast was probably the best I’ve had with choice of fruit, croissants, cheeses, meats, cereal etc and then a full English hot breakfast options. This is the second visit to the joiners arms and the only problem for us was the weather. Both times it’s rained and the only fault we had was there was no canopy over the hot tub. Well worth a visit 😀

My wife and I, plus a small group of guests, stayed, ate, and celebrated our wedding at The Joiners in March 2024. For reasons needing no explanation here we made a complaint that was rewarded with two comp nights to take within a year. We duly accepted this and decided to return to The Joiners in March 2025 to celebrate our first anniversary. We also added a third night to our stay, confident that our stay would be worthwhile. We stayed the three nights in Coquet, a room separate from The Joiners, and made dinner reservations for Friday and Saturday. We arrived on Friday evening. Baring in mind that these rooms start at £290 and go up to £330 for bed and breakfast, the request to take a £50 ‘breakages’ deposit, is something we’ve never been asked for at any other B&B or hotel. Dinner on Friday was good, priced a little high for what we chose, but all seemed ok. Having stayed last year, we already knew what to expect at breakfast, but considering The Joiners is 5 star, a buffet breakfast set out along the pub’s bar is hardly worthy of such a high rating. There’s one coffee machine that broke down every morning we were there, and delivered less than satisfactory coffee, a conveyor belt toaster to toast the already dried out bread from a basket on the bar. Again, this is not 5 star. The only thing served to the table was whatever we ordered from the breakfast menu, which amounts to one plate of food. 5 star should be fully catered, in my opinion, with coffee and tea being served at the table, along with any extras, like toast, or anything else that may be available to request. More shocking still was the section of the menu that incurrs a £5 surcharge. This included any sort of Benedict, smoked salmon, avocado, or stotty! We were told that this was a recent implementation. This, when you’re spending £290-£330 per night for bed AND breakfast. Running about the place, making toast, and making your own tea and coffee, poring juice, plating up a pastry, filling a bowl with yoghurt or cereal, all whilst waiting for hot food to come out, is not 5 star. I ordered poached eggs on buttered toast from a grumpy waitress, who offered me no bread option, even though it provides for one on the menu. I asked for granary. My wife ordered pancakes. The pancakes were stone cold and were duly sent back for a warm version as described on the menu, meaning that my wife and I ate separately. My poached eggs tasted of an over use of vinegar and arrived on a single piece of unbuttered white toast. I ate it without complaint to the staff as I was hungry. The next morning, my wife tried to get yoghurt at the buffet, only to be told by a miserable waitress, that three, (small), servings had been put out already that morning and no more was available. For our anniversary dinner on the Saturday, we were seated to wait an unacceptable amount of time before being asked for our drink order. I ordered a whisky, my wife asked for a Newcastle Brown. Again, an unacceptable time l

We had a wonderful stay. From the moment we arrived the staff made us feel welcome and at home. The room was so nice, we stayed in silver beach. The bath with the view was amazing, I could have stayed in it all night but was tempted down by the delicious dinner! Our food was amazing, drinks were delicious and so well made (cocktails) we slept so well and when we checked out in the morning the girl was so friendly. We can't wait to come back!

Great location for walks north and south - great pub and restaurant atmosphere, team very friendly and helpful (just missing a welcoming roaring fire, shame it’s not on) Room nice and big - bathroom could have done with night light as we both walked in to the shower screen (ouch) and a bit of a pain the kitchen extractors powered up at 7am - other thank that wry lovely stay - thank you

So, I’ll start be saying we enjoyed our stay, the area around the Joiners Arms is beautiful, with walks across the fields to Low Newton by the Sea, with its amazing beach, The Ship Pub etc. Now if The Joiners Arms was marketed as a nice pub which does Bed and Breakfast, then we’d have been more than happy, it is however marketed as a luxury 5 star retreat, with rooms costing £300+ It isn’t that. It’s fine, but it’s not luxury 5 star accommodation. The rooms are quirky were probably very nice when it opened, but are looking quite tired now, and could do with redecorating, as could the other areas of bar, hallways etc. We stayed in the Bill Bags Cape room. It’s was directly above the bar area and was really loud, you could hear every word from downstairs, so not really conducive to a chilled get away. It was also absolutely Baltic when we arrived, and took a long time to warm up after we turned the radiators on. We didn’t eat our evening meal in the restaurant as the reviews were pretty brutal, so we went to the Potted Lobster at Bamburgh which was delicious, and I’d 100% recommend (Sea Bream and Scallops in Thai curry was amazing) The breakfast at the Joiners was nice. We both had the Full English, and it was well cooked and generous portions, coffee was bang average from a self service machine, more what you’d expect at a premium Inn. There was also a £5 additional charge for many of the options on the menu (breakfast stottie / Eggs Benedict / Salmon and scrambled eggs) which I thought was really tight, considering guests have paid upwards of £300 a night. We still enjoyed our stay, but I think the Joiners owners need to be a bit more realistic about what’s on offer. It’s a nice B&B Pub, but that’s it, from what I’ve heard it was nicer when it first opened, is probably trading on past glory, and needs a bit of tlc