Personally, I'm not sure that these two spacious four-bedroom, split-level Tuscan/ colonial hideaways with spa baths, queen-sized beds and seven-metre vaulted loungeroom ceilings could adequately be described as cottages. But however you want to classify them, they're certainly a tribute to the taste of Jervis Bay builder Adrian Robertson and his wife Jenny.

Tucked into eucalypts and native gardens on the Robertsons' 110 hectare property (about 30 minutes drive south-east of Nowra), the cottages are less than three years old, but exude a genuinely rustic ambience: wrap around wood-slat porches, corrugated iron roofs, rendered walls and sunken courtyards on the outside, antique furniture, wooden beds, brushbox floorboards, framed watercolours and big open fireplaces inside.

Each cottage has four bedrooms, two upstairs, two down, one with ensuite bathroom that easily accommodate four adults and two kids. There's a stove in the kitchen that's big enough to feed a platoon of ravenous children, a discreetly hidden laundry in case of unforseen disasters down at the dam, and a barbeque outside. A wooden table and benches on the veranda make a good al fresco breakfast spot, and even the coffee-table books are classy (The Fauves, a book of Nolan prints.)

The Robertsons are supremely laid-back people who don't mind your wandering around the property to get acquainted with their horses, chooks and rabbits (not to mention snakes, tread carefully). And 10 minutes drive away is Greenpatch Beach, God's gift to the nuclear family, with its grazing roos, flocks of rosellas, perfect paddling water and rock formations. Further afield is the surf of Caves Beach, Booderee National Park and innumerable bushwalks in Jervis Bay and St Georges Basin.

This one got the highest possible rating from the Guilliatt/ Bogle clan - eight thumbs up and a rebooking.

RICHARD GUILLIATT