This is a large house with a wonderfully relaxing and comfortable front screened in porch. Easy walk to the pier, cove and the guzzle. Everything we needed for a relaxing summer break with our family.

The Drake Cottage is a 2 minute walk to the Guzzle and Hotel/Pub for food, drinks and games, tennis courts, and the community lawn/playground, and 5 minute walk to the Pavilion and public swimming/boat docks. Wonderful location for long walks, runs and bike riding. Spent most of our time in the home on the large screened in porch. Plenty of space for our two families to relax. The home is dated and in need of some furniture and decor updates to increase appeal and comfort. Owners are very responsive.

The overall experience with the VRBO rental was disappointing. It would certainly be our last choice. The cottage had numerous issues that made it not worth the price; it is a very old property and poorly maintained. Despite being charged a cleaning fee, the place was so dirty that when we vacuumed it ourselves, the dirt container almost filled up. Moreover, one of the two toilets in the cottage was non-functional. Although the host sent over people to try and fix it, the issue was never resolved. The kitchen knives were so old and dull as to be unusable for preparing meals. We actually went and bought a kitchen knife and a non-stick pan because the pans there were so old that food got stuck and required vigorous scrubbing. In short, this cottage and its contents need to be updated. It is seriously outdated and dingy. Another distressing issue was that upon our check-in, we discovered there were no linens or towels provided. When we reached out to the host, she mentioned that the listing had stated there would be no linens or towels, but she never responded when we asked her to show us where it was mentioned; it was not mentioned anywhere in the listing or any communication we received. On the positive side, the location was good and the WIFI worked well. After we checked out, we received $200 refund from the host but without any explanation!

Good location and nice front porch

My family of 5 had a wonderful stay at the Drake cottage. Location is amazing! Walked to the Wellesley Hotel for dinner had several late night ice creams at the Guzzle and just enjoyed walking the side streets admiring all the beautiful cottages! We would definitely return! Hosts were very easy to get a hold of, though truly we had no issue to call them.

Ours was one of four cottages rented for a week for a large family gathering. It’s was easy and convenient.

Love staying in this charming laid back house, with lots of room for the whole extended family. The large porch is where we spent all our time.

Overall, we were disappointed with our stay in the Drake Cottage. The location in Thousand Island Park is great – close to the water and park – but the cottage itself was dirty and shabby. It seemed like it had not been cleaned for a long time. When we arrived there was trash on the floor of one of the bedrooms, a dirty underwear stuck behind a dresser, and prominent toothpaste stains on the shelf in the bathroom. We almost left, but Nate, the owner, was understanding and sent the cleaning service which arrived midway through our stay (who confirmed that the place was extremely dirty). The floors have not been washed in years, the banisters and pretty much every surface in the place was sticky. The netting in front of the windows was filthy, dressers did not have knobs to open drawers, half of the blinds were broken and full of dust. We are not clean freaks, but we are all a little grossed out. The utensils in the kitchen were all sticky and dusty. The décor speaks of another time and was quite unique, but with a fair amount of broken furniture and equipment (ie broken fans) and damaged floors, it too often felt just badly maintained, stuffy and just dirty. The kitchen had interesting utensils, but no-one took the time to organize them. The whole place had the feeling of one of those cottages you can use when you’re hiking, where no-one cleans ever and you’re just supposed to leave it clean when you leave. Part of this might be due to the pandemic, because the owners were stuck in California and could not come, but we felt for $300/night this is kind of ridiculous. On the plus side, we were able to bring our two dogs, and the front porch has a lot of potential, if someone would repair the ripped cushions and get rid of the broken furniture that is stored there. To sum it up, we all feel like the Drake Cottage is badly in need of a major overhaul to turn it into the vacation spot it promises to be.