All about: UK holiday cottages

The holiday cottage is a traditional British holiday venue. There are thousands of cottages, mostly in rural locations, that are weekend homes or are rented as UK holiday cottages. This article suggests why.

Country cottages

Features of country cottages
The English country cottage is often very old, perhaps many centuries old, and rather quaint and quirky as a result. Inside, these cottages may have low ceilings or have the beams supporting the upper storey visible. Some old country cottages in the UK have thatched rooves, covered with bundles of reeds, instead of slates or tiles. These have a romantic and nostalgic place in English folk memory. Scottish and Irish cottages Cottages in Scotland or Ireland are sometimes built of stone, having been reclaimed from the ancient homes, rendered derelict by natural or political disasters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These are often in remote and very beautiful locations, overlooking water and nearly good observation points for seeing wildlife.

Holiday cottages

Holiday cottages allow family holidays in a relaxed atmosphere, without the formalities of hotel living. City-dwellers often hope to afford a country cottage as a weekend home for their family, so much so that many villages in Wales and England have few residents on weekdays. At weekends, cottage owners descend by car. Self catering apartments Whether cottages or apartments, these second homes in the country or by the sea are often let out in summer, to provide cheap and easy holidays for UK families. They may have two or three bedrooms, often one being on the ground floor. The bathroom may be in a modern extension on the ground floor. Families mainly use them as a base, from which to make daily excursions.

Find a UK holiday cottage

To rent a country cottage for a holiday, catalogues are available by post or by Internet, with a very wide choice of holiday cottage accommodation in the UK.

Cottages online Countrycottagesonline.com offers a huge range of cottages throughout the UK, while Classic.co.uk specialises in Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset and Devon cottages. Some online cottage rental resources are county-specific, such as Derbyshirecountrycottages.co.uk or region specific such as Scottish-country-cottages.co.uk or welsh-cottages.co.uk. Many different agencies use the description coastal cottages in their web address. Sometimes, last minute bargains may be found, but when a cottage is required during August, you will need to book months ahead and be prepared to pay premium rates.