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I'm thinking of booking a holiday for early April next year in a couple of cottages over one week. Two different locations for each, the problem seems to be finding somewhere that accepts anything less than 7 nights. I've tried a couple of websites as soon as you drop below 7 nights 99% of the cottages dissapear as unavailable. I'm not wedded to the idea of a cottage but one would be nice. Anyone had this problem?
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Pretty much universal, certainly from Easter to October - perhaps barring last minute fillers. The Landlord is effectively forgoing the income for the balance of that week. Even if he could get a matching booking he'd incur the costs of a clean and linen change which might be charged as premium since the cleaner will regard it as out of course.
Some places will do short breaks out of season. We had a lovely four nights in Lewis for my 50th but that was in the third week of December.
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It's possibly a UK thing. There does seem to be a bit of a tradition that holidays are in 7-night multiples, often starting and ending on Saturdays. We live in Austria and have a flat which we let all year. We change the minimum nights throughout the year, but even in summer it's only 3, arriving/leaving any day. A number of our Brit friends locally have the same pattern with their apartments. We (and they) just charge by the night, so there's no premium for shorter stays. We've also stayed as punters in other places in Austria and Italy, and they also allow any length stays with no penalty for shorter stays. No help to you, but just an insight from the other side, so to speak!
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Cottages tend to be priced for the week. If you rent one for 3 or 4 days you will end up paying 70% - 80% of the weekly rental per cottage so you will end up paying well over the odds for a split week even if you find can find two cottages prepared to rent for a short term.
I would stay for a week. Saves all that hassle of moving anyway.
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As I thought never mind. Just thought doing a couple of different places in one week might be nice. We might stay a week, I was thinking of Northumbria and the Lakes. A hotel might be a possibility I suppose. I wonder which would be the best for a week? Anyone been to either?
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Northumbria and Lakes are both worthwhile destinations. Nothumbria for the history and Lakes for scenery and walking.
What about somewhere on the edge of the Lakes from which an outing to say the Roman Wall might be possible.
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>> What about somewhere on the edge of the Lakes from which an outing to say
>> the Roman Wall might be possible.
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That sounds a good idea, could do the western borders as well.
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From personal experience if you are looking at the best cottage/area/period it is much harder to get short weeks. Cousin has a holiday cottage in the cotswolds and she always comments short weeks make just as much cleaning and bed changing work.
I'd not want two cottages in a week anyway as you tend to do something of a temp move in with a cottage spreading your stuff about several rooms... the midweek swap would be a right pain. And it means you have two places to tidy/clean when you leave. A few years back we took two cottages in two weeks and that was bad enough... just felt settled in the first and loved the place then we had to do the full pack and move on. To make it worse the second wasn't nearly so nice.
If you did want to keep to the idea the first google result for me was this...
www.holidaycottages.co.uk/shortbreak#6e95d91d-2ffb-415d-a7c1-a92365d2212d
where they have almost 1000 cottages in April for 3/4 night stays. Not the area you mentioned but I'm sure there would be similar listings where you want to go.
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Penrith / Ullswater-ish would let you do both from the same base. Rains a lot there mind. Pretty when it isn't though.
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What about taking a tent?
Then you're times your own.
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>> Penrith / Ullswater-ish would let you do both from the same base. Rains a lot
>> there mind. Pretty when it isn't though.
Somewhere east and slightly south of Penrith, in the North Pennines, would be good too and probably avoid the premium price for being in the LDNP.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 13:06
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Just had a look in that area, about half way between the lakes and the dales. There's some nice cottages in that area. Thanks for the tip.
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We have had no luck at all in The Lakes or Northumbria. Admittedly, we have tried only one cottage in each but both were poor and one I am sure must have broken any square-feet-per-bed rule by about 200%. The National Trust have the best cottages we have used, although at the highest prices. We have had good deals from www.breconcottages.com/
The properties are in nice locations fairly local to Abergavenny. But Wales can be nearly as wet as The Lakes and we once spent three weeks in a friend's cottage near here, during which it rained every day.
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For a Lakes hotel, we like the Waterhead, at the top of Lake Windermere near Ambleside, very much. It is comfortable and the meals are very generous, with massive breakfasts. It is very popular with locals, some of whom arrive by boat, and the car park is sometimes full. It is next to a pier head for boat services and rowing boat hire. There are bus stops nearby. Away from main routes progress by car can be slow due to narrow roads and congestion, so the local authoriy encourages visitors to use instead local bus services, which are excellent.
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First week of April will still be school holidays (here anyway) Chances of finding a split week rental that week are slim.
If you want to change mid week then a hotel / B&B would give the flexibility
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Holiday letting - Bromptonaut
