When looking for a holiday this year after browsing loads of holiday brochures we decided we could not afford one. It is amazing how much a holiday costs if you have 3 children, most normal hotels do not have room for 3 children in your room so you need to go for an apartment and you have to pay the adult price for a 3rd child so we thought we would have no holiday.

But then, we received a Recommended Cottages brochure through the post. This brochure contained hundreds of cottages throughout the United Kingdom and most of them can cater for a family of 5 or more if you want to take friends with you. This is ideal for larger groups because you pay the same price no matter how many people go. We chose a cottage that sleeps 8 people so we could take some friends.

The brochure was well laid out in geographical area with a list of things to do and see in and around the area. All of the cottages are described in good detail and include a picture so you can see what you are going to get. You have to check carefully though, some of the cottages charge you extra for linen, electricity, solid fuel etc but a large number of them include all of this you just have to read the cottage detail to see what is included.

The prices vary as well, obviously the smaller cottages are the cheapest, but you can find some very nice cottages at a reasonable price. (If you are interested then check out my review of the cottage Tor View under cottages in Cornwall in the UK and Ireland guide section on dooyoo). On of the things I didn’t like about the brochure is that it doesn’t show the price by each cottage, there is a price code so you can guess that a code A is cheaper than a code Z but to find the price you have to refer to a table at the back of the catalogue.

After selecting a few cottages we were interested in I then went to the website at www.recommended-cottages.co.uk on this website you can do a search with various criteria to he
lp you chose your holiday cottage. You can also check availability to see if your dream cottage is available (This left us with one choice for the dates we wanted). You can confirm the price and if you want you can book online. I have to admit that I had a few questions so I decided to book by phone. The service was very good my questions were answered and the operator was very friendly and helpful. When I booked I had to pay a deposit of about £40 and a few days later I received confirmation of the booking in the post along with details telling me when I had to pay the rest of the deposit and the balance of the holiday. I also received good instructions showing how to get to the cottage and details of the owner and how to contact them. There was also a message on the form to contact the owners at least 2 weeks before we were due to go on holiday to confirm out time of arrival. Usually you have to arrive after 4pm on your first day and leave by 10am on your last day, but when we phone up the owner they said there was nobody in the cottage at the moment so we could arrive any time.

We had to pay for insurance as a condition of booking; it looks like it is standard holiday insurance covering cancellations etc. Luckily we didn’t use it so I don’t know how good it was. Obviously if you break or damage anything in the cottage you have to pay the owner for any damages (Or replace it yourself before they find out). What would have been useful was if the insurance covered accidental damages to the property or contents, but I couldn’t find that clause in the insurance.

If you have a large family, want to holiday with friends and cant afford a foreign holiday, or if you just fancy a UK break then I suggest you take a look at recommended cottages on the internet, you can request a brochure if you want (Under Contacts on main manu)or you can browse the selection online, this has the advantage of being up to date with any late addit
ions and has the ability to check cottage availability.