Child-Friendly Cottages in the UK
Finding a Family-Friendly Holiday Cottage in the UK Just Got Easier
Apr 12, 2007
Renting a holiday cottage is one of the best ways to enjoy Britain. Having your own base for a weekend, a week or more in some of the region's best countryside, like the Lake District, the Cotswolds or the Yorkshire Dales, can make for the perfect holiday. But how to make sure your cottage is child-friendly, or equipped to deal with a young baby? A new website, www.childfriendlycottages.co.uk, has already done all the hard work for you.
As with many good ideas, it comes from someone who has been through the process herself. When Viv Ronco had a baby daughter and typed the word 'cottages' into Google, she reeled when she saw there were 30 million results. Even trying to narrow it down didn't help much, and Viv decided that as there didn't seem to be the kind of website she was hoping to find, perhaps she could do one herself.
The result is Child-Friendly Cottages, which lists suitable holiday cottages in England, Scotland and Wales. While designing the website Viv asked other parents what they wanted from a child-friendly cottage, what the minimum facilities would be, and made sure all the cottages she listed on the site more than met those minimum needs.
All cottages on the website cater for children under the age of five. They have facilities such as outdoor play areas, dressing up boxes, socket protectors or even blackout lining. Many cottages have facilities to entertain older siblings, such as a tennis court, table tennis or a pool table, while others offer options for parents such as babysitting services or on-site catering.
Visitors to the website can search by various criteria, starting with the part of Britain you want to visit. These include the Cotswolds, Lake District, Peak District, Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland. Further options to narrow the search include not just the number of bedrooms but also the sleeping capacity of each property. Then there are facilities like non-smoking, swimming pool, pets allowed, beach nearby or wheelchair-friendly.
Some of the child-friendly cottages to be found on the website include:
- South Granary Cottage at Beacon Hill in County Durham, which has a Harry Potter Trail nearby. Definitely one for the Harry Potter fans!
- Applecross Cottage is on a farm in Devon but as well as having animals to feed also has a tennis court.
- North Kingsfield Cottages on a working farm in east Yorkshire offer not only the fun of seeing the animals on the farm but also luxury accommodation and babysitting services so parents can pop down to the local pub for an evening out.
Visit the Child-Friendly Cottages website by clicking here.
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Read about an English Country Cottage on a farm in Somerset, with alpacas, a peacock, horse-riding, fishing and other things to do.
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