How have you saved money while holidaying in rural England?

oystercatcher

We always holiday in rural UK so we can take our dogs with us. We used to love camping but now disability means we need to book a cottage, we avoid caravan parks as they are too crowded and noisy .

It is difficult to find cottages which accept 3 dogs and are suited to our needs too, sometimes we end up paying an extra £25 a week per dog as a surcharge , eyewatering!!
We have just returned from two weeks in Wales , the cottage was affordable (£400 ish a week ) but it smelled very damp and musty and wasn't the greatest quality. We loved the village we stayed in and would love to return but other holiday properties finished to a lovely standard are charging twice the amount per week ! I know a two week holiday seems extravagent but disability means the long drive exhausts me and it's just not worth going for a shorter time as we would be returning home the moment I got my energy back !

We save money by enjoying walks and picnics and days on the beach rather than paid for attractions and we buy fish and chips instead of going to restaurants.

I am sure it is cheaper to go abroad but we like to be with our dogs and every time we hear of all the delays and problems with airports and ferries I am glad we don't bother.

indesisiv

It all depends on what you do. I tend to spend lots of long weekends in either the lake district, peak district or yorkshire dales.
Transport links to most of these places is very good.

The places that I stay when I go as a single traveller are quite cheap as I am generally flexible with dates.

I spend most of my money on eating out and drinking whatever the local ale is etc whilst I am there and don't really worry to much about the accommodation as it is only really somewhere to sleep.
Normally during the days I would be out in the countryside either running or walking anyway.


@oystercatcher I can understand why places ask more for dogs as it limits the people that stay there. When we book cottages etc we wouldn't ever book anywhere that allows pets. (allergies)

oystercatcher

indesisiv wrote: »

@oystercatcher I can understand why places ask more for dogs as it limits the people that stay there. When we book cottages etc we wouldn't ever book anywhere that allows pets. (allergies)

Interesting thought as I would counter that with they limit people staying there when they don't allow dogs. The places we go to seem to be full of people like us with dogs.

Do more people have dogs or more with allergies ? I've never heard of anyone not booking a cottage due to allergies ! I've had many allergic attack in holiday cottages due to dust and mould which much more difficult to predict. I increase my allergy pills and inhalers and 'put up with it' . I do realise some allergies are worse though !

I think the dogs aren't allowed as 'some dogs' cause damage and there is more wear and tear.

indesisiv

oystercatcher wrote: »

Do more people have dogs or more with allergies ? I've never heard of anyone not booking a cottage due to allergies ! I've had many allergic attack in holiday cottages due to dust and mould which much more difficult to predict. I increase my allergy pills and inhalers and 'put up with it' . I do realise some allergies are worse though !

I don't really know, not my allergies, I just do as I am told :rotfl:
This is why I normally just holiday on my own.

Personally I can switch off from the smell of dog once I get used to it, and if the odd bit of pet hair is around its normally not the worst thing in the accommodation anyway :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

1) Go cycle touring.
2) Use Youth Hostels.
3) Self cater.

My last tour (2011) was £631.34 for 27 days:

Accommodation: £455.25 (£17.51/night)
Food: £ 172.33 (£6.38, 4600cal, per day)
Bits & pieces: £3.76

Person_one

oystercatcher wrote: »

Interesting thought as I would counter that with they limit people staying there when they don't allow dogs. The places we go to seem to be full of people like us with dogs.

Do more people have dogs or more with allergies ? I've never heard of anyone not booking a cottage due to allergies ! I've had many allergic attack in holiday cottages due to dust and mould which much more difficult to predict. I increase my allergy pills and inhalers and 'put up with it' . I do realise some allergies are worse though !

I think the dogs aren't allowed as 'some dogs' cause damage and there is more wear and tear.

I have both!

Never had allergy problems from staying in pet friendly accommodation, I think the owners realise they have to do a pretty thorough clean/hoover after a dog has stayed or they'd be bound to get complaints if there were hairs etc. left around.

DUKE

I haven't done rural England for about 20 years, at that time we rented a cottage off a friend of a friend for just £60 a week. A car's needed for rural areas or a jolly good public transport service, which in most rural areas simply doesn't exist.

Recently I priced up a long weekend in rural Wales which was going to cost £600 for 2 of us, I can do a weekend in Europe for that. So I prefer to pay a bit more & go long haul every time, rural England & Europe's just far too expensive.

System

We have just had a month in our caravan in Devon which cost £300. The site fees are £17 a night normally but because we stayed there a lot longer the site/farm owners reduced the cost.

Apart from fuel and food it didnt cost a lot as we shopped at Lidl which was just a few miles away and occasionally we nipped into Morrisons. We didnt eat out and spent late afternoon/evenings walking along the beaches with the dogs enjoying the beauty of what was around us.

Hubby had plans of getting a bit of part time work down there which would involve staying longer but would have paid the site fees but it didnt work out that way. Not that there was no work but the job he was going back to at home went into receivership, was took on by a different company and wanted him back asap.

Considering we were there such a long time, it was one of the cheapest holidays we have ever had.

Tuesday_Tenor

A non-driver, I often holiday in rural England: esp. Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. Also done Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland and Suffolk/Essex border not too long ago.

Several reasons:
- they have the sort of countryside I like walking in
- some friends to stay with in some places
- some family history exploration to do
- am interested in the history of Britain in general (any era, any area)

Age 60. Fit. No children in tow. Holiday alone or with friends of similar age and with similar interests: walking, good food, new places, bit of history.

But it's not particularly cheap.

Where could/do I save money .... Hmmmm....
- main activity is walking, which is free
- stay with friends where I can ( and they come to me in Wales)
- self-catering
- 'meal deals' from Co-op or Spar for lunches (when not otherwise self-catering)
- am able to go out of season (But same benefits apply for city or overseas breaks at such times, and this isn't an option for families.)
- not running a car means I can afford to take the occasional taxi (as I do at home) as well as use public transport.
- expect to use AirBnb more in future.
- a tailor-made OS map where you decide the centre of the area covered, can save money IF you're otherwise on the edge of three different maps.
- don't spend much on sun cream!!!! (But more on waterproofs!)

How do I get enjoyable rural holidays without a car?
- Lots of online research beforehand, working out accommodation in relation to public transport, interesting walks and sites, shops, supermarket deliveries and taxis. Use of traveline.com for public transport, and streetmap.com for orientation of places in relation to each other, has always worked for me. I know others who have found errors and omissions in traveline so I always carry local taxi info with me as an emergency back-up plan, but have never yet needed it. Sometimes I stay well away from towns, make use of planned taxi or delivery for a 'big shop' and am prepared to 'hunker down' with a good book and do yoga if the weather's awful. More often I stay in a small historic market town (Dorchester, Sherborne, Ludlow, Much Wenlock, Ledbury, Malvern). Such places offer access to wonderful walking country AND have historic interests, swimming pools, yoga sessions, spas/salons for pampering for days when it's too wet for walking. Online research of local community websites also lets me know what's going on, so I discover things like one-off cream teas in village halls where I'm planning to walk! And music/drama events, quizzes, etc in the evenings. Going to community events and meeting locals is part of the fun and you learn more about other opportunities.

Most people won't go to the effort of this much research. Perhaps tourist offices in towns such as those listed could put together more suggestions of walks and trips without use of car. For instance, I've recently done a super 7-mile but easy linear walk on the South Dorset Ridgeway (past Bronze Age Barrows) from Dorchester. Hourly bus to Winterborne Abbas, walk from there to Upwey, then four buses an hour back (as main Weymouth to Dorchester road) . Plus, as back up, also hourly bus till after 10.00 p.m. AND a train! Dorchester Tourist Office has a lot of info on walks, but most assume you drive to start and do a circular walk. Non-drivers like me have to be more resourceful and work out such linear options between bus routes for themselves!

What's not cheap:
- eating out ( my choice)
- wet-weather back-up plans : entrance to historic sites, swim, massage ( my choice)

What improvements would help:
- bus companies not employ morons who put the bus timetables on wrong side of road, as at outside Sherborne Castle!!! (Bus company informed!)
- if I could use my Senior Bus pass for Wales in England too.
- keep Tourist Offices open (not so much a problem in England, but those in both of the towns nearest me in Wales have been closed down) as most people will not do the sort of detailed research in advance that I do.
- TICs in small towns to produces more info for accommodation, activities and walks where you DON'T need a car. Employing staff who are familiar with public transport and the opportunities it creates would help. Some are very good; others don't have a clue.

The amount of research I invest means that I often go back every few years to places that work well. Was recently very pleased to find bus services that I needed in the Sherborne area had improved since I was last there in 2011.

youth_leader

I had a small self catering business and always tried to find discounts for my guests when I attended the pre-season Tourism Fair in February for updated literature.

It is always worth asking your accommodation provider if they offer any discount vouchers on local attractions or know where you can get them.

As an accommodation provider I was also able to get a discount direct from English Heritage offering a 10% discount on entry for non members. National Trust didn't do it in 2015, they might now.

The Tourist Information Centre here in Northumberland is worth contacting as they often have discounted tickets to the private attractions ie Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Garden, Bamburgh Castle, Chillingham Castle. Alnwick Garden is often included in the Gardening Magazine 'garden discount' card scheme.