Jane

In case anyone is interested, we have visited England many times and enjoy staying in cottages and hiking local paths. The best and easiest deal we have obtained was with a group called Manor Cottages out of Burford. So easy. They arranged to pick us up at the airport in London and drove us to the cottage, arranged for a rental car to be delivered to the cottage and reversed the process when we left. All this and it was very, very inexpensive. For 10 days, our whole trip for three, including airfare,car,cottage, food, tickets to Shakespeare etc etc was around $1,300. (We went at Thanksgiving so the airfare was cheap - $220/person).The cottage had three bedrooms so we had plenty of room. Highly recommend them. Web site: welcome.to/manorcottages.

Lori

Jane, <BR>Your post was interesting as I just received a brochure from this company. We have our 2001 vacation all planned out already and will be back in Paris and London, but I'm giving thought to 2002 as well (OK, I know I'm addicted to travel) and thought about a cottage. I've got some questions for you tho. <BR>In general how would your rate the cottage (cleanliness, smoke smells (we don't smoke), well-equiped)? Did they include linens and did you get them to give you new ones after a week since your stay was 10 days? Obviously you stayed longer then 7 days so was it hard to negoiate the extra days? Regarding the car rental .. what company was it through, did you have an automatic (we always rent automatics!!). Was the driver service that picked you up at the a/p reliable (and a good driver too)? Do you recall the name of the cottage you rented since they all seem to have names. We too would like a "large" one simply to have the extra room on a long stay like that. How did the heating and electricity work? I notice some say it's included, others you pay a metered amount to the owners. <BR>We've always rented apartments in London, etc. and heat and elec. was all included so this is something I'm giving thought to for another trip. The National Trust also has some great looking cottages they rent but they are not too flexible on length of stay, it seems to be in increments of 7 days only for most. <BR> <BR>Thanks for the interesting post, I'll look forward to your reply.

Jane

Just a little background - we have stayed in cottages in the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. Can't remember offhand the names of the rental companies but the only problem we ever had was in the Lake District - the place was very nice but was very smelly - dogs! Make sure any place you stay doesn't allow dogs. <BR> <BR>First, the driver from the airport was very, very good and pointed out interesting things along the way - very safe driver and nice car. The rental car - the drawback is that they only rent stick shift. It was cheap - only $150 for the 10 days! I was worried because 1) I hadn't driven a stick shift in many years and 2) the shift is on the left side etc etc. However, I found it to be no problem at all - within 5 minutes I was used to it. Don't underestimate yourself. You can do it. <BR> <BR>The apt was very cozy, clean and comfortable. There was a lovely kitchen with any appliance you could want, including a washer/drier for our clothes, which is extremely important to us when hiking. We paid extra for the linens, about $10 for the three of us - we washed them ourselves. Heat (which was plentiful)was included. I will check the name of the cottage and post later. It was located in Oddington. <BR> <BR>I highly recommend picking a cottage that is in a town, within walking distance of a pub/ bakery whatever. Our cottage was two minutes walking distance from a very nice pub - excellent food, somewhat crowded, though - in fact a little upscale if you are eating with a child, which we were. We ended up driving to eat or going to Stow-in-the-wold for dining or takeout. Very close but my husband would have preferred just being in a bigger town. Just his taste. <BR> <BR>Overall, we have to rate this cottage one of the best we've stayed at. Not fancy but cozy and comfortable. The people who run the service are very very helpful and nice. As I said, staying the extra days was no problem at all, but it was Thanksgiving so it might be different in July or August. <BR> <BR>

Jane

It was Honeysuckle Cottage. Tucked away in a very small village. Very close to Stow-in-the-wold. <BR> <BR>By the way, if you go in the fall, bring coats, gloves and hats. We ended up using ours almost every day. Also, if you hike, you might want to invest in those waders you see the English wearing. The mud can occasionally get quite deep. I went in over the top of my hiking boots a couple of times - to my son's amusement.

kk

Jane, thanks for sharing the info about Manor Cottages of Burford. I was in the area last fall and loved it so now I have bookmarked their web site. I can hardly wait to go back and stay longer. <BR>I wonder if you noticed the scrape on the little bridge between Lower and Upper Slaughter, where my husband took off the rental car's sideview mirror, his only mishap with righthand drive! Otherwise he loved it, even the roundabouts, but we, his passengers, were a little scared. Divine memories!