Farm Holiday sites
 

I have no problem finding farm holiday sites (agriturismo) in Italy but would like to know what are the leading sites used in other countries (including the US) to find an agriturismo in Italy. Also if I want a farm holiday in your country what site do you use and what do you call a farm holiday or agriturismo in your language?

In American English it's a farm stay. There are also dude ranches.

I have no idea what the above poster is saying, never heard of about dude ranch in the countries you wish to visit.
In Spain you have to look for Casa Rurals. Unfortunately, what was the leading Casa Rural listing website has been taken over by Trip Advisor and has gone down the pan. That is toprural.
However if you list where you want to go in Spain them maybe I can point you to the local tourism website for the area.

Dude ranches - seems like something out of Hollywood.

I've lived in California all my life, and most everyone here knows what a Dude Ranch is. When I was younger, my parents, sister, and I spent many summers at a dude ranch in the Trinity Alps in Northern California.

My wife & I have stayed in 39 different Gites in France for a total of 85 weeks. Here is something I wrote about gites.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-web-site.cfm

Stu Dudley

City Slickers is actually a documentary of a dude ranch.

>>>I have no idea what the above poster is saying, never heard of about dude ranch in the countries you wish to visit.<<<

The OP said in YOUR country. Dude ranches are quite common in the western US.

There are enough of them that there's even a Dude Ranch Organization (www.duderanch.org/).

For farm stays in the País Vasco, Agroturismo, check out Nekatur (www.nekatur.net). In Catalunya it's Agroturisme. Org (www.agroturisme.org). In Navarra you can check Casas Rurales de Agrouturismo de Navarra (www.agroturismosnavarra.com).

I've been to a dude ranch inn Durango, Colorado, and loved it, actually. I like riding, but there were other activities, and I did day trips to Mesa Verde and other locations. But some of those dude ranches are more working ranches than others. Mine was more concentrated on riding but you can find some that are not. I have not heard of just a farm holiday in the US other than that, actually, although there might be some.

FYI here is the one I went to, it was fantastic but it had a high level of riding standards (even dressage, which I wasn't into). The owner even did the training of horses in some Hollywood movies, which he told us about, very interesting. The food was wonderful. It's not a working ranch, though. I don't mean you had to ride well or at all to go there, I just mean they had certain standards in what activities or training they offered and the way they treated their horses. http://www.coloradotrails.com/

You can search the Dude Ranch assn in the US for certain characteristics, you might select "cattle work" for the working ones. Here is one specific site for working ranches http://www.workingranches.com/

In France, they may be called fermes-auberges. http://www.ferme-auberge.com/
or just look on the gite website (govt program for people to rent out a room or house, generally in the country) for that type of thing.
http://www.gites-de-france.com/locat...-la-ferme.html

If the question is about the US then maybe the question should be asked in that section. This question is tagged "France , Germany , Italy , Spain"
I stick with what I said no dude ranches here in Europe.

The question is not about the US but what US users look up as a site for finding an agriturismo or farm holiday/stay in Italy. Of course Fodors is probably one of the best sites around to find good recommendations albeit not in a structured way.

I am not interested in dude ranches but I think that in the Maremma it is possible to have a holiday out riding with the butteri.

This American uses http://www.agriturismo.it to find his agriturismo.

Yep, this American as well: http://www.agriturismo.it/

Where are you interested in in Italy. We have stayed at great ones just outside Pisa and outside Siena, if either intersts you

But your OP specifically asked what sites to use if you wanted to find a farm holiday "in your country?", as well as what sites you'd use to find one in Italy.

I think everyone pretty much uses www.agriturismo.it to find agriturismos.

I use a variety of sites. Agriturismo.it is one that you can easily search, but I often find more listings using local sites. If I want to search a particular area I search comune + area. Often there is a turismo link on the comune page which lists all the places to stay. If a comune-italiani link pops up in the search, it's not the real link.

Another site I like is bed-and-breakfast.it. It's not just towns/B&B's. They have things in the country and you can search any area by map to see what is in that area. It also allows you to send a blanket request for availability to an area. I like this site because it usually has direct links to the website for the property.

http://www.bed-and-breakfast-in-italy.com/

Some areas in Italy have the ProLoco sites such as Montalcino. You would just search proloco + area or town. Some proloco sites are better than others, but they are official and link you to the actual properties.

http://www.prolocomontalcino.com/en/

Another good search is turismo + area/city. Many areas/towns have switched to turismo.

http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/book...r=1&lingua=en&

If you search comune Maremma it leads to this:
http://www.comune.massamarittima.gr.it/lospitalita/

Then you have their website for lodging you click which lists agriturismo.
http://www.altamaremmaturismo.it/
http://www.altamaremmaturismo.it/it/.../Agriturismo/4

Where I live, if you want a farm stay there doesn't seem to be one certain name to search, but usually is linked to horseback riding. They aren't called dude ranches here. Nothing is called a ranch here. It's always called a farm in KY.

In France : www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com