Goosemire Cottages, the family owned and run Lake District self catering business, are pleased to launch their January sale.
Everyone is looking for a bargain at this time of year so why should the sales be confined to the high street? Goosemire Cottages are offering discounts on full weeks booked in each of their 46 self catering properties. The discounts range from £30 - £50 depending on the property size.
The number of self catering holidays in the UK has risen quite dramatically in the last 2 years. Various factors have contributed to this for example the poor Euro exchange rate resulting in tourists staying in the UK and the cost savings of self catering compared with a hotel stay. A self catering holiday allows freedom, the ability to cook within the property so saving on restaurant bills and is an excellent type of holiday for families and pet owners.
Goosemire Cottages have available 46 traditional Lake District cottages for discerning visitors (Ranging from 1 to 7 bedrooms, sleeping up to 10). Most are rustic 17th or 18th Century Lakeland cottages or lovely barn conversions, where antiquity and modern comforts have been beautifully combined. The atmosphere and idiosyncrasies of each property are reflected on their website which offers full online booking facilities and information and images on each of their properties.
For more information on the Goosemire Lake District cottages January sale or their last minute booking discounts, visit http://www.goosemirecottages.co.uk/special-offers
Goosemire Cottages, the family owned Lake District cottages company are pleased to announce a 46th property added to their portfolio. Based in Kendal in the South Lakes, this new property enables Goosemire Cottages to now offer a choice of 46 different self catering cottages ranging from 1 to 10 bedroom properties. Last year the largest cottage on offer was 7 bedrooms but with the rise in the popularity of larger guest groups, the 8, 9 and 10 bedrooms cottages have all been added. It has been a busy year for Goosemire with the addition of the 10 properties along with the launch of the new website. The website has been essential for the management of such a high number of properties.
Goosemire Cottages are a small family run agency offering holiday cottages in the Lake District, UK (with just a few exceptions) an all-inclusive rental price. Their limited overheads mean low prices and they pride themselves on their value for money approach. There are open all year round and offer out of season or last minute breaks. To help you relax, Goosemire Cottages adopts a “nothing is too much trouble†approach, ensuring a welcoming, informed and personal service. On arrival you will find your cottage carefully prepared, to give your holiday a perfect start. In fact from the point of your initial enquiry onwards they guarantee they will give both you and your holiday the warm friendly attention deserved.
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Hillthwaite House Hotel, the luxury hotel in Windermere is pleased to announce the appointment of a new member of the management team.
Thomas Cross has joined Hillthwaite as the new General Manager. His family roots are very local with his Grandparents having been the proprietors of the Old Dungeon Ghyll in Great Langdale, back in the 1950s and 60s. Thomas hopes to bring some of his own skills to Hillthwaite and offer customers an even better experience.
Thomas Cross says “I have already realised that the Hillthwaite House Hotel is a very special place, with a very positive and calm nature”!! Being extremely lucky to live and work in the wonderful area of the English Lake District, Thomas makes full use by having a keen interest in fell walking with his walking companion, Ruby the dog.
Set amidst the beautiful surroundings of the Lake District, between the villages of Windermere and Bowness, Hillthwaite House Hotel is the most ideal of Lake District Hotels for all types of breaks including short Lake District weekend breaks or for use as a base for your walking holiday in the Lake District National Park. Impeccable service and comfort, lovely food sourced from local produce, friendly, attentive staff and the many guests that return to the hotel time after time speak for itself.
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Holidaycottagescumbria.com are pleased to announce the addition of Hardcragg Hall to their portfolio of Lake District self catering properties.
Hardcragg Hall is the latest addition to Holidaycottagescumbria.com Cumbria portfolio of 5 individually owned luxury Lake District holiday cottages. Hardcragg Hall is the pinnacle of 5 star luxury self catering accommodation and can facilitate large groups of up to 14 guests with its 7 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. This stunning Elizabethan manor house makes an excellent choice for luxury family holidays, short breaks, celebrations, special occasions, wedding guests, parties, large groups or for a get together of family or friends.
Hardcragg Hall is steeped in history and dates back to 1563 and this grade II listed country manor house is reputed to be the oldest building in the local area. There are several spacious reception rooms that all interconnect, including the dining room, drawing room, bar area, breakfast room, library, the oak panelled entrance hall area with its roaring log fire and the snug lounge with patio doors leading out into the landscaped gardens and grounds. The recently furnished farmhouse kitchen is superbly equipped with everything you will need to cater for large groups or couples alike and boasts a four oven Aga.
This large Lake District self catering accommodation sleeps 10+ is ideally located in Grange-over-Sands on the Southern edge of the English Lake District. Grange over Sands is one of Cumbria’s secret gems and is the Lake District’s principle sea side town. This is an ideal location for scenic fell and woodland walks, together with a mile long, traffic free promenade overlooking the sands of Morecambe Bay.
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The Eden Valley together with the western lakes has the most picturesque and dramatic scenery in the whole of the region. The Eden Valley has the magnificent Ullswater a stretch of water 14.5 kilometres long and which is surrounded by such famous mountains as High Street, Fairfield and Helvellyn and Lake District self catering properties are plentiful.
Alston, Newby and Kirkby Stephen are lesser know areas in the Eden Valley. Kirkby Stephen is a market town with cobbled streets and rural scenery leading to wild uplands. Kirkby Stephen has a great atmosphere and community making it a great place for a drink or a bite to eat. It has three public houses and individually owned shops.The distinctive local stone used is very different to the slate used in structures in south Cumbria.
Newby, with its Pennine backcloth, delightful Jacobean Hall, and surrounding landscapes really have a rather special unchanging beauty. Newby, neighbouring Lake Ullswater and picturesque Appleby in Westmorland, it is a small mediaeval market town of distinction.
Alston is the highest market town in the UK at 1000 metres above sea level. The road leading to Alston is a motor biker’s paradise, the A686 up Hartside Fell. The road climbs steeply and bends almost at right angles and has been voted by The AA as one of their “Ten Great Drives”. The views down into the Eden Valley are views to savour with the craggy Lake District fells to one side and the pennies to the other. Passing right through the Eden Valley is the Coast to Coast route which runs from St Bees on the West Cumbrian coast across to Whitley Bay so this area is very popular with cyclists.
The Eden Valley will surprise with its wide range of activities - strenuous mountain walks to gentle riverside strolls, watersports, golf and even activity centres where paintball shooting, archery and quad biking can be experienced. For such an activity packed holiday, Lake District cottages and Cumbrian cottages are a good choice of accommodation type. They give greater room for equipment, for cyclists especially, and are located in settings where a hotel or bed and breakfast would never be.
The new newest addition to the Woodlands Hotel accommodation, is the recently completed executive suite. The suite is located within the main hotel building offering a large amount of space but with all the facilities of a hotel right on site. A luxury bathroom has been fitted complete with roomy stand up shower. The fitting have been chosen for their upmost quality. Far larger than a normal hotel room, the new suite has plenty of room to walk around along with a seating area and can actually sleep three persons or be a luxury Windermere hotel break for a romantic couple. A further suite is set for completion in December 2009.
Woodlands is one of the few Windermere hotels to achieve a five star guest accommodation status. Sarah and Alan Ayres, the proprietors, were thrilled to be recognised for their hard work by the AA, which was awarded for their exceptional standards of quality guest accommodation and service.
Woodlands Hotel in Windermere is a handsome Edwardian Villa situated between the villages of Windermere and Bowness in Cumbria – the Lake District, just a few minutes away from the shores of Lake Windermere. Guests will enjoy the luxury, stylish and contemporary Boutique accommodation being offered at Woodlands, which has now been formally recognised as being one of the finest hotels in Windermere. There are a total of fifteen luxury and en-suite guest bedrooms including a choice of single, double or twin bedded rooms. The resident’s bar and lounge is an exciting space for guests to relax after a long day’s site seeing and exploring. According to the AA, a five star Guest House needs to demonstrate an awareness of each guest’s needs with nothing being too much trouble. All bedrooms must be en-suite or have a private bathroom, with excellent quality beds and furnishings. Breakfast must include specials/home-made items, high quality ingredients, and fresh local produce. The new suite meets and even exceeds The AA’s five star criteria.
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For a number of years now, it has been felt that a holiday in the UK is more expensive than a holiday abroad.
In the past, staying in the UK has been thought of as quite an expensive holiday with many holiday makers choosing to go abroad instead. Cost of accommodation is often more expensive in the UK than abroad but many people forget about the extra costs involved with going to a foreign country such as passports, insurance, transfers to and from the airport and commission on foreign currency.
Things are changing quite rapidly though and the biggest contributor is the demise of the Euro. At the current rate, you get 1.01 Euro’s to 1 British pound. This makes a huge difference when calculating the currency required for taking abroad. Not too long ago, the exchange rate was 1.60 Euro’s to the British pound. The rise in fuel and transportation costs has effected island tourism destinations quite severely. Many tourists, even in 2008, would have noticed the rise in costs of food and beverages on their holiday abroad.
The UK has some of the best scenery and destinations in the world from dramatic coastlines to mountains in the Lake District and Scotland. The current economic climate is effecting just about everyone in the UK at the moment. Money is tight but there has not been a better time to book a short break or holiday in the UK. There is a huge choice of hotels in the Lake District offering discounts on nightly rates or special offers at the moment. This is the perfect opportunity to stay in a hotel that may otherwise be out of the usual budget. Many of the Lake District hotels have an excellent standard of restaurant, some with a 2 AA Rosette rating or just purely serve good quality, local produce of which the Lake District has a plenty.
Self catering is anticipated to be a winner within the tourism industry in the current economic climate.
The appeal of a self catering holiday is growing. A self catering holiday can give a greater freedom and more space for families and allow multiple couples or friends to go away together, splitting costs and creating a good value holiday. Responsibletravel.com reported a 50% rise of self catering holidays compared with this time last year.
There are a number of plus points that make a self catering holiday attractive. Here are some examples:
1. Of course, top of the list, kitchen facilities, allowing cooking to be done yourself. A huge money exercise especially for families. When in a group, the cooking can be shared and the it can actually be quite a fun event.
2. Storage facilities and space. If having an activity holiday or a family holiday where there are bikes, walking gear or sailing equipment, most self catering properties have the space to store this equipment and space for drying is necessary.
3. Lake District cottages are often set amongst fantastic scenery and tranquil locations, allowing a complete “get away from it all” holiday. A complete change from the hustle and bustle of a city and a chance to spend time in a property completely different from home.
4. The ability to come and go when you please unlike a hotel when rooms need to be cleaned and door are locked at a certain time.
5. Children can play with other family’s children and parents can take it in turn to babysit so that each set of parents can have a night to themselves.
6. The more the merrier for fun and money saving. Clubbing together between 2 or 3 families, a group of friends or couples saves a huge amount of money. There is greater interaction compared with staying in separate hotel rooms.
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Since The Borrowdale Hotel was bought in March by Lake District Hotels, some of the bedrooms have already been refurbished. Now a more noticeable transformation is about to take place under the watchful eye of Stephen Wilcock who moves from The Lodore Falls Hotel to take up his first role as General Manager.
Stephen Wilcock was Deputy General Manager at the Lodore Falls Hotel during the last four years and was instrumental in minimising disturbance for hotel guests during the £2 million pound Lodore Falls refurbishment. His move to the Borrowdale Hotel coincides with imminent plans to update the lounge, dining areas and remaining bedrooms at the hotel. Work has already started in some of the bedrooms and regular guests have given very enthusiastic praise for the work so far. The lounge will be refurbished during November - in plenty of time for Christmas and there are exciting new plans for the dining room which are due to start in the New Year.
Christmas in the Lake District has been a popular choice for couples and families for some years now. Escaping from all the expense and stress of organising presents and the Christmas lunch. The beautiful scenery is so enticing in the winter months and the festive season. Now the Lake District is being a hot spot for company Christmas parties. Many Lake District hotels have spiced up their 2008 Christmas Party programme by providing alternative party themes as well as their traditional Christmas party nights enjoyed by many. With a choice of themes to suit a range of pockets, many Lake District hotels are introducing theme nights such as Elvis Tribute Nights, Las Vegas Casino Nights as well as a Fajitas and Margaritas Party food themes.
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