Feature Your Cottage in Our Blog

In addition to moving and re-building websites, we have appointed a new member to the My Favourites team, young James, who will take charge of our social media postings. He will be publishing a fortnightly news blog on the site promoting self-catering holiday destinations for those planning a holiday. Each blog will contain an image and a link to holiday cottages relevant to whatever the topic of the blog is about. This could be you! For an example, see our blog on British Beach Cafes or our latest one, published this week on Finding The Perfect Holiday Cottage. These articles attract a lot of attention as they are often shared by readers via Twitter and Facebook – not least by owners of the properties mentioned, as well as potential bookers. It is well worth being included if you have the chance. These blogs encourage more out-of-season bookings for you and your fellow My Favourite Holiday Cottages subscribers. When we publish a blog that includes a link to your cottage's listing, we'll send you an e-mail so you can share the link to your own databases and social media followers to help make your cottage even more famous than it already is. To help us help you, here is a list of the topics we are coming up with. If you think one of these is relevant to your cottage, here's what to do:

• E-mail us at info@mfhc.co.uk an image of your cottage (sized between 175-250kb).

• The cottage's name and the blog title you think your cottage should be included.

• The reason why it deserves to be included, e.g. for the blog about Christmas decorations and illuminations, it could be because you go to town with Christmas lights and decorations at your cottage – or a nearby town has illuminations worth travelling more than a few miles to see. If you've got an image of your cottage at Christmas - even better – send it to us. We'll endeavour to track down an image and further information about the event or place recommended, but if you can provide any help with that, it would also be appreciated and make it far more likely that your cottage will be included.

 

Blog 1: The Magnificent Somerset Winter Carnivals

If you've ever been to one of these, you'll know what a stunning phenomenon the Somerset Winter Carnivals are. For the uninitiated, the best are up there with Rio - and I say that in all sincerity! Let us know if you have a cottage within driving distance of one of the main winter carnivals in October and November, e.g., Bridgwater, Glastonbury, Weston-super-Mare, North Petherton, etc. E-mail us the details or web links and, if you have one or your own that you are willing to permit us to use, a suitable winter carnival photo. Don't delay, though – we need it soon!

 

Blog 2: Bonfire Breaks

Is there a large public or community bonfire celebration near you, e.g. Lewes, near you on bonfire night? Does your village have a community bonfire, fireworks and burgers on the green at which visitors staying locally would be welcome? Send us details, web links and, if you have one, an image of past events. Deadline Date: 7 October. Thanks to Alchemy Fireworks in Bedfordshire for this image from a recent Wedding Reception.

 

Blog 3: Christmas Cottages

Do you really go to town decorating your cottage with trees, lights, reindeer, etc? Are there towns or villages near you that do more than just a few Christ as trees and standard banners across the High St or have a notable Christmas Market worth at least a day trip to pick up last-minute pressies? For example, Harbour Lights at Mousehole in Cornwall or the Leamington Spa Yuletide Fair. E-mail us at info@mfhc.co.uk with details and/or web links with images of previous displays in and around your cottage – or details of the town or location. Deadline Date: 15 October Image: Reindeers and Tree lights fill the Courtyard at Parkgate Cottages

 

Blog 4: Valentine Retreats

Is your cottage perfect for a romantic escape? Do you offer anything special, such as candles, t-lights floating in the bath, rose petals scattered across the bedspread, or a bottle of fizz in the welcome pack? Send us a photo of a room made up for a romantic break and an image of your cottage, and we will do the rest. Deadline date: 3 December.

Blog 5: Spring Flower Breaks

Is there a woodland walk or country lanes brim-full of drifts of snowdrops, daffodils, primroses or great swathes of woodland bluebells sometime between late January and May somewhere new to you? In addition to an image of your cottage, all we need are location details and, ideally, a picture – or a link to somewhere we can go to get a suitably floral photo. You know the form by now: Send us your suggestion, preferably an image –or a link to a site that might be able to provide one, and we will do the rest. Thanks. I appreciate it might take a few minutes to do this, but, especially as there is no cost involved, it will help to attract more interest in your cottage so that it will be well worthwhile! Deadline date: 17 December

 

In Case These Slipped Your Mind...

More ways to enjoy Commission-less Online bookings: You can set up your listing to get commission-free online bookings. If you have an online booking facility on your website, displaying its calendar on your My Favourites listing should allow you to get online bookings (and, please note, there are absolutely no commission charges involved). There are, for example, over 100 cottages on the site using SuperControl calendars, and virtually all of them have enjoyed at least one or more online bookings over the past 12 months. Log into your members' area, select the calendar function and use the Third Party Calendar function to display it.

 

Upload Your Favourite Reviews

Reviews on My Favourites are different, and you can use them to good effect. We invite guests (or you to upload what your guests have said in your visitors' book) to tell us their favourite things about your cottage, i.e. what they liked or loved about their holiday there. There are no negatives – just positives. See the examples below for Derwent House in Matlock. They are easy to upload and attract more click-throughs to your website or enquiries. You can do this from your listing or members area. We will moderate them to ensure they comply with the policy, so there is no need to worry about asking guests to add a review and worry that it might be negative – give them the link to your listing page. As an additional incentive to upload reviews - because we moderate their content before making them live, we will also tweet the best to our Twitter followers with a link back to your listing.

 

Thanks!

That's it for this month. I look forward to receiving a bumper mailbox of ideas and images for our forthcoming blogs and a veritable tidal wave of reviews – all of which will push up our rankings and draw even more visitors to our site and your listing! Thanks, best wishes, and get those blog nominations coming!

Rick Bond

My Favourite Holiday Cottages

Visit a Winter Carnival For a Weekend Break in Somerset

The Globe Carnival Club presents the stunning ‘Head Hunters’ Cart at a Somerset Winter Carnival (Thanks for the photo!).

Are you looking for something spectacular to do for a weekend break in November? How about standing on the pavement one night in a small Somerset town for a few hours? You’ll be in good company – for thousands will do this to witness one of the awesome Somerset Winter Carnivals.

Never Heard Of A Somerset Winter Carnival?

Somerset is something of a carnival-mad county - Taking place in November, the big carnivals on the ‘Guy Fawkes’ circuit are:

Bridgwater

Highbridge & Burnham-on-Sea

Weston-super-Mare

Midsomer Norton

North Petherton

Shepton Mallet

Wells

Glastonbury

Choose a carnival and book a Somerset holiday cottage in the locale for a weekend or midweek break. This will allow time for a little daytime sightseeing, perhaps some early Christmas shopping, country walks across the Somerset Levels or the Mendip Hills. Then, as twilight approaches head into town for the evening event to watch the big, bright, noisy parade. You won’t be disappointed.

You may scoff, but the glittering electrifying processions parade through Somerset towns on dark November nights are likely to rival anything you’ll see in Rio or Notting Hill. Not for nothing is Somerset (or, for the pedants, Bridgwater) justifiably known as the ‘home of carnival’.

These winter carnivals are a spectacle – a hundred or so floats, powered by generators sufficient to meet the needs of a small housing estate, ensure that music and the glow of thousands of coloured bulbs light up the night sky for miles around. More than a few motorists on the M5 must have driven past Bridgwater or North Petherton and assumed the respective towns were ablaze as the glow of a few hundred thousand coloured lights illuminated the darkness. Stand downwind of a carnival, and you can feel its warmth approaching well before the first of the giant floats or carts (as they are locally known heaves slowly into view.

MGM-style sets will feature a host of tightly choreographed sequinned dancers performing a 2-minute routine for 3-4 hours without stopping. Costing thousands of pounds to design and build, themes range from Martians, galloping horses, working roller coasters, steam trains, skyrockets, and dinosaurs. It’s a wonder they are not better known – although, in fairness, the good folk of Somerset turn out in their thousands to scoff hot dogs and burgers while marvelling at the incredible procession of carts, many the length of a tennis court. It’s like the Blackpool illuminations on wheels, only with more lights.

A local carnival club owns each cart. Every year the club raises thousands of pounds to pay for its cart, which is professionally designed, often in great secrecy (for these are competitive events), and built over many months. Rehearsals, for those privileged enough to earn a place on board, start weeks beforehand as no stone is left unturned to achieve perfection and a highly coveted trophy.

The biggest carts are lit with up to 30,000 light bulbs and have PA systems that U2 would be happy to take on tour, all powered by massive (thankfully, super-silent) Aggreko diesel generators, themselves decorated and lit to form a part of the cart.

Because of their popularity, plan to arrive in town early to ensure somewhere to park (many roads will be closed from the late afternoon). Then find a suitable pub or café for an early evening supper close to the route. And wrap up warm, as you’ll probably need to wait a while until the procession arrives (although you’ll hear it long before it does). Seasoned carnival watchers will bring camping chairs with them to make the ‘waiting period’ easier on the feet – not a bad idea if you have small children. Bring lots of loose change to fill collectors’ buckets as all proceeds go to local charitable causes – otherwise, it’s ‘free admission. And what if it rains? Don’t worry – the show will always go on, so dress accordingly! Whatever the weather, it’ll be an evening to put smiles on the faces of all the family.

Other Places to Visit in Somerset During Your Winter Break

A Winter Carnival need not be the only highlight of a winter weekend break in Somerset. Give yourself a day or two on either side of your choice of carnival, and you’ll find plenty of other days out to enjoy.

Glastonbury offers a delightful range of attractive local shops, ideal for Christmas present shopping, but take your walking boots to tramp up Glastonbury Tor for stunning views across the Somerset Levels. Visit the Abbey, the legendary burial place of King Arthur.

While on ‘The Levels’ (it’s the place where King Alfred burnt some cakes), take a walk along The Parrott Trail, named after one of the main rivers that flow through this part of Somerset and along whose banks the trail follows.

Go deep underground in the giant and beautiful caves at Cheddar Gorge or view the Gorge from the Cliff Top walk (and don’t forget to buy cheese). If you like Glastonbury, you’ll also be equally attracted to the City of Wells, its ancient streets, Medieval Cathedral and Bishop’s Palace.

Bridgwater is within easy reach of the West Somerset Coastline, giving you time to walk the wide beaches at Dunster or Minehead and still be back in town for a Carnival. Enjoy waterside walks, cycle rides along the Bridgewater and Taunton Canal, or the riverside walks along the Tone in Taunton (another great place for seasonal shopping).

For further information about Somerset Winter Carnivals, visit https://www.somersetcarnivals.co.uk/ or https://www.visitsomerset.co.uk/whats-on/carnivals

For holiday cottages in Somerset, visit: https://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk/somerset

How To Find Your Perfect Holiday Cottage

As a directory site, the team at My Favourite Holiday Cottages spend a lot of time getting to know how you people like to find cottages. It helps us to improve the site to make it easier for you to find your perfect holiday property in the shortest possible time. But, no matter how easy we make it, we can still see people getting it wrong. So, for those of you who find themselves losing the will to live after a long trawl through hundreds of cottages, here are a few tips for tracking down 'that cottage' that will make your holiday the most memorable - for all the right reasons.

Across all sites that are trying to sell you just about anything from cottages to toothbrushes, people are always put off by choice. Now, wait! Don’t close this page just yet. It's true, and there is a lot of psychology backing up this claim.

When presented with too many choices, the vast majority of online shoppers will simply give up, unable to make a decision and therefore unwilling to buy. It's like having a sensory overload that just sucks all of that spontaneous adventure you had in your heart. You will have felt this before, if you have ever tried online clothes shopping, you will have found yourself giving up with a half-full basket because you got bored. It's the same deal with holiday directory sites!

So, what can we do about this? Obviously, the first thing I’m going to do is direct you to our site! After all, with a name like My Favourite Holiday Cottages - what better place could there be to begin? But that isn’t what you want to hear. So let's break down the problem into three tips:

First of all, you have to identify your most important search criteria. Now for most people, that will be the number of people the cottage sleeps, but we don’t want to bring up every self-catering cottage in the UK that can accommodate Auntie Berta, her snoring new boyfriend, Uncle Tom Cobley and All! So instead, let's switch to where it is you want to go. In which UK town, county or location do you desire to holiday? Think about this. If necessary, write a shortlist and then stick to it!

On most directory sites, where you want to go will be the first thing you are asked. If you know exactly where you want to go, then this is easy, just pop in that town name or location, such as The Norfolk Broads or Lake District or just a desirable quality, such as a holiday cottage in a remote location, and off you go. If you've got a shortlist, write it down and stick to it. However, we know this is rarely the case. If you don't know where you want to go, then you need to find somewhere that will appeal. Most good sites will have a description of a county, town or regional location, such as Ex, describing its virtues as a holiday destination. This will save you huge amounts of time compared with searching for towns on Google only to switch back to the directory site to search for cottages. Use a site's descriptions to hone your search down to a particular county or town. This will probably be good enough, and we can go from there!

If you are less fussed about where you go and more concerned with what your desired cottage has to offer, then you can try a different tack. After all, county names are arbitrary borders created centuries ago by Saxons, Vikings and other greedy landowners! They won't tell you if a cottage is dog-friendly or is suitable for a romantic escape. Searching for Cornwall because you know it has great beaches is going to leave out some of the best award-winning beaches in the world that lie just a bit up the coast in Devon. So instead, you can search more specifically for the kind of things you are looking for. This is where different sites have different ideas! On the MyFavouriteHolidayCottages.co.uk site, you can simply click the “beach” checkbox along aside the “pet-friendly” and “large cottage” boxes to get a list of cottages that meet all 3 criteria. Don't be afraid to get more bedrooms than you need. You never know if Aunt Berta and Mr Snore will have a falling out over that clothes peg on the nose and want some room to spread out! Essentially, decide and select your criteria.

But this is not a guide on how to use our site! This is about improving your search experience. So let's get onto the second and arguably most important thing to have in mind. BE PICKY!

There are so many holiday houses in Britain offering such a huge range of features in a very competitive market. You can guarantee that there is a perfect house out there for you, but not only is there one, but there are also hundreds! Don’t worry that you are going to have to search through the entire internet to find what you need, just be super picky!

Every search criterion you click will make that list shorter and shorter until you find the one that makes you go… Oooooh! After all, where's the harm in having a search list of one if it totally fits the bill? So, don't be afraid to be picky right from the outset. It's far easier to widen your search if your first attempt doesn't come up with anything suitable than to have to narrow it down from too large a list.

Tip No.3 is the hardest one: DON’T BACKTRACK! If you are sitting there looking at your perfect house, and then you think, “What if there is one as good as this but with a pool” or “I wonder if I could find a cottage just like this but slightly cheaper”, that is exactly the moment when you will become overwhelmed. Too much choice and you will become paralysed by the feeling that you could always find one better. Which, of course, probably isn’t true!

This doesn’t mean you have to accept anything less than the best, of course. However, put your time and thought into the first search, and you won't need a second! You may need to send an enquiry to more than one cottage just in case it isn't available or to confirm that the price is correct. There's nothing wrong with that. A prompt, friendly and helpful response will help to reassure you that a particular cottage has your name on it.

Don’t feel bad for being picky. The internet doesn’t have feelings of adventure. Don't let it drain yours!

And there you have it - 3 tips for identifying a cottage that will be perfect for your next self-catering holiday and saving yourself the dreaded loop of disappointment!:

1- Prepare your shortlist

2- Be Picky

3- Don't do the 'What If' thing and backtrack, having found somewhere that meets your needs. Just contact the owner - by phone or e-mail. And book that perfect holiday!

Book a cottage in October Half Term and get into The Milky Way FREE!

We have teamed up with The Milky Way family adventure play zone near Clovelly on the North Devon-Cornwall border to offer you two FREE adult tickets when you book one of these cottages with My Favourite Cottages for the October half term.

Of course, you aren't going to book a cottage just for your kids to have a fantastic day out! So let's get a bit selfish - you want a tremendous cottage to relax, so look at each of the houses on offer and find one that does it for you - AND your family.

Each house has been chosen due to its availability and proximity to The Milky Way!

Abigails Cottage

A 2-bedroom cottage sleeping in The quaint North Devon village of Northam, just a mile from the beach. The cottage is the ideal family hub to explore the area and come home to a lovely meal in the private terraced garden.

 

April Cottage

A 3-bedroom holiday cottage sleeping 6. located in the seaside village of Combe Martin with beaches, Exmoor And The Milky Way all within easy driving distance. The child and dog-friendly cottage is well-equipped to meet all your needs. Onsite leisure facilities are also available for days when you don't feel like moving further afield, including a games room, tennis court, and a 7.5-acre dog walking field with sea views.

 

Devon Beach Court

An airy, modern seafront apartment with WiFi in Woolacombe, North Devon. Why not make a day trip out of it and visit Clovelly afterwards for its unique views and eat in the harbourside pub? The apartment sleeps four people in 2 bedrooms.

https://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk/devon/woolacombe/devon-beach-court

 

Kittiwake Cottage

A 2-bedroom barn conversion in Braunton sleeping four people. This is the perfect house for you and the kids. With only a 5-minute drive to the nearest beach. Next to the house, there is almost an acre of gardens for you to explore and keep the children occupied.

https://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk/devon/braunton/kittiwake-cottage

 

Mulberry Cottage

A large stylish dog and kid-friendly stone cottage in Tawstock, North Devon, that sleeps 8 in 4 bedrooms. It shares a tennis court, games room and play area and is a perfect holiday cottage for the whole family to get away together and take a day trip to The Milky Way!

 

Oak Cottage

Oak is a very large converted barn. It sleeps 12 in 6 bedrooms. The cottage is in a peaceful village near Barnstaple. It has a tennis court and a children's wooden play area. Dogs are Kids are equally welcome!

 

Rock Cottage

Beautiful thatched holiday cottage in Goodleigh, a quiet village with an excellent pub near Barnstaple. Sleeping 4 in 2 bedrooms, this is the perfect place to bring the kids as a hub for all your (FREE) activities!

There are six pairs of adult tickets, each worth over £25, to give away. To qualify, you must book a 7-night minimum stay from Friday the 23rd to Saturday the 24th< depending on the cottage.