Morning all,

I’m looking into organising something for her indoors’ 30th. She wants to go away with all her/our friends for a weekend of biking, walking and eating.

Trouble is that a lot of her friends are not very outdoorsy, whereas almost all of ‘our’ friends are.

So, I need to find somewhere that has both rooms and a campsite, preferably near to decent biking, but also somewhere where people can go for a stroll (on a beach??) that isn’t too taxing.

Don’t really want to travel too far, so within 2-3 hours of Cheltenham is the area… Maybe the peak district, or Snowdonia – or on the welsh coast somewhere?

Oh, and it need to be available for the August bank holiday weekend (that’s when her birthday is).

What can you suggest?

Cheers,
Dave

Something we used to do for a friends birthday each year….. Dig out a good pub guide, look for nice country pubs – phone them and ask them if the know who owns the field next door -then sweet talk the owner into letting us camp there. You effectively get a campsite to yourself (so your revelry doesn’t disturb anyone else) and the pub as your facilities.

It was a while back now so I can’t remember most of the places where we did this, the one that sticks in my mind is the Crown in Churchill, North Somerset.

good idea, might look into that as an option… I think I’ve got a good pub guide at home 🙂

Dave

Churchill might be worth a shot actually for you – the pub is on a quiet lane the very edge of the village facing out onto fields. I doubt it does B&B itself but your less adventurous friends could get B&B elsewhere in the village and still use the pub as your focus.

not sure the location works so well for us – we’ve got friends who live very near there, so the area is pretty well trodden for us.

fancy something a bit more exotic 😉

Dave

If you fancied the Scottish Borders then marthrown of Mabie is worth a look.

http://www.marthrownofmabie.com/folder-1-home-page

They will also do you a hog roast if you want, ideal for lots of people.

that looks amazing! unfortunately a bit far north for this trip… bookmarked for future escapades though 🙂

Dave

Maybe something like http://www.swallowfallshotel.co.uk/index.html

Hawkshead has a campsite right in the middle of the village and there’s a few B&Bs in the village as well, that’s in the lakes. Otherwise Keswick is really nice, plenty of B&B’s in the town and there’s lots of campsites, if you want on the lake edge there’s a caravan club place but a better campsite is up on the hill at castlerigg farm. Sorry my knowlesge is limited to the lakes I’m afraid.

Burnbake near Corfe (Studland) is useful – they have a large field for rallies, etc.

try http://www.groupaccomodation.com or http://www.house-parties.co.uk

Gower….. lots of great sites there….. beaches….. Afan 40 mins away……

Down the Gower somewhere, sandy beaches for the indolent, some trails for the active?