To think that people on holiday don't want to go for a walk?

[Notwiththeseknees]

I'm looking at buying a house as a holiday let. The house is amazing - really fab. The gardens are beautiful and we would put in a big pool. It is between 40 & 80 minutes drive of the sea, UNESCO sites, big architecturally gorgeous market towns and fantastic scenery. Village is 5 minutes away by car, bigger village 10 minutes away with restaurants & supermarket. BUT the immediate surroundings are a bit 'okay'. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to have a really nice walk, an okay walk, but not an "ooooooh, that was a lovely walk" walk.
How much does a lovely walk in the immediate vicinity add to your holiday enjoyment? Especially if you have amazing gardens to potter in and a lovely
pool....

Getting in a car for 5/10 minutes is no hardship at all, if you've had to hire one anyway to get there

But it's so much nicer to just walk without bothering with the car, and to not have to find somewhere to park at the other end, and be able to have a drink.

How far is the walk to the nearest restaurants/shops of this house OP? Most people would be happy to walk maybe 15/20 minutes on holiday to go out to eat or pick up supplies, some even further, as long as they were capable of course. Doesn't have to be 'a nice walk' as long as it is safe and not along the edge of a dual carriageway or on an unlit road.

My kids hate walks, so lack of walks wouldn’t bother me at all. But I certainly wouldn’t pay for a house with a pool in the uK

Yes, I should add that 5m drive can vary massively. I'd happily walk 20m along a path or quiet road to a pub!

OP I would think again before you jump in. I'm a holiday home owner. Walkability to a village and pub for provisions is important to guests. In the U.K., many people also do like to take their dog on holiday; so walks are important and dogs love a run on a nearby beach.
With the pool, if you are sticking the cost onto the mortgage fine. But if this is a cash funded project that is a whopping outlay that you are unlikely to recoup on profits for many years.

IME Smaller homes let better year round. Bigger homes may command a higher price but have a narrower season of letting as you need families and that limits you to school holidays. You also want to appeal to the retiree market which is year round. A good let has to sell very well in a brochure and online and have kerb appeal. Ideally many people want a characterful exterior but with all the modern comforts inside the home. Make sure you are buying for the appeal of your market and not yourself.....that would be a mistake and a costly one.

40-80 minutes from the beach is not going to be an attraction for very many people if it's in the UK. Just because large percentages of the population live that near or closer, and there will be thousands of holiday homes on the coast for those wanting the beach. So you're unlikely to draw that crowd. You might get people who are interested in the area and who might do one day trip or whatever, but it's not likely to be a major draw for them. I would think critically about the other stuff instead.

....also be sure that with the location you can quickly and easily access all of your supporting trades; gardener, cleaners, electrician, plumber (vital), pest control, handyman/woman and pool maintenance people - you need these and ideally a good number of them in case one is busy or away.

Many people,like me,holiday in the uk because they have/want to bring their dogs on holiday with them,so nice places to walk would obviously be pretty important. Also I think a 40 to 80 minute drive to the sea is quite a long haul actually!

Seems to me your thread title is likely to be of most interest to people who like walking on holiday. People who don't are probably going to think 'meh' and move on, so I suspect you're likely to get a bias towards walkers.

FWIW I like walking on holiday and would always go for a rural environment, but the right house with lovely gardens could swing me even if there weren't sylvan loveliness right on the doorstep (actually it has done in the past, particularly when the kids were tiny and largely house-bound). But it doesn't have to be an AONB, just pleasant and quiet and safe and, as I say, rural.

A lot of people will want a pub/bar/restaurant and a shop in walking distance. How far is this walk to the village? You say 5 mins drive which could mean anything up to 45 mins, but is there a shortcut that avoids noisy main roads etc? I'm thinking of emergency wine excursions in the afternoon / evening, but also first-thing-in-the-morning strolls for croissants or whatever.

Agreed with PP re. hot-tub, you'll get loads of bookings off the back of it, but they're a swine to maintain (especially when people do ... y'know ... in them) and (I presume) ruinously expensive to run. The pool would only tempt me if the climate was really really hot in your area (unless it's indoor and heated, then I'm yours).

45 mins * 2 every time you want to get somewhere and back is a lot of driving with car-sick toddlers. Assuming people book using a map viewer of properties (eg tripadvisor) then those types of families won't even look at you.

I guess the key is to work out what type of holiday your place might provide, and then optimise it for that. Who do you want staying? -

• Dog walkers? (will want a walk)
• Families with young kids? (no walk np)
• Families with older kids? (will want walk / bike ride)
• Hen parties? (no walk np mostly)
• Culture vultures? (50/50 walkers)
• Retirees? (60/40 walkers maybe?)
• 40th birthday celebrators? (may want a walk to clear the hangover)

etc

Don't know if any of that helps!

Hi OP,
I'm a reservations manager who looks after holiday homes for owners in a tourist location in Europe. We have properties all over, including some that are in the middle of nowhere and we still fully book.
All of our properties have BBQ facilities and access to a pool. It doesn't matter how far away you are from the beach, every guest is looking for something different. Some don't want to walk, some are happy being out of it and having a hire car, some like to be in the center of everything. If you plan to rent out i think you'll be fine as long as your price reflects the amenities available

Amazing garden to potter in is nice for an hour or two. Wouldn't want to do it for a week at a stretch. You might as well be anywhere if you're confined to barracks.

Definitely this. 40 and 80 minutes drive to anywhere of note is fine for the odd day trip but most people aren't going to want to do that every day/every other day let alone whilst relaxing on holiday. I'd therefore want nice surroundings and/or decent local amenities to make staying a distance away from the big ticket stuff worth it.

I would go for two types of let 1) isolated, so I bring in food for the week, then see no-one - and I would look at how many different walks i could do from the property without having to get in the car
2) less isolated - in which case I'd still be looking at walks from the property, but I would like to be in easy walking distance of a restaurant so we could both drink with our meal, and easy walking distance of supplies for packed lunches.

You say there is a Village 5 minute drive away, is there eg a bakery/small shop/bar there. Is there a footpath that makes it walking distance? 10 minute drive to the supermarket is fine but it's good if there are some amenities within a couple of Kms.

Are you going to allow dogs or not?

If your "guests" are likely to be dog walkers, then, yes, you need plenty of good walks around the house. It's what they'll be expecting and they'll be disappointed if they have to take the car to go walking.

If you aren't allowing dogs, then I don't think it's an issue. We don't have dogs and have been using UK holiday homes for about 20 years and I don't think we've ever gone for a walk from any of the homes we've stayed in.

For us, good road links and close pubs/shops/attractions we can easily drive to are more important.

Ah, it’s in France. Is it 40-80 mins away from everything? Or just from the beach?

What’s in the hamlet (if anything)? Can you walk to a village to get wine/pastries/basic supplies?

The lack of walks isn’t a huge issue for us, we normally have a hire car on holidays and no problem in driving abroad. So village and town 5-10 min away sounds great. If the property is a really good size and there is enough to do nearby then that would work for us. If the attractions 40-80 min away are really good then we would drive that, but good if you have some nearer things to do as well

I like to go for a run on holiday, it's great to have some nice vineyards to run around.

I also prefer to have the attractions nearer. Which bit of coast is it near to? Some french beaches are a bit rubbish. Is it near a lake? I love a bit a lake in France.

If it's in rural France but not close to beach, then yes, a pools great for a bigger home. My sister ran a holiday home in Charante for a number of years..,the challenge there was getting good pool people and good cleaners; the general standard was not the same as the UK which is pretty high.

It is between 40 & 80 minutes drive of the sea, UNESCO sites, big architecturally gorgeous market towns and fantastic scenery. Village is 5 minutes away by car, bigger village 10 minutes away with restaurants & supermarket.

It was the central location that I thought might appeal if you didn't want to stay at the property all the time

What is is central to? I think an hour and a half drive is too far. For dossing all holiday, I'd want to be near a beach.

My in laws have a place in rural France that is in pretty enough surroundings but not exceptional. It’s a five minute drive to the nearest village/bakery and it’s a pain in the arse tbh. Someone has to go out at 8:30am every morning for bread, croissants etc (just not the same if you have the ones from yesterday!) and there is nothing to do that doesn’t require a 30/40 min drive.

It’s not somewhere I would go if I was paying to stay there.

Do you have other options that you’re looking at in a better location?

It's always nice to go for a walk in the immediate vicinity just to see what it's like whether the scenery is lovely or simply ok. Having to drive everywhere can get tiresome.

It is between 40 & 80 minutes drive of the sea, UNESCO sites, big architecturally gorgeous market towns and fantastic scenery.

So not really that close to anywhere of note

I'm the one that always has to drive. My idea of a holiday is being able to walk to lovely places...beach, village, pub, shops, harbour etc I have no interest in being in the middle of no where. Possibly if this was large enough for groups of families it would work.

I agree with people who say you want to be able to walk to places - a couple of places to eat and a bakery at a minimum - on holiday.

We once stayed at a self catering cottage in France billed as 5 minutes from a village but it was unwalkable due to the incredibly steep road without any pavements or walkway and blind bends. Really pissed me off and made the holiday multiple times less satisfying than a less well equipped property with access to local restaurants and shops etc on foot.

Something 80 minutes drive away is not a local attraction.

No waY would I drive 40_80 mins to the beach.
You do know the cost of installing and maintenance of a swim pool?
Im not bothered about walks but I do like an aesthetically pleasing location.

If I booked a holiday home, I wouldn't wish to drive everywhere. So it's not I would like to go for a nice walk, but I'd wish to be able to walk to local bars, restaurants, little shops etc, not being able to do so, means I'd have to eat in every night, or drive to eat, and as such have one allocated driver, we couldn't go to a restaurant and have a few drinks with our meal, or we would have to mess about with taxis.

As such, I think thr location would be a no go for us.