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....

A few years back we stayed in a villa in Portugal with beautiful large grounds with a pool, tennis court, woods and a river backing on. DS absolutely loved it and had the time of his life but DH and I got very fed up of having to drive for miles if we wanted to go out for a meal. DS kept begging to go back but we never did.

Did the same in Michigan's Upper Peninsula one summer. Beautiful house, river, woods, remote... So remote it reminded me of 'Deliverance' so I didn't feel like taking a walk.

Forgot about the mosquitoes when booking. Twas ok for the members of the party who liked to do an hour of fly fishing every evening. The rest of us got itchy and very fed up.

Immediate surroundings are important for me. Either walking to the beach, walking to the town / other attractions, or in gorgeous scenery. I probably wouldn't rent what you have described.

I think you’ve probably made the location sound less nice than it is.

In the nearest village is there a cafe? Good coffee? A place to sit & watch the world go by, or just a boulangerie?

With both villages, is the cycle there easy & flat or hilly? How many km to the second village?

If you REALLY love it and definitely REALLY want to live in it longer term then it’s completely different to buying ‘just’ a holiday home for rental. If I was 100% sure I wanted to live in it I’d work out what the absolute minimum it needed to earn to pay for itself until I wanted to move in & see if I thought it could do that. IF you’re not 100% smitten with it, then I’d probably buy something that makes renting it out easier & buy a property to live in later, unless there’s a compelling reason to buy now (law changes etc).

How ‘out of reach’ is your old house? How much more do you love it?

I’d like to be you this morning. Probably a lot of mornings. I used to do winter seasons in Meribel & summers in Provence. I miss my old life.

Our house in France was a 20 min drive to the nearest village, and was solidly booked April to Oct every year, HOWEVER, it was in an outstandingly beautiful and scenic area, right next to a very famous landmark, and in the nest area in the country for walking and cycling.

In the case of the house you describe, I just can’t see that it will earn its keep.

Also how easy is it to get to from the nearest airport? Some of my friends bought a house in rural France. But you had to fly then have a long car journey to get there. No one is going to do that unless it is for a specific reason like an event or amazing sight.

@IncrediblySadToo I didn't appreciate what I had at that time but that is a whole other thread! Now property has to earn its keep, hense my caution. I have made the location sound less than average as I wanted worse case scenario views. It's not where anyone would choose for a beach holiday, but it is accessible if you wanted to go for a change. My parents back in the day would think nothing of driving to the sea - (64 mile round trip) for the evening as a treat to buy prawns. We would eat them in the Ford then drive home
There are loads of properties in the area on HomeAway & Airbnb and the lovely ones are booked in the summer.
I'm going to have to think very hard about it - strangely it was 'the walk' situation that concerned me the most as this countryside is not outstandingly beautiful, only nice.
It's a full on 95% restored Maison d'Maitre - but I shan't link it.

We would drive a long way when home for things. But nobody books a holiday property thinking they will drive a long way, if there are properties closer.

Meant to say thank you everyone for your contributions!
And a pool would be work and there are maintenance companies there that could handle that, we would (in theory) be overseeing it all personally in the summer months.

Stop it!! Airports are really handy - an hour from touching down - including finding car hire company, paperwork and a quick croissant stop!

I have just got back from my holiday which was walking in Scotland. I drive around staying in different places each night and in some quite crap accommodation but that's because for me the requirement for walking far outweighs where I stay which is literally just a bed for her night.

OP depending on how big the house is, might it be possible to find tenants for rather longer-term stays? Or, as a previous poster says, find regular tenants for a while? I live in a remote area (not France) and local houses are sometimes rented by (for example) writers wanting peace and quiet to finish a book.

And I know I'm being a killjoy here, but I'm horrified by all the love for hot tubs. Most are terrible for the environment www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/19/what-is-environmental-cost-of-hot-tub-lucy-siegle And the realisation that one is sitting in a hot and hazardous-to-health 'chemical soup' doesn't much appeal, either. This report, by the American Chemical Society is alarming: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518120252.htm

I wouldn't book anywhere without walking distance to a nice bar/square and a pool. I hate driving every day on holiday.

How are people actually going to find out about your place? When I book holiday homes, I pick an area (sightseeing/town/beach/whatever) and then look at holiday home sites such as AirBnB on map view. On that basis I would never even see this place as there would be no reason to look at the right part of the map, given that the nearest attractions are 40 mins drive away. The same would be true for people who search by distance from X rather than map view.

I wouldn't be so far away from the sea when abroad. I don't go abroad to spend all my time driving.

Most years we rent between Toulouse and Albi. The one we have gone back to is a 10 minute drive to the nearest town, the one we never went back to was a 10 min but not nice walk to a village. It seemed easier to jump in the car, grab stuff at the market/carrefour and come home to relax. Somehow the 'meh' walk whilst shorter seemed like more hard work.
A key factor for us were easy access to a main road but still quiet - 40 minutes to a city or tourist attraction seems ok if it's 5-10 minutes county roads, then onto better ones; 40 minutes small country lane is a nice drive out but not for every journey.
If it could be a long term h9me but it needs to earn its keep, house needs to appeal to different types. So I'd take a step back and run through the common types and ask does it work. If it only works for a niche type then you nee$ to ask yourself how often it will stay empty and does that work financially.

It sounds like you want to buy it, but almost all posters don’t recommend you do.

You said “property has to earn it’s keep”.

Majority of posters in here said they wouldn’t rent it. I would start looking again. You could buy a good rental then in future years sell it to buy your dream house for living in.

We rented a villa in Tuscany years ago, villa was lovely, pool was lovely but we hated having to drive to get anywhere. There was one restaurant within walking distance but along a pretty terrifying road (no pavement, small children).

Never again, but there’s probably a good supply of people who haven’t learnt that lesson yet who might rent it!

If the price is right, it'll rent. It sounds like the places we'd stay with friends pre-kids: middle of nowhere, pool, one guy would get up early to stock up on bread and croissants, mostly we stayed on site with the pool, and stocked up on food and wine and didn't have to leave the place, though we'd also do a couple trips out to unesco sites or a beach. Nowadays we want to be able to walk to cafes etc so it wouldn't work.

Look at what other extremely remote places rent for and if that would cover your costs.

The need to drive wouldn't necessarily put me off - we tend to choose fairly rural places and usually cook more than we eat out. However, I'm surprised you think the property itself would be the main draw. For me, the house needs to be comfortable and practical, but it's really just a base for exploring the surrounding area. I'd rather stay in a tent in a stunning location than a luxury villa in a meh location!

I wonder if you would do better targeting French guests, OP? I suspect they wouldn't be put off by some of the things like driving that are bothering people on here. I would have thought all the cyclists and serious walkers would enjoy it and it sounds like it would suit the big family parties.

The most important things to me in a holiday let are:

A pool
Walking distance to pubs/restaurants (under a mile)
Close to a beach (30 mins walk max)

A nice walk would be great but it's not on my priority list.

@yakari We are going to be in between Toulouse and Albi next week. Any recommendations?! TIA

OP if you won’t link, can you give us some idea of area? Location and how many tourist things within 80 mins would make or break a holiday property for me.

I didn't appreciate what I had at that time but that is a whole other thread!.

Shuffle over a bit 😖

I hope whatever has changed in your life wasn’t too traumatic and things are ok for you 🌷

Lots for you to think about, but as I said, I’d think about how much you really want to live in it first, if you’d personally really regret not buying it, then work out the bare minimum it needs to return and see if you think it’ll achieve that easily enough, given the others are fully booked and you know what you’re doing in the business I’d say you’d be fine. MN is a not a balanced view from the general public and your thread title is a bit ‘leading’ so I would not place too much weight in it really.

If you need a test guest...just let me know 😊