City Gals go mad in _________? Let's plan another.

[AtheneNoctua]

Thanks again Squiffy. Had a great time.

So we talked a bit about this yeterday, but let's pick up the conversation where we left off. I think we discused:

A self catering rental for the weekend.
Where shall we go?
Page62, did you say you have a book of places?

Bring 2 nannies and mums can go out for dinner/drinks. So self catering place should be walking distanse to pubs/restaurants?

So..... let's discuss places and dates...

if it's just mums, i think we can just rent a big place for the weekend

if DHs are involved (shudder, but who knows), perhaps a grouping of self catering cottages?

www.thebigdomain.com has some ideas there - though majority is for a week rental though some do short lets....

My DH would never never never NEVER come to a mumsnet meet up.

Is everyone sleeping... or afraid to post?

Morning! There is a site called baby friendly boltholes.co.uk which is self catering. I'm just going to take a look now.
Any suggestions for location?
Also my husband would never come along - he would be petrified!

I'm in, depending on dates.

I'm in (subject to dates) as well - hopefully will coincide with a weekend when DH is playing cricket, as I can't imagine he'd be that enthusiastic either. www.childfriendlycottages.co.uk also has some big properties - guess the key thing is going to be to work out how far away we're prepared or not prepared to go?

I was thinking that we should probably try to stay within say a 2 hour commute of London, or we'll spend all our time travelling there and back.

How would people feel about staying Friday and Saturday night. And try to arrive before dinner time for the kiddies on Friday?

I looked at Page62's site but it all looked quite expensive or a weekend was 4 nights. And that's more time that I can likely swing for a mumsnet meet-up.

Fri & Sat night is good for me - especially if we have a couple of nannies on hand to help!

www.groupaccommodation.com/accomsearchmainresults.asp?adCatLoc=East+Anglia&adMax=10&CatID=Show+All+P roperty&adsword=catering+-+on+request

what about any of these?

am not sure how flexible they would be with just a weekend....but surely worth a try!

Those aren't bad. I sort of liked this one: www.groupaccommodation.com/propertydetails.asp?adId=1316

The price is reasonable, it gets out of the city, but also won't take all day to get there.

Oh, how stupid am I? (No one answer that) I just realised Squiffy can practically walk there. So it's hardly a weekend away for her. Maybe I'll look again...

that looks good to me

if we settle on a month and narrow down possible weekends, that would be great.

maybe a weekend in late June, early July? (so not quite getting into people's summer hols plans?) but hopefully, good chances of decent weather?

Panic not, athenenoctua -- it's NOWHERE NEAR squiffy (walks away, shaking head, thinking these americans - hahahaha).

the contact person does live near squiffy though.

so it's probably some landed gentry who has this as their second home. But this is in suffolk

Oh God, so now I look like an idiot for saying I was stupid when in fact I was not -- but now clearly I have open my big mouth and reavealed all.

Think I'll just go crawl in a hole...

or go to Suffolk.

Good find AN! It shouldn't take too long to get to Suffolk either (I don't think). Love the idea of it being near the beach.
Is there enough room for us to bring the nannies???

What about this place?.....

www.groupaccommodation.com/propertydetails.asp?adId=1296&adCatAcom=2

It has a heated outdoor swimming pool and a "council approved" playground!!!

And 9 bedrooms.....

i think it is 5 bedrooms with 1 bedroom being able to take 4....am sure there is some configuration that can thought of....

According to Google, it is a 2 1/2 hour drive from my work (Chiswick / Brentford) so I could get nanny to drop kids with me at say 4:00 on a Friday and head out just in time to beat rush hour traffic and get to Suffolk (not Kent!) at about dinner time.

Or maybe I could sneak a half a day's holiday and leave well and truly ahead of Friday rush hour?

Okay, dates:
end of June is good. Early-mid July is good as well, but not the 4th (unless you want to have a barbecue, wave stars and stripes, and sing My Country, 'Tis of Thee)

Bertie, looks nice, but am a bit worried about "Prices: Prices start from £1,500 in low season to £7,500 in high season. " I think June/July is going to be high season.

Oh, and my kids can sleep in sleeping bags outside on the floor if need be.

Let's do that!! Then we would genuinely have an excuse to have a BBQ, get sparklers and flags out and generally overexcite the children...

I can do 28th June or 5th July - after that i am on holiday for 2 weeks.

Oh didn't look at the price.

Going to call them and see if what they would charge for the weekend....

We could have a big american history lesson over that w/e (for the children) and make my DD be the turkey!

Turkey???

Maybe in November.

i reserve the leg (hehehe, don't like turkey legs but love bertieboo's DD's leg!)

July 5 is marginally better for me. I will still have to beg for a lift from someone as i don't know how to drive!!

You can take the train direct to Ipswich in just over an hour from Liverpool Street.