Tell HouseTrip about your best holiday home experiences and you could be in with the chance of winning a £200 Boots voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

HouseTrip have asked us to find out about Mumsnetters' best holiday home experiences, either from childhood or more recently.

Here's what HouseTrip have to say:

"We're on a mission to make it easy for people to holiday wherever they want in the world but in beautiful whole homes rather than cramped hotels. Holidaying in a home allows families to spend crucial quality time together that they don’t always get in normal life in order to make memories that will last a lifetime”

So, what has been your best holiday home experience? Maybe it was staying in a cottage as a child? Perhaps you have fond memories of visiting a city apartment? Or maybe your best experiences have been in a villa you go to each year with your kids? What made your experience so special?

Whatever your best holiday home experience has been, HouseTrip would love to hear about it.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 Boots voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on HouseTrip's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

We rented a huge house in Swanage & went with 16 family members. The house was beautifully located with a huge garden for all the children.
The beach was easy to find & the ice cream was plentiful. We were in walking distance of the town, the train station, pubs, & food shops, Lovely

We went to the South of France last year with our 2 daughters who where 5 and 7 at the time. We had a lovely time and thought our daughters would declare it their best holiday yet, however both girls tell us that their favourite holiday is in a holiday home we rent in Fairbourne in Wales. It is right on the sea front and has a lovely enclosed garden. Unlike it's neighboring town of Barmouth it is quite and peaceful but you can do day trips over to Barmouth if you get the ferry across the estuary.
There is a miniature train and lost of cycle paths nearby too.

:)

I think Location is the key for us.

Lovely modern simple homes is the best for us. I really don't like staying in hotels, I like to have a place we can relax and use as 'our own'. You get the homely feeling, without being at home.

There's nothing worse than being cramped into a hotel, forced upon company you don't want to be with.

It really does make a difference staying somewhere with more than one room. We had an overnight stay in a single room last year on our way to our holiday and our son was so upset and hated it saying how much he didn't like it that we all had to stay in the same room.

Our best experience was a cottage on a farm which was really up-to-date inside and had a really great quality bed (so important for my backache) and a spacious kitchen to cook in. And it had its own little outdoor courtyard too. It was lovely!

As a child, we went to Butlins. The chalets were small and cramped, but I had a great time there.

The best house we ever rented was in deepest Burgundy in France. A stones throw for the great Sancerre vineyards, the little house was a converted signal box beside an ancient long-since abandoned railway. The railway route itself , now overgrown with wild flowers and shaded by old oaks was inhabited by woodpeckers, red squirrels, and swooping kingfishers. Our breakfast was brought every morning in a wicker hamper by the owner. Rich homemade hot chocolate in flasks and fresh baguette smeared with homemade wild strawberry jelly.A tiny wren had made its nest in the veranda and jumped down to nibble crumbs.
The signal box itself had been converted to comprise a small pretty kitchen on the ground floor, with stone sink and old oak table. Above a tiny living room with a TV and two enormous comfy armchairs , and above this a beautiful bedroom. Stripped oak floors, stone walls and crisp white bed linen made us feel snug and cosseted. Here we spent a perfect week, exploring the Loire, sipping grassy white wine, eating fresh cabicou goats cheese, and visiting the local antiques fair.
Our evenings were spent each night on the veranda watching fireflies dance among the Pouilly-Fumé vines and drinking the wine grown there.
Utter Bliss.

We spent last summer at home, exploring what is on our doorstep. we were very surprised what hidden gems were around our home town, and the kids have gained a wider knowledge of the town.

We stayed at Broadgate Farm Cottages in Beverley. It was a wonderful experience and a gorgeous home from home. I would have loved to take the cottage home with us. They had everything you needed from decent knives and kitchen equipment to games and everything you could have.

We stayed in a lodge this year at Whitecliff Bay on the Isle of Wight and personally I think it's the best holiday home we have ever stayed in, so clean and tidy, felt so well looked after and 'loved', plus the views were beautiful and the staff were all so friendly, to top it of the holiday park had access to a private beach which my daughter loved! Can't wait to go bam gain next year!

We rented a holiday apartment in Falmouth - so much to do for all the family, rain or shine + fantastic food.

We've had some fabulous holidays in France, there are 3 cottages all with their own private garden with barbecue and garden furniture, an indoor shared swimming pool, children's play area and lots of animals to feed. There are books, games and DVDs for all ages in the gites and they let us take our own Sky card so my daughter can watch her favourite TV programmes. They get your shopping for you if you tell them in advance and the owner is English so there is no communication issues.

When I was first married in 1985 I planned a holiday home holiday to take my parents back to their roots. In the 1960's my dad was a manager of a fruit farm in Glewstone just outside Ross on Wye in Herefordshire . They long term fostered me from a child's home in Hereford and i lived in the midst of 1000's of apple trees . My best memories are of a wonderful childhood running free on this farm in and out of the trees and learning about wildlife . I still remember the taste of those juicy apples unique to that area. They went on to adopt me 9 years later but I never forget those first few years. I managed to find a little cottage just outside Glewstone and hired it for a week. It was up a tiny tiny lane with no other cottages about and was so cozy . Although it was semi-detached the neighbours were friendly, especially the Domerman dog who greeted us on hind legs through the our kitchen window! The owner of the cottage met us there and it was to my amazement that she was an old friend of my parents from back in the 60's! mum and dad went to their house for dinner the following day and we were given an extra weeks holiday for free!! We loved that holiday. We visited the old house and scrumped an apple from the orchards!! we climbed mountains,went down an old pit, canoed and rode horses and always came back the warm cosy cottage . I don't think you can beat a holiday cottage because the owners tend to make it a home from home .It was certainly was in our case.

We love staying in a mobile home near the New Forest as this allows us to have so great days out exploring the forest. Lots of family fun and fresh air! Perfect...

Mine have been in various places but it's certain things that make them really good! The best one though, has probably been in the Lake District and what made it brilliant was the location. Close to shops, but down a quiet street. Small suntrap of a garden which was a godsend after a day's walking in the hills! Open plan kitchen / lounge so we could all be together before, during and after meals. Oh, and a tv in the kids' bedroom so that they were happy in the mornings and we could have a lie in. It's that type of easy living, rather than fancy sheets and posh décor which makes it for me. Though those are nice too

The one Holiday Home experience that will always stick with me was being in Scotland in a big cottage with my family in the Winter. We spent a week without TV and computers, just spending time with each other using the board games provided by the holiday people, and using the game room set up in the cellar.
We were in the countryside, surrounded by woods and fields but not so far that a car journey wouldn't take us somewhere to explore.
There was an open fire as well, which made the cold nights cosy for us and added to the whole magical experience.

The most incredible place I've ever stayed was also the most unexpected. On a working trip to Sydney Australia 3 colleagues and I found a property to rent online in a suburb called Kirribili. The rent was so much cheaper than many central business hotels and we figured that being 'on the other side of the bridge' made sense as a money saving exercise. Well... cheaper it was, but it was also the most extraordinary place I've ever seen. Two apartments knocked together, with spectacular views back across circular quay, the Sydney Opera house and the Sydney harbour bridge.
Unbeknown to us when we arranged it, on the last weekend we were there it was the celebration of 100 years of the Royal Australian Navy. We invited friends and their children to join us and spent the entire day watching warships, helicopters and flybys. All topped off with a Royal Visit by prince Harry and a spectacular light and firework show in the harbour.
If I ever win the lottery....

We rented a villa in Spain where the owners asked the ages of our children and then made sure the villa was filled with toys and equipment suitable for their ages. This was amazing and helped make our stay really special.

The best holiday homes we've stayed in are the ones that recognise that you have different needs when you're holidaying with very small children, so will include and set up things like stairgates, high chairs and travel cots, as trying to take all that sort of thing with you on holiday in an average sized car can be tricky.

never stayed in a cottage or anything but we stayed at a holiday camp oncwe many years ago in a chalet and it wasn't a good experience at all it was horrendous the best holidays we had were in a caravan

My best holiday home memory is from a stay in a 6 bed villa in Florida with my whole family, 14 of us altogether. It gave us a great base to explore the parks.

I've stayed in quite a few different houses and cottages in the UK and once abroad all of the holidays very enjoyable, 1 or 2 of the accomodations less memorable than the rest but on the whole we have had very good experiences. Our memorable one in this country was in Norfolk the house was fairly modern but beautifully and luxuriously built and furnished, with gorgeous gardens and exclusive use of an indoor swimming pool with its own separate changing rooms, shower and toilet. We had quite bad weather that first time but everyone still had a fabulous time we even got both sets of grandmas in the pool which was quite unheard of. We loved it so much that when we had a wedding to go to up that way we booked the same house again for 2 weeks and paid less than we would have had to pay for us all (there were 8 of us) if we had booked a hotel just for the weekend of the wedding
The memorable one abroad was to Disney World and we had a wonderful villa in Kissimee, we went for their top rated villa with swimming pool and it really was luxurious and we paid less on accommodation than we did for our first trip there where we stayed in what was to my mind a very grotty 3 star hotel. I would certainly recommend to anyone going to Florida Disney, Universal etc. to stay in a villa rather than a hotel, you get far more for your money that way and eating out is so cheap that you don't have to worry that you won't get a break from cooking.

our best holidays have been rented out houses or cottages which are homely, warm, inviting and clean, friendly owners are a must to greet you and your family or friends, instructions on how to work things and contact numbers for them if needed, and in ireland a few of the places we arrived at had a fresh loaf of bread and milk and a few biscuits sitting out for us, thats very thoughtful, also its handy to have some local taxi numbers, restaurant numbers, local attractions etc in case you need them, and to feel like it can be ike home while ur there, then go out and do all the adventures and return back to you rented house!!!

The best holiday home experience I've had is in a beautiful but tiny 1 up 1 down farm cottage in wales. at the foot of the bed was a beautiful roll top bath, pure luxury!

The best holiday homes I have stayed in have always been National Trust cottages. The locations are fantastic with wonderful views and great countryside right on your doorstep. You can just step out of the door and go for a walk.
They are always clean and well decorated with everything you need for your stay.

We hired a holiday home a few years ago to stay just outside Yellowstone Park. It was a great location and lots of space for a few families. :)