Cottage for a large group somewhere central

[Househunter]

I'm looking at booking a few nights at the end of September with a group of friends. We are coming from opposite ends of England so looking for somewhere in the middle. There are 8 adults and 6 kids, 4 of whom are still in cots so we think we need at least 6 bedrooms. I haven't been able to find anything reasonably priced so far. Does anyone have any recommendations please?

Try the big websites like bigholidayhouse.com and groupaccomodation.com they specialise in groups of 8+ and 10+ with things to suit all pockets. have always found them to be really good when booking group hols as you deal directly with the owners and don't pay commission. good luck

Thanks for the suggestion. I've had a look on those sites and everything seems very pricey so far but will keep searching. Am wondering if we should be focussing more on a holiday park type thing and be in separate chalets, but then we wouldn't be able to hang out all together in the evenings as the kids all go to bed at 7pm...

What sort of budget do you have? And what sort of areas might you consider?

Don't really want to spend more than £200 per family (4 families altogether). Is this totally unrealistic? Would consider Derbyshire, south Yorkshire, or anywhere similar.

I think that's unrealistic for anywhere remotely nice unfortunately. I've booked a fair number of holidays for large groups and normally ended up spending 100 per bed (not including babies in travel cots but including other children).

If you need to keep the budget down then you should normally avoid the big websites because they take a decent slice of the income - it's cheaper to go direct to the owner.

That said, I suggest you look at Mark Close Farmhouse in Alston in the North Pennines, which I remember as being huge and really cheap, though very remote. It's on www.country-holidays.co.uk I think.

Thanks, will check that out. Do you mean £100 per person for the weekend? That would be £300 for 2 families and £200 for the other 2. Or £100 per person per night. In which case

The cheapest I found is renting a whole Youth Hostel here, which are pretty basic and most of the rooms are dorm/bunk style, but in some really fab locations. Anything else is bound to be more. The only other option could be to get a couple of park home caravans, which can be around £100 for 3 or 4 nights - and if you want that really cheap look at the offer in the Sun here. hope this helps.

Actually I meant per week, so in theory you could get it cheaper for a long weekend, but I still think you'll struggle if you need 6 bedrooms.

Youth Hostels say they are from £9 per person per night to rent the whole place. I think we paid about £15 per night each but it was an amazing farmhouse on the coast in Cornwall 100 yds from the sea. So def doable for your budget!