Coolstays in the press

"The Old Oak is built around the boughs of a mighty old Essex oak tree, with some of those boughs snaking up through the floors and walls, and staying here is as close as you’ll get to a visit to the Old Oak Palace of Lord and Lady Woodmouse. There may not be pantries stuffed with acorns or thistledown carpets but there is a roof terrace for stargazing, a bath with a view and twin hammocks on the balcony for gazing up at spinning leaves."

Property Featured: The Old Oak at Coleman’s Farm, Essex

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"If you want to kip comfortably under canvas this winter, opt for HARTA. The unique tents at this secluded site on the edge of Exmoor offer the romance of camping with none of the hardships. Each one comprises two linked, double-skinned tipis, complete with king-size beds, shaggy rugs, wood-burning stoves and underfloor heating."

Property Featured: HARTA retreat, East Down, North Devon

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"The grand Victorian Lingholm Estate, overlooking Derwentwater near Keswick, is dotted with places to stay among the roaming alpacas. By far the most spectacular, and strikingly modern, is The Boathouse — jutting over the lake like a timber-clad, glass-fronted Monopoly hotel. There are views across to the islet in the middle of the lake from every part of the modern one-bed house, including the freestanding bath. "

Property Featured: Lingholm Boathouse, Derwentwater, Cumbria

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"These three cabins are a modern take on Scottish bothies and traditional Northumbrian coastal shacks. They are named after trees: Ash is in ancient woodland and has a tree swing, while Hawthorn and Willow sit between the woods and the burn. The sleek interiors have window seats and wood burners; all have kitchens, kingsize beds and en suites. There is electricity but no wifi. Outside are covered decks with firepits."

Property Featured: Trees at Tughall, Beadnell, Northumberland

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"Kabn Company calls its experience a boutique retreat in nature: two black and boxy hideaways on the shores of Loch Fyne with interiors of minimalist golden plywood. The view out of the large windows is a canvas of ferns and birches, and a private beach looks out over conifer-carpeted mountains. Return to your cabin at the end of the day and you’ll find a wood-burner for heating, solar-powered electricity, and a gas hob or barbecue for cooking."

Property Featured: Kabn Company, Argyll & Bute

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"This tranquil retreat on the outskirts of the North York Moors started life as a shipping container, though today it’s a chic contemporary space with floor-to-ceiling windows and a raised deck area for alfresco dining. Above all, it’s the views that make the Box so special – an enormous bedroom window will reward you with pretty sunrises and star-studded night skies."

Property Featured: The Box BnB, North Yorkshire

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"Who needs five star hotels when you can stay right on the water? Built in 1904 as a Customs and Excise pontoon, the Harpy Houseboat is a top notch floating home just 400m from Tower Bridge, promising spectacular views of some of London’s most famous landmarks. Four double cabins, a spacious living area, classic designer furniture, state-of-the-art entertainment systems and luxuriously equipped kitchen that would impress Gordon Ramsay are just a few of the highlights. "

Property Featured: The Harpy Houseboat, London

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"This renowned foodie pub near Lewes reopened last year under new management. It now has four bright rooms above the pub, plus a roof terrace. Guests can eat by one of two fires in winter and in the lovely garden in summer. Almost all produce is sourced within a 20-mile radius, including fish caught off the Sussex coast. Dishes could include a poached monkfish, crab, chickpea and chorizo stew (£22), grilled lemon sole (£22.50) or wild mushroom, spinach and truffle risotto (£16). Harvey’s best bitter is always on tap, plus local guest beers and sparkling wine from Bluebell Vineyard."

Property Featured: The Jolly Sportsman, East Chiltington, East Sussex

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"It’s hard to believe you are only 30 minutes from the centre of Glasgow here. At the foot of the Campsie fells, this homestead-for-two is squirrelled away in a tangled wood blurred by bluebells in spring; a babbling burn and the odd owl are the only sounds at night. A vaulted timber interior is warmed by a wood-burning stove. The real star is the creaky covered porch, where a bath tub and armchairs await for evenings by the chiminea. You’ll be sipping single malts from the Glengoyne distillery ten minutes’ drive away."

Property Featured: Finglen Cabin, East Dumbartonshire

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"No phone signal, no wi-fi, no other people — just you and 140 acres of trees. This secluded log cabin is ideal for a forest-bathing detox. Fire up the barbecue or loll in the hot tub, overlooking the River Lyne."

Property Featured: Shank Wood Lodge Cabin, Cumbria

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"This traditional stone cottage has been beautifully restored in a modern-meets-rustic style. The open-plan ground floor has wooden floors, beams and an inglenook fireplace with a woodburner. Upstairs are two bedrooms with vaulted ceilings and a bathroom with a walk-in shower. There are deep windowsills with sheepskin rugs and cushions, and lots of artworks and houseplants. Guests can defy the winter and head outside to cook in the pizza oven, sit around the firepit or soak in the hot tub."

Property Featured: High Park, Hay-on-Wye, Powys

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Until the 1940s there was a fashion for recycling former railway carriages into seaside holiday homes. There’s nowhere better to witness this than at Selsey in West Sussex, home to at least 30 such carriage cottages. Seabank is the best of them, comprising two former London-to-Brighton carriages, parallel parked, under one roof. The interiors are all pastel blue and the large windows provide terrific views of the shingle and sea.

Property Featured: Seabank, West Sussex

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"A 15-minute drive from Ullapool, this modern one-bedroom timber cabin cantilevers out over a burn that runs down the hill to Loch Broom. Built by the award-winning designers Echo Living, it marries big windows and clever contemporary design with cosy, colourful furnishings and underfloor heating. The cabin opens on to a decking area and small suntrap garden with the burn at the bottom for icy dips."

Property Featured: Waterfell, Highlands

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"As cosy as they sound, Sea View Snugs hunker into the hillside in this bucolic corner of south-west Scotland. The 18 individually designed cabins – think smart beige boxes – are on a 1,000-acre estate in Gatehouse of Fleet. Most sleep two, a couple can accommodate four, some allow dogs, and five have hot tubs. All have a natural theme: the Ben is named after Ben John, the hill that forms the backdrop, the Shore has a coastal vibe. Gather is a rustic-chic, contemporary glass-fronted on-site restaurant, dishing up locally sourced bistro-style food and panoramic coastal views. On the doorstep is Cardoness Castle, a 15th-century tower house to clamber around, and a bucketful of sandy beaches from Carrick to Mossyard and Cardoness."

Property Featured: Sea View Snugs, Dumfries & Galloway

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"Sitting on the fringes of the Leeds Castle estate, a stunning wisteria-clad medieval manor is a magical space for a late summer break. Arrow-slit windows and heavy wooden doors lead to a grand wood-panelled banqueting hall that would make eating a Pot Noodle a special occasion. Timbered rooms are painted lovely mid-blues and boast antiques and fancy furnishings. It’s all very chic and spoiling. After romping through the grounds, visit the castle for falconry displays and a maze, returning for croquet and drinks on the lawn."

Property Featured: Battel Hall - Leeds, Kent

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"Our edit of the loveliest holiday homes in the UK to rent, including the sharpest new cottages, manors and barns to take over as your own in the UK"

Property Featured: Lingholm Boathouse - Keswick, Cumbria. Kingshill Farmhouse - Minster-on-sea, Isle of Sheppey. The Riding House - Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. Shingle House - Dungeness, Kent.

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"If a cottage feels a bit too mainstream, look to UK-focused Cool Stays, which looks after more than 1,000 unusual properties, from treehouses to boat-hotels and windmills. In East Sussex you can stay on a converted London double-decker bus in the middle of the woods, while a lighthouse on Scotland’s Isle of Skye is surrounded by four acres of land. Top tip: scroll through the Editor’s Picks section for a more curated list of 50 of the smartest properties on the website."

Property Featured: All of them!

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"Renting a whole stately home or castle might be a stretch – both for your legally allowed group size and for your pocket – but the next best thing is the gatehouse to a grand pile. East Gatehouse Lodge, which has guarded Monzie Castle and its 400-acre estate since the 19th century, has been reincarnated as a neat and quietly well-decorated holiday rental. Beneath the imposing turrets of this gothic lodge, octagonal rooms with pale pink walls and white woodwork are made cosy with Middle Eastern rugs and sheepskins. The bathroom features an original Edwardian slipper bath nabbed from the castle, and there’s a spiral stone staircase through the middle to remind you where you are."

Property Featured: East Gatehouse Lodge - Crieff, Perthshire

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"Located where the New Forest meets the Solent, guests can enjoy the best of both worlds – woodland and beach. The garden blends into the dunes of a semi-private beach which is hard for the public to access by foot or car, keeping it nice and quiet. Inside, it’s cosy, yet stylish, with a real sense of home – lots of character, quirky features and sea views from all five bedrooms. In the 18th century, this was an old smugglers’ inn and was one of the only places on the Hampshire and Dorset south coast where boats could dock and unload their contraband."

Property Featured: Pitts Deep - Lymington, Hampshire

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"This curvy cabin on a working farm comes with eco-credentials (living roof, sedum-planted sitting room) and a patio from which to admire the surrounding fields. Smug? You bet. If you want a break from the pastoral scene, Canterbury is a ten-minute drive."

Property Featured: Bumble Barn - Canterbury, Kent

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"Children of the 80s might recognise St Anthony’s Lighthouse; it was in the opening credits of Jim Henson’s TV series Fraggle Rock. The lighthouse is set on the craggy tip of the Roseland Peninsula, so you’ll have to clamber down a 300m footpath from the cliffs above for a few days of sweet seclusion in its two-bedroom Sally Port Cottage. It has a country-style kitchen, wood burner and a brilliant observatory room – if these don’t keep you at base, St Mawes and the Lost Gardens of Heligan are within a half an hour drive."

Property Featured: Sally Port Cottage - St Mawes, Cornwall

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"It’s only 10ft by 10ft with a separate composting loo and you’ll have to walk 270 yards up a steep path to get here, but wow. Built last summer at the edge of a giant boulder field in the Peak District National Park, this remarkable hilltop timber-and-glass box opens on to a raised deck with mighty views over forest and dale. You have a wood-fired cedar hot tub on a lower deck, an outdoor kitchen and a Flintstones-style outside shower fixed to ancient limestone slabs. Rowtor Rocks caves are only about a five-minute walk away."

Property Featured: Boulder Field Cabin - Matlock, Derbyshire

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"Treverra Farm Cottage is a beautifully restored, 18th-century farmhouse in 14 acres just outside Rock, the destination of choice for young royals. Owner Liz Berman, who alongside her husband Charlie honed her hospitality skills running six gorgeous chalets in Verbier, has a keen eye for interior design. Swedish antiques and vintage furnishings give the house its charm (the networked Crestron music system, TVs, Sky boxes, Wii console and iPod docks are unobtrusively located). The sisal rugs, striped curtains and antique toys would look perfectly at home in a glossy interiors magazine, but that's not to say there are any airs and graces. "

Property Featured: Treverra Cottage - Rock, Cornwall

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"A private swimming pond right outside the door is, at certain hours of the day, just for the use of those staying at Dragonfly Cabin, a new remote-feeling lodge five miles from Cambridge, which opened in August as part of B&B Crafts Hill Barn. The cabin started out as a bird hide but now it’s smartly decked out, with a floor-to-ceiling picture window looking on to a little pebble beach, with a timber jetty to leap from."

Property Featured: Dragonfly Cabin - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

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"No children under 12, please. Everyone else will be by turns giddy and gobsmacked at Cruggleton Lodge, which sits on a cliff near Garlieston on the Machars peninsula. This former estate cottage is smartly turned out in a blue-and-beige colour scheme, with an Aga and a wood-burning stove to keep things toasty when a gale blows in off the Irish Sea. Mostly, though, you’ll want to go off exploring — in the gardens at Galloway House, on the beaches where the Mulberry Harbour prototypes were tested in 1943, and at Whithorn, where Christianity is thought to have gained its first, 5th-century foothold in Scotland."

Property Featured: Cruggleton Lodge - Garlieston, Scotland

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"Cool Stays lists hundreds of glampsites and unusual places to stay in the UK, including Birdholme Glamping (four adults and two children from £260 a night) in Stanton on the Wolds, Nottinghamshire. There are four safari lodges on stilts in 17 acres of woodland and meadow, each with a woodburner and a veranda with a hot tub."

Property Featured: Birdholme Glamping, Stanton on the Wolds - Nottinghamshire

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"The best beach is the one that is all yours. And Eilean Sionnach offers just that – this handsome lighthouse cottage sits by a private beach, on a private island, just off Skye. Departure times are dictated by weather and tides; if stranded, there’s nothing to do but stroll and beachcomb, read and sketch, scan for dolphins, watch the storms (there’s no TV). Socially distanced heaven. "

Property Featured: Eilean Sionnach Lighthouse Cottage, Isleornsay - Sleat

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"Straight off the pages of a Grimm’s fairytale, this enchanting turreted forest cabin in the grounds of a medieval manor outside the village of Husthwaite is reached via a boardwalk twisting through sycamore, oak and ash. The double-height lounge has knotted beams, timber walls, a wood-burning stove and a spiral staircase with rickety branches for banisters. Bunk beds in the mezzanine bedroom look as if they have been fashioned by a woodcutter. There’s a hot tub on the deck and a children’s den, accessed by a slide, with games console and a popcorn machine — it’s family holiday gold."

Property Featured: Rufus' Roost, Husthwaite - North Yorkshire

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Whether you want your own private beach or thousands of acres of woodland to explore, Laura Hampson rounds up the best socially-distant stays for summer"

Property Featured: Wood h, Isle of Skye - Scotland Tresillian, Sennen - Cornwall Pitts Deep, Lymington - Hampshire

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"Best for: unique hideouts - If a cottage feels a bit too mainstream, look to UK-focused Cool Stays, which looks after more than 1,000 unusual properties, from treehouses to boat-hotels and windmills. In East Sussex you can stay on a converted London double-decker bus in the middle of the woods, while a lighthouse on Scotland’s Isle of Skye is surrounded by four acres of land. Top tip: scroll through the Editor’s Picks section for a more curated list of 50 of the smartest properties on the website."

Property Featured: Eilean Sionnach Lighthouse Cottage, Isleornsay - Sleat

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"Surrounded by silver birch, cherry, oak and chestnut – as well as muntjac deer and red kites – you’ll find a fire-heated hot tub and wood-burning pizza oven in this forest glade. Light floods the large living area with its vaulted ceiling and stone fireplace where squishy velvet armchairs gather around the log burner. But there’s more than just the basics here: the deep-soak bathtub is positioned in front of a mirror TV, heated floors invite barefoot living and a pontoon and canoes make for a good splash about on the nearby lake."

Property Featured: Knotting Hill Barn House, Ashby Folville - Leicestershire

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"It might only be just over an hour from London, but the 3,300-acre wetlands that make up Elmley National Nature Reserve feel far more remote... This elegant six-bedroom space was a brick shell when the Fultons started work, an original 18th-century farmhouse with a Victorian addition fused onto one end. They’ve taken it back to the bones, restored and modernised it, adding a glass-sided kitchen extension to make the most of the nature-filled views and sky-blazing sunrises... This is a pace-resetting spot to flock to in a special corner of the country. "

Property Featured: Kingshill Farmhouse, Minster-on-sea - Isle of Sheppey

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"A special place to stay can make a holiday – but also break the bank. We’ve found 40 unique spots with bags of personality for £100 a room a night or less"

Property Featured: The Studio Fiscavaig, Isle of Skye - Inner Hebrides Burnhead Bothy, Glasgow - Lanarkshire Sussex AirShip, Nr. Billingshurst - West Sussex Ty Twt, Denbigh - Conwy The Danish Cabin, Trebarwith Strand - Cornwall

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"You’ve got it all here – babbling brook, thatched roof and rustic Elizabethan charm including original cob-built walls, flagstone floors and a huge stone fireplace with a wood burner. During the day, we recommend the six-mile walk between Hartland Quay and Hartland Point, which includes some of the most dramatic and challenging sections of the South West Coast Path. For dinner, head to the Wreckers Retreat Bar at the Hartland Quay Hotel – honest pub grub and a spectacular backdrop of unspoilt north Devon coastline. Sleeps two (plus two at a pinch)."

Property Featured: Philham Water Cottage, Hartland - North Devon

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"Wales is way ahead of the rest of the UK when it comes to sustainable eco-living, and these conkers in Newbridge-on-Wye — so-called because they’re shiny, spherical, copper-clad orbs — offer the experience of a greener, cleaner future. They were designed by Jag Virdie, a former aerospace engineer who seeks to “change the way buildings are designed today by disrupting the norm, challenging construction practices at their core”. The conkers, which sleep two, have 8in of insulation. They can harvest their own rainwater, to be reused in the shower, and there’s a dynamic heating system that traps and recirculates warm air. Outside, features include a compostable loo, a firepit, a terrace, an outdoor kitchen, private woodland and green views across the Cwm Hirnant Valley."

Property Featured: Red Kite Conkers, Newbridge-on-Wye - Powys

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"Bag a little piece of ski-resort chic with a Scottish Borders stay at this cosy Austrian-style chalet with solar-powered electricity and the patchiest of phone signals. Owned by Christa Dobson, who hails from the Germany and Austria border, it features wood-clad walls and Scandinavian-inspired decor. The king-size bed is dressed with German down duvets and Belgian bed linen, and there’s a large south-facing veranda with a hot tub. Continental breakfast is delivered daily."

Property Featured: Alpnhaus, Nr Newcastleton - Scottish Borders

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"Staying in a yurt is about having a bit of an adventure,” says Claire Wills, of coolstays.com, 'and Barefoot Yurts is a Mongolian sanctuary, hidden in England’s South East.' This canvas mini-complex comprises a spacious lounge yurt (for lolling, stargazing, playing games), a bedroom yurt (with show-stopping oak-carved bed) and an eco-cabin with kitchen and bathroom. Best is the decor: doors and rafters are hand-painted with oriental blues and intricate patterns."

Property Featured: Barefoot Yurts, Brede - East Sussex

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"Isle of Shuna, Hebrides - This lovely island is a privately owned working farm and a model of sustainability about 20 miles south of the Hebridean tourist hub of Oban. Solar panels and a small wind turbine generate power, and there are no roads and no telephones to provide distractions. There are six holiday cottages, including the wood-panelled Boathouse, a three-bedroom property offering a huge open-plan living/dining area and luxe touches such as a wood-burner and an Aga Rangemaster. The property comes with a boat to explore the surroundings, including the island’s castle."

Property Featured: Isle of Shuna - Boathouse, Oban - Argyll

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Inspiring the Evening Standard's readers every week with a selection of our favourite properties.

Property Featured: Hoot's Treehouse, Sussex Starbed Hideaways, Dartmoor Fallen Angel, Cornwall The Cabin, Scotland Tregulland Cottage & Barn, Cornwall Cruckbarn, Herefordshire The Woodsman's Treehouse, Dorset The Old Piggery, Devon Brownscombe Cabin, Devon Walden Lodge, Wales

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"As the Northern Lights fade, discover another side to the Arctic: a sleekly-designed dream sleep on a lonely island retreat, where summer smoulders on and the sun never sets..."

Property Featured: The Arctic Hideaway - Nordland, Norway

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"This luxurious supersized hut - actually two joined together - in the Blackdown Hills couldn't be farther removed from a traditional shepherd's hut. The first hut has a bespoke, fully equipped kitchen with a Belfast sink, dining area and wood-burner, as well as a toilet and a copper-lined shower. In the second hut you can stargaze through the curved skylight from your double bed, or take a soak in the copper slipper bath. Doors lead out to a private deck and wood-fired hot tub. There's good food near by and the Jurassic Coast is only a short drive."

Property Featured: Dimpsey Yonder Shepherd's Hut, near Chard, Somerset

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"Beside the Douro River, two-bedroom Rocks is the most memorably situated of Casas de Pousadouro's four stone villas, with romantic watery vistas from its deck, a garden and a pool. Inside, things get arty, with chunks of exposed original stone bordering various flamboyant chairs. Huge windows offer fine views over stone bridges and the vine-lined hillsides. Breakfast is included, and there is a kitchenette. Days out can be spent port or wine tasting at the Douro's finest estates, or on cruises or hill walks."

Property Featured: Casas de Pousadouro, Santa Cruz do Douro - Baiao

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"Wake up to birdsong in this romantic, hand-crafted cabin for two in a tranquil, wooded valley just north of Abergavenny. Colourful blankets, cushions and a wood-burner keep things cosy on the inside, while on the outside there's a large oak deck with a hammock and a chimenea for toasting marshmallows. Bring your walking boots or bikes; the Brecon Beacons and Wye Valley are within easy reach."

Property Featured: The Writer's Cabin, Monmouthshire

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"This converted 19th-century railway carriage, on the doorstep of buzzy Burnham Market, is at the back of the Railway House - a boutique hotel that's a sister property of the Hoste. It has been lovingly restored with an open-plan living area, and has an antique brass bed topped with velvet furnishings."

Property Featured: The Railway Carriage at the Hoste, Norfolk

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"This group of three new two-bedroom windmill villas (sleeping five) has been done out with surprisingly good taste. Set on the less-inhabited northeast coast, they're well spaced out. Inside, decor is a modern take on island design and their gardens all have pools. "

Property Featured: Windmills, Santorini

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"Tresillian is a spacious, dog-friendly farmhouse with sea views, great walks and a good local pub. Beamed ceilings, an inglenook fireplace and wood-burning stove create a cosy feel, and the four bedrooms share two bathrooms. Nearby Sandpipers, sleeping two, can be rented, too."

Property Featured: Tresillian - Sennen, Cornwall

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"A radical redesign and the work of local artists has made the Mackays' former Highland abode irresistible to holidaymakers. Fiona and Robbie Mackay have been growing their holiday business in Durness for the past 16 years, and when in 2015 the opportunity arose to renovate their own home and add it to their portfolio, they had plenty of experience to draw on to make it something rather special."

Property Featured: The House at Mackay's, Durness - The Highlands

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"If your grand design is an oak frame property, then a stay in Tigh Darach could be just what you're looking for or you could just enjoy it for what it is - a beautiful and very comfortable holiday home."

Property Featured: Tigh Darach, Oban - Argyll

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"At the foot of the South Downs, the Tinwood Estate produces three fine sparkling wines. Combine a vineyard tour and tasting with a night in one of the estate's cool wooden lodges. Each comes with its own hot tub for two, a cork-filled wall and a fridge full of wine. Kick back post-tour in the wine barrel-shaped sauna before more wine on the terrace. In the morning, a breakfast hamper will be brought to your door."

Property Featured: Tinwood Estate, Chichester, West Sussex

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"Panoramic views of the three bays of Cala Sant Vicenc, Pollenca and Alcudia in north Mallorca make this villa something special. And that's before we mention the ultra-hip interior design, stone-built barbecue and dreamy bedrooms with private balconies. You can fight your friends for the Bali bed, which faces out across the countryside, or gather by the gorgeous pool or fireplace. There are lots of steep slopes and steps in the extensive private gardens, so you might want to keep this stay adults-only. It's a ten-minute drive into Pollenca. "

Property Featured: La Font, Pollenca

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"'Champing' (that's right - Church camping) has risen in popularity across the UK in recent years, with 25 functioning churches in England and one in Orkney offering the opportunity to stay overnight. There are also a number of converted churches that you can stay in, such as The Chapel at Walcot Hall."

Property Featured: The Chapel at Walcot Hall, Lydbury North - Shropshire

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"'Champing' (that's right - Church camping) has risen in popularity across the UK in recent years, with 25 functioning churches in England and one in Orkney offering the opportunity to stay overnight. There are also a number of converted churches that you can stay in, such as The Chapel at Walcot Hall."

Property Featured: The Chapel at Walcot Hall, Lydbury North - Shropshire

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"A shingle beach is only a few steps away from the garden of this three-bedroom 1930s timber-framed bungalow. It has been given a modern makeover, with wooden floors, eclectic furniture and a wood-burner in the living area, where French doors open on to a sea-view deck with a dining table and fire pit. There is a cot and high chair and lots of toys."

Property Featured: The Beach Hive, Pevensey

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"This five-bedroom modern villa certainly has the wow factor, with an infinity pool perched on top of the building offering stunning views from practically every angle. Acres of glass maximise the bay views and allow light to flood in. A terrace on the ground floor gives access to a small pebble beach. Each of the five bedrooms has an en suite bathroom and terrace. There's also table tennis and a cinema room."

Property Featured: Villa Brac West, Croatia

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"This futuristic new-build cabin on the north shore of Loch Nevis is only accessible by car or by boat. It's a stylish little pad, with a freestanding bath that looks out across the loch, wraparound balcony and a hot tub. It makes a brilliant base for exploring the wilderness - the trouble is, you won't want to step outside."

Property Featured: Knoydart Hide, West Highlands

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"This four-bedroom tropical hideaway overlooks a fine white-sand beach on the idyllic island of Zanzibar. Light floods in through picture windows into a large open-plan living area and there are high woven Makuti ceilings throughout the rustic-chic interior. Two of the four bedrooms have en suite bathrooms and private balconies. Chefs create authentic Swahili and fusion dishes using plenty of local fruit, vegetables and seafood, while butlers and housekeepers are also on hand. Don't miss a boat trip to nearby Mnemba Island, world famous for snorkelling and diving."

Property Featured: Che Che Vule, Zanzibar

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"If two's company, intimate and cosy High Lodge in Dumfries & Galloway has everything you need. Ella McCreath met her husband Finn in 1997 and by 1999 she had swapped her media life in London for the Dumfries & Galloway countryside."

Property Featured: High Lodge, Scotland

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"This rustic-chic farm is a great place for a house party, with plenty of social space and accommodation cleverly divided into two parts. Four-bedroom Ludlow Barn is the social hub, with a table for 12, a stylish kitchen and wood-burner, and plenty of sofas to sink into."

Property Featured: Redford Farm, Shropshire

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"From houses perched on private islands in Cornwall to old mills on the quayside in Suffolk, Kate Lough rounds up the best stays for summer"

Property Featured: Admiral's Rest, Deal, Kent Ty Bach Twt Luxury Beach House, Gwythian, Cornwall Tresillian, Sennen, Cornwall The Beach Hut, Devon Skye Woodhouse, Isle of Skye Natural Retreats John O'Groats, John O'Groats, Scotland Kiora, Whitstable, Kent Pitts Deep, Lymington, Hampshire

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"It's the remote, rural location that makes this rustic cottage such a treat. Perched above the River Esk at the head of Eskdale, it's ideal for walkers and climbers, with Scafell Pike within easy reach. The rooms are all on one floor, with a cosy sitting/dining area, and one twin and one bunk-bedded room (you'll need to take bed linen and towels). There's no television or bathroom - you wash in the kitchen and use a loo in the old cowshed."

Property Featured: Bird How, Eskdale, Cumbria

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"A British artist discovered this when it was a roofless ruin and transformed it into a stylish rural retreat. The light-filled bedroom has a super-king-size bed with a handmade mattress, en suite wet room with Moroccan hand-beaten basin and three sets of French windows leading to terraces with breathtaking country views. The small pool has sunbeds, umbrellas and a covered pergola with a barbecue. Watch eagles and kites wheeling in the sky. Agni and Avlaki beaches are 20 minutes away. "

Property Featured: Ithica House, Corfu

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