Feb 7th, 2018: Offbeat “Hotels”

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey men, have you got a special squeeze you want to impress the pants off? Take her to Old Blighty.
What, you’re name’s not Rockefeller or Bezos? Well fly coach and make up for it at the other end.
You have two choices, either stay at the palatial Carruthers estate, or a Landmark Trust location.
Either way, her pants are coming off.

I don’t know what’s more astonishing– discovering so many spectacular historic buildings where ordinary people can actually spend the night, or the fact that most of them won’t cost me more than £20 per person a night.

Or that it took me so long to discover the Landmark Trust. Hiding in the shadows of the mainstream travel industry since 1965, this charity has been saving historic places in danger that would otherwise be lost, carefully restoring them and renting them out as self-catering holiday homes. Yup, these are all places you can actually stay overnight– on a student’s budget no less.

They have nearly 200 buildings across Britain and several in Italy, France and Belgium too, ranging from clan chief’s castles to cozy waevers’ cottages; Tudor towers to train stations– all rescued and given a new future without closing them off behind museum ropes.

Stepping in where the National Trust or the Ministry of Works has been unable to help, The Landmark Trust works to prevent loss of the smaller, lesser-known historic buildings of England by securing them a place in the travel & accommodation industry. Founded by philanthropist John Smith, fittingly a descendant of the 19th-century travel pioneer Thomas Cook, the charity’s efforts are made possible entirely through generous donations, making the incredible historic places affordable to the rest of us and most importantly relevant.

The more history is accessible to the general public, the better the chances are of saving it. So please, for your next holiday, forget Booking.com or even Airbnb and tap into England’s best-kept secret.

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