LillyLikes Favourite 10 Plum Guide Accommodations for your staycation 2021 needs.
We like to bring you all the hottest trends in holiday apartments, here at Lilly Likes, so 2020 was a bit of a kicker. As we progress closer and closer to the 2021 holiday season, however, our hopes are getting higher. It is looking likely that we will be released from our comfortable cages this summer, free to roam the Great British countryside once again.
For a breath of fresh air, we thought we would team up with the high-quality holiday home providers over at Plum Guide. We want to explore the world of the holiday home. For those that want the privacy of private apartments, need a full kitchen, or just hate the feeling of being in a hotel, the experts over at Plum Guide have you covered. It’s going to be an especially handy site to have bookmarked as we approach summertime. It’s bound to busy up if we are all allowed out.
We’ll take a deeper look into who Plum Guide are and what they do in a moment. Later, we want to review our top 10 handpicked favourites, for you to enjoy. Just don’t leave it too late to book. We don’t want anyone to be disappointed.
About Plum Guide – Who Are They?
For those of you who haven’t heard yet, there’s another name in town for high-end home stay breaks. That’s a literal home stay, by the way, as in you book and stay in a whole home for the duration of your holiday. That’s right, Plum Guide hand pick some of the finest luxury homes for you to vacation in… and they operate at home and abroad.
This online holiday home finding guide is about more than just finding you a bed for the night. That bed must have standards. Preferably, it ought to be king sized, four-poster, and come with Egyptian cotton sheets. There are over 5 million vacation lets available online. The founders at Plum Guide saw this, felt overwhelmed, and decided to do something about it.
Enter a high-class holiday home finding service that puts their hosts through rigorous testing to stay at the top of their game. If you can hear traffic from the bedroom? The host fails the test. If there is too much wear and tear in the property, the host fails the test… you get the idea.
What Do Plum Guide Do?
Using this innovative way to book your vacation, you can browse through their selection of homes in the UK or abroad. With destinations all over the world, in any other year we would be sending you beachside somewhere tropical, but this year, sticking close to home ensures your holiday doesn’t get cancelled.
Select a house on stilts, standing in the centre of a river, a beach cottage facing the sea, or a treehouse getaway – all within the UK. Plum Guide go to great lengths to feature only the classiest, grandest, prettiest, and most adventurous UK based holiday homes. You can do anything you want, stay anywhere you like, and always know that you will be caught in the lap of luxury as you do it. It’s a five-star experience, right here in the UK, where you don’t need to worry about your flights being cancelled.
What Makes a Plum Guide Home Special?
The sticklers over at Plum Guide test a home on 150 different criteria before they will allow it into their ranks. It must pass a home test, become short-listed, have great reviews, location, and features, and be all-round-extra-special in order to comply.
They then go through another round or two of testing to be given the ‘Plum Award’ which marks them as even more special than all the extra special homes they stand out from.
Plum Guide features the best of the best, the quaintest of the countryside and the most architecturally significant of the urban. It is chic, underrated, and will find you the best places for the best prices. So yeah, check it out.
Current Covid Policy
We can’t do a vacation article without talking about Covid-19 at the moment. As we mentioned, it is best to plan to holiday within your own country this year – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t loads of things you can do.
Now, reports are telling us that the UK tourism sector might start opening from the 17th of May 2021 at the earliest. At the time of writing, this seems optimistic. What we do know is that – should the Covid restrictions change – we will have to stick to them.
Since travelling with Plum Guide means travelling to a home which you will be occupying with your own household, the homes they feature might not be subject to the same restrictions as a regular hotel. Just one more reason that they stand out from the crowd.
The Top 10 Plum Guide Accommodations as rated by Lilly Likes
Without making you wait any longer, then, here are our top 10 picks from the unique, innovative, and outright astounding holiday home lets from Plum Guide.
1 – Take A Little Time in Oxfordshire
Little Time is a top quality two berth static carriage situated in rural Oxfordshire. Somewhere between the rolling Cotswolds and the scenic Chilterns, you will find this gorgeously quaint, wooden fronted static caravan. It has a porch front, BBQ facilities for cooking with, and an outdoor space to relax in, as well as a picnic table to eat at.
Special features of this property include a wood burning stove and a romantic location just outside Burford. It forms part of a working farm where a well-behaved dog or cat would be welcome. They also supply you with logs for your wood burning stove in summer and coal/gas for the BBQ in winter. There’s a cosy bedroom and beautiful bathroom facilities.
This Oxfordshire break is perfect for a romantic break for two.
2 – The Honey Pot
The Honey Pot is a beautiful property situated in Bath, suitable for those who want to holiday together as a big family. If you are having a family reunion this summer, for example, to celebrate the end of the lockdown, then this is a great place to do it.
The Honey Pot comes with an AGA cooker, a stunning red-brick fireplace, beautiful garden furniture and an enclosed garden for the kiddies to play in. It’s an old Victorian style building, a townhouse removed from the main roads. It has been decorated in neutral colours with traditional elegance and has a huge open-plan kitchen where the family can gather to eat.
This is one of very few properties available for holiday that you can smoke in.
This Somerset home is perfect for large groups, with 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. It sleeps upto 12
3 – The Old Cart Shed
Think exposed rafters and old wooden beams for the Old Cart Shed. This 3-bedroom luxury home from home comes with a vaulted ceiling which sets it apart from other deluxe properties. It is situated in Broadwell, a stunning little village in the Cotswolds surrounded by babbling brooks, peaceful meadows, and rolling hills.
As well as being a find example of lavish style and general good taste, this location is ideal for getting out and about the tourist attractions in this lovely area of the countryside. It has under cover parking for two cars and space for a third, children and animals are welcome, and of course it has Wi-Fi included. There’s a full-length bathtub in this property that’s an extra special touch.
The Old Cart Shed is perfect for a family vacation in the Gloucestershire countryside. This one sleeps 6
4 – The Wild Gorse of Sussex
Those that want to retreat from life for a while, will love to do so in these 6,500 acres stretch of farmland out in the picturesque Sussex countryside. Situated on said land, in a designated area of Outstanding National Beauty, is the Wild Gorse home.
Nominated for the Plum Award and tucked away inside Ashdown Forest, this one bed, one bath, hidden cabin is the height of Hygge style. It’s an open plan inner space complete with kitchen, dining room area, living room space, and bedroom behind an ornate and rich wooden arch. Spend a few evenings by the roaring fire, enjoy continental breakfasts in bed, and open the window to birdsong of a morning. What’s not to adore?
Wild Gorse is a perfect getaway in the woods for two.
5 – The Beach Nut
Next, we head to Kent for a beautiful, thatched roof style 15th century Yeoman’s Hall house. The feature that will stun you to silence in this house is the original parquet flooring, which was rescued and restored from the nearby main house (where the property owner lives).
While you stay here, you are free to use the owner’s gym, outdoor pool, games room, and even outside fire pit. The open plan feel of the space is complemented by a garden cleverly screened from the kitchen to give that additional space. Sit out on the raised wooden deck to sunbathe, enjoy the night sky, or even to take a tipple or two.
The Beach Nut is perfect for the beach loving romantic duo.
6 – The Elegant Grindstone
Enjoy complete privacy only 20 miles from Bath and Bristol, in the Grindstone. Although it might sound like hard work, this opulent 6-bedroom, 4-bathroom home, allows large families to get together in a single household to enjoy a perfect family vacation.
This gorgeous old building sports exposed beams in a huge living space. The gardens are exemplary and perfect for long summer evenings. The interior has an ornate feel, with wood carved and metal gilded. There is a lovely river view, a huge kitchen and dining space, and 6 elegantly furnished rooms with space enough for everyone.
The Grindstone is perfect for families and large groups, and sleeps 10
7 – A Barn to Remember in Essex
Sticking with our theme of large group holidays, the Barn to Remember down in Essex features massive gardens and enough space for 12. This high-end refurbished barn has some of the trendiest styling we have seen yet, tailored more for the young couple than for the older generations.
One of the star attractions asides from all that space, is the huge cinema system that occupies most of one wall in the living space. The kitchen includes a breakfast bar, with a full dining area too. It has all the mod cons and is situated in a place you want to get out and explore.
The Barn to Remember is perfect for young couples going on holiday with friends.
8 – A trip to Faerie World
If you want to spend a few days relaxing in Hygge style comfort, the Faerie World home from Plum Guide is a must. Even better for those that like plants, gardens, and the idea of finding Narnia hidden amongst an overgrown world of vines, edible plants, and branches weighted down by fruit.
Faerie World is found in Bath, overlooking a stream that leads you up to the property. It has a gorgeous bedroom and lovely spacious lounge and dining area with a small kitchen. From every window, your view is of plants, branches, and natural foliage… it’s like a little plant haven for faeries.
The Faerie World cottage is perfect for whimsical holidays with the one you love. Sleeps 2
9 – Horsing Around
This cabin has some awesome features. It has an indoor/outdoor living space on a raised solid wooden deck. Couple this with a separate caravan style bedroom that has a double bed on high and a double bed on low, and you have a chic countryside experience that any young family will adore.
This is a unique holiday experience that has comfort at its core. There’s a huge garden for the kids and a lovely raised outdoor space for mum and dad. It’s right in the heart of the Somerset countryside, too, so you can hike until your heart is content.
The Horsing Around property from Plum Guide is perfect for the young family or a group of four.
10 – The Hinwick House
We thought we would end the article on a high with this wondrous property. Sleeping up to 24 across 12 bedrooms and with 10 bathrooms, Hinwick is a Grade A listed Queen Anne era manor. It is a miniature version of Buckingham Palace, architecturally speaking.
Hinwick has 38 acres of privacy for you to enjoy, it has a private chef, two lakes, a deer park, and genuine crystal chandeliers. It can be found near Podlington, Bedfordshire, and comes with its own grand piano, a standalone bathtub, and Persian rugs.
If you want the highest possible luxury from your vacation home, it has to be Hinwick, it has to be Plum Guide, and it doesn’t hurt to have a glance over Lilly Likes, either.
All views expressed in this article are our own. Lilly Likes may eran a commision from bookings made via any links on our site.
