Al Fresco Farm Holidays

I stumbled across this on Monday when I was doing some research.

I've written it up on the Holiday Ideas page but I'm blogging it too because my format on Travel-Lists is deliberately low on graphics (the limited images on the site are only at thumbnail size) and this picture needs to be large to see the detail Eg. the child in the 'cupboard bed' (they call it a 'canopy bed'. Not sure why!)

Feather Down Farm Days are the brainchild of Luite Moraal (the Dutchman who introduced Centre Parks to the UK). He vets farmers who want to take part and if they and their farm are suitable, he erects up to 5 tented cottages on their land for the summer season.

The tents, as you can see, are pretty luxurious, eco-friendly, and are fitted out in in traditional 1930s rustic style with plenty of wooden furniture, wood stoves and oil lamps, and no electric - or digital - equipment in sight!

Thinking I'd stumbled on something new, unique, and rather special, I called them up and was forwarded to a PR who I know quite well. She told me the idea had already been successful in Holland and that they piloted it on one farm in Hampshire in Sept & Oct last year, where it sold out immediately. It also, and this is the bit that surprised me (and her), was enthusiastically covered in several broadsheet papers and Conde Nast Traveler... and I missed it!

There's not much new product that appears in the UK travel sector without me noticing... but obviously some things slip through!