“Big house” birthday rental.......

Well, ours is in the middle of Bath, surrounded by other houses and flats[shame]

However we are not planning any noisy parties, nor is it likely that a group, half of whom are over 65, 5 between 45-65 and 2 under 11s, will have any unplanned rave-ups! Apart from anything else our knees are no longer up to it. And as for drinking - well, we will reminisce about our days of wine, women/men and song, but for most of us it now takes too long to recover from the inevitable hangover to want to drink too deeply!

Please book one that is isolated. There is one is our village and it is a nightmare for local residents. None of us has a problem with people enjoying themselves, but think of the neighbours

Trying to arrange this for immediate family of 12 to celebrate my 70th and DH 75th next year. Not having much luck yet finding a property. An indoor pool would be great as we're all water babies. Location has to be between Staffordhsire and Yorkshire. We're probably going to have an afternoon tea at our church for friends. We'll invite them to our 145th birthday party. Will try Sally's Cottages-any other companies please you've obviously used successfully?

We did this for our 50th wedding anniversary. Beautiful property in Scotland. Sixteen of us, my middle daughter lived in the locality and needed to be in her own home due to children with autism. We took it in turns to cook meals. Big garden and wooded area, available for us to wander around. Worth the cost.

We are doing it this summer to celebrate our Golden wedding and 75th birthdays. We have booked a house that sleeps 14 in the centre of Bath, everything within walking distance and we are encouraging everyone to travel by train if practical.

Waitrose is 100 yards away and we will, generally eat together in the evening but leave everyone to their own devices during the day. With an age range from 7 - 82 and some being culture vultures and others not, planned activities for all of us smacks a bit of a holiday camp. We are having one grand celebration meal, in house using caterers. Between allergies, some vegetarians and others with medical problems, booking a restaurant was proving to be a nightmare.

I would advise visiting the house before booking. We looked at lots of houses online, selected the one we thought best and then visited it to look at the facilities and see if the planned sleeping arrangements would work and what the kitchen was like and any access problems. Once we were happy we signed and paid a deposit.

Sallyanne, I think it's a wonderful idea. What better way to get the entire family together in a beautiful setting. It sounds more affordable too. My best wishes that you find the most splendid location!

Pippa....

So sorry about your DH. It was his gift and a blessing however, to be able to celebrate his life so fittingly.

xoxo

My nephew planned a similar surprise for my sister - went really well.
My daughter is participating in a similar hen do soon.
I love Airbnb and have never had a bad deal through them, in UK and on several continents.
Sounds lovely - good luck.

My daughter had her hen weekend here:
shakespeareholidays.co.uk/arden-hill-farm-house/
There were 16 of us and it was perfect: the large dining room accommodated us all and there was plenty of comfy seating in the lounge. Pleasant outdoor space and the hot tub was a great success too!

Go for it, we have done this many times, a tip from me , as many bathrooms as you can, just last month we went to a beautiful place and each bedroom had its own small on suite, which was a bonus. If there is a games room or something for younger members of your party , i.e. Garden with swing or trampoline then all the better. When my children were growing up , we did this every year , we have a large family (mum now over 90) has 5 children and 13 grandchildren, (plus 11 great grandchildren) we once had a house that slept 24, so big we had a huge treasure hunt in the house. We all paid our share by dividing it fairly i.e. so much per adult and so much per child. ( hardly saw the children all weekend as it had a games room) Planned menus in advance and all brought our share. Chaos but great fun.

We are going in October to the Lake District There will be 24 of us in a 12 bedroom house. Age range 84 to 7 monthWe are all very excited as we have had many family parties but this is the first time we have all been away together. We will be there for 3 nights

Just had a weekend 3 nights with 25 children and grandchildren to celebrate DH 70th - had indoor swimming pool, huge games room with pool , table tennis, etc ( we had a tournament)plus jacuzzi, sauna - huge cinema room - plus enough room for us to all sit down together for meal - bbq facilites and safe garden plus all bedrooms were onsuite - contact Sleeps 12 not cheap but absolutely fantistic! there was nothing that they did not provide kitchen wise , toiletries etc - we will return.

If booking in France make sure bed linen and towels are included as often they are not. We have 7 bedroom French house we bought in 2017. We spent some of last year and been over this year to do painting. We will probably rent in future but it is not ready to rent this year as having new kitchen fitted. I hope you find somewhere gorgeous. Try to make sure there are lots of things to do close by for all age groups.

We do it every autumn with my husbands brothers and sisters and their partners. We have a long weekend ( Friday evening until Monday morning) Do our own thing in the daytime and then get together in the evenings round a big table of about 22 of us. Friday night is a "junk food night".
Saturday one of the brothers cooks the evening meal. Breakfast and lunch we all muck in and Sunday lunchtime off to the pub for lunch.
Springtime we get together for a family meal at some eatery. This ensures we all keep in touch despite living in different parts of the country. We've been doing this for several years now and all seem to enjoy it.

If you're looking for a long weekend, Dorset's lovely for this type of family break. Always make sure there are enough bathrooms, our first rental slept 12 (we were 7months to 70years old) with 1 bathroom, but it didn't put us off. These are my favourite holidays.

Oh I forgot to mention the 6th (downstairs, with en suite ) bedroom, which was great for my aged mum!

Did this a few years ago when DS & family were here from overseas. Rented through Sykes Cottages and had a 5 bedroom house. (We've no connection with Sykes other than as clients!) Family & friends came and went & the whole reunion worked very well, helped by good outside space; large patio, lawns, and children's play area. And dry weather!

We did this last year for two big birthdays; eleven of us rented a house with an indoor pool. The children loved it, most adults swam before breakfast, it had a snooker room, lots of boxed games, a big kitchen, en suites for all and a large sitting room . We chose a spot with several places to visit and it all worked out really well for a long weekend. I do agree with renting the largest place you can find - space is comfort and we really did fill the house.

I was 60 last year and I hired a converted barn for the week and invited 9 close relatives who live a distance apart including my granddaughter aged 4 and my mum (great grandma) ages 82. It was a lovely week. We had so much fun and laughter. My only advice would be rent the biggest property you can afford so that people can seperate if the youngsters get too boisterous. HAve a lovely time xx

We rent a house by the sea for a week every summer for us AC and GC and sometimes some extended family or friends visit for a few days. As long as you all get on it can be a lot of fun. Good luck.

I'd say choose an area with plenty to do nearby and local shops pub etc.
Figure out how many bedrooms/ bathrooms you'd need and how you'd get there then look for properties that match on airbnb.
They almost always provide towels and toiletries, tvs dvds, books etc of course and often a welcome pack of basic food, booklets on places of interest, local transport, maps and places to eat.

Airbnb has lots of quality homes for rent all over the world, which are massively cheaper than hotels or advertised 'holiday lets'. I use airbnb 90% of the time when travelling or gathering my family in one place collectively for celebrations or catch-up weekends.
Look online but be quick...they get booked up very fast and months ahead.
Good luck.

Oh, Nannyme how horrid - been there / had that happen ? - did you and he survive it?
Thanks for all the tips and ideas! Have done Center Parcs previously / couldn’t afford travelling to France (well we could - going there next week n fact in campervan ?, but not all the family!).

I arranged one for my big birthday for all the family, no one else would have done it for me, we had a lovely time, lots of laughs and lots of wonderful memories and the GC asked if they could do it every year. Sadly I also discovered just after that weekend that my OH was having an affair which put a bit of a damper on things.

Hi there,
Last October we rented this Chateau in Normandy;https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/chateau-d-argouges.en-gb.html.
7 or 8 en suite rooms and plenty to do in the local area,Bayeux, landing beaches and some amazing markets. The owner is a lovely man, we booked direct via his website. The Chateau is very clean and comfortable and well way. We are hoping to return this year.

We went to Centreparcs for a 3 night stay. There are 10 of us, 2 daughters and their families plus DH and me. All different ages but there's something for everyone. We had two chalets next door to each other. We did a variety of activities including archery, cycling, walking, swimming etc and had meals together. It was very successful.