Would you like to be very, very thrilled with yourself about your choice of holiday this year? Turns out it’s easy. First, you get all eco-superior over the fact that you care about the planet’s future, and so would rather blow cigarette smoke in a baby’s face than take one of those evil flight things to that abroad place.

Then you have a look at what’s available in the UK – and that’s when the real hop-and-skip warm glow of smugness envelops you. Because, while we’ve all been desperate to leave these shores for a “proper” holiday, Britain has changed.

There are now fabulous self-catering options, from cute cabins with private beaches to stately piles with rooftop hot tubs, that are stylish and affordable, and come without the lose-the-will-to-live queues and irritatingly whimsical security restrictions of our delightful airports... Perfect.

THE ATTENBOROUGH OPTION

Britain's busiest holiday cottage?

Why is the Pavilion on the Isle of Wight booked for two years? + 10 new historic places to rent in 2008

• The best holiday cottages in Britain

Britain's best quirky holiday homes

Simon Hacker stays in a former railway station and recommends five more unusual properties for hire

How to rent our English Heritage

EH has opened up eight cottages for rent - Nick Wyke tried one of them, Pool House in Worcs

• Stately piles to stay in

The best holiday cottages in Britain

Four decades ago the Landmark Trust started a revolution in holiday rentals: now we pick the 15 most memorable hideaways

• Big houses for hire in Britain

• Self-catering cottages with hotel service

BACKGROUND

• A palace for the weekend

• How to stay in a castle in England

• Peak food and lodging in Derbyshire

• Ask our expert: child-friendly cottages

• Give me shelter: hotel outhouses

Related Internet Links

• Hotels, villas, camping, cottages and more in our Where to Stay section

Related Links

• Big group holiday? Get separate cottages

We bow to the gutsiness of BBC wildlife camera crews who suffer untold privations to bring us rare footage of pygmy hippos and flying lizards, but we’re talking holiday rather than hardship, so this trio of inglenooked cottages in wild and woolly Northumberland, and a cup of cocoa, will do nicely for us, thank you. Infrared cameras in badger, barn-owl and fox habitats are dotted throughout the conservation farm’s 60 acres, and link direct to your widescreen television for a gripping alternative to the pond life in EastEnders.

Wow factor: live nature cams.

Details: 01830 520530, www.whiteleeholiday

cottages.com; cottages sleep 4-5; from £55pp for a week.

A COTTAGE ON THE GREEN

Some dispute its status as a sport, because players don’t run, jump or shoot, they just have to wear clothes in clashing Day-Glo colours. If golf is your game, however, bag one of the three traditionally cute Idehill cottages – not because they’re tucked into 50 prime acres of east Devon, within a seagull’s swoop of great seaside resorts such as Beer and Branscombe, but because they have their own 18-hole course. It’s not Wentworth, but, erm, you’re not Tiger.

Wow factor: exclusive use of a golf course.

Details: 01548 853089, www.toadhallcottages.co.uk; cottages sleep 4-6; from £99pp for a week.

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