If you’re travelling in the UK anytime soon, you should consider doing what many of the English do when vacationing in their own country and rent a holiday cottage. Nothing better captures the essence of rural Englishness than spending a relaxing week a small hideaway in the Lake District, or a traditional thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. A week spent rambling through the countryside, sipping ale in a cozy village pub, and generally living the country life, such are the things of which memories are made.

Of course, if you’re one of our English readers, and you’ve managed to acquire a holiday cottage, which can only be used for a few weeks a year, then you might consider letting your holiday cottage via a listing agency such such as RentMyCottage.com which will help you match you with paying visitors.

Naturally, you’ll need to do some work to make sure that your holiday home is suitable for visitors. Not only must everything be in fine working order, but need to make sure that the furniture accords with your visitors’ notion of what is appropriate to the setting. Starkly minimalist or Danish modern furniture won’t help your guests capture that true English spirit that so many desire.

At the same time, modern travellers are a demanding lot, so even though your furniture may be suitably rustic, you’ll probably need the most up-to-date appliances in a kitchen well stocked for the self-catering culinary tourists who are so common today.

Looking for color inspiration? You can’t go wrong with snaps of the HI-Hotel in Nice, France. Designed by Matali Crasset, the public spaces and rooms of this super chic hotel are all designed with different and vibrant color combinations, minimalist details, and an eye toward crispness and modernity. The rooms are all named with monikers that often reflect the shape of things within: Happy Day, Digital, Up & Down, White & White, and Monospace are just a few of the spaces within. Check it:

I usually go in for nice hotels, unless I’m traveling by myself in a foreign country, in which case I usually like to check out the cheapest option. Usually that’s a hostel calling itself a hotel, and sometimes there’s a pool. Here in the States, my preference is for accommodations in which I don’t have to worry about touching the bedspread for fear of catching a venereal disease. (Seriously, don’t touch hotel bedspreads any more than you have to.)

Now the Madonna Inn on the Central Coast of California… does it fit my criteria? Well the thing is that I can’t figure out if it’s a nice hotel trying to look like a cheesy hotel from the 60s or an actual cheesy hotel from the 60s trying to market itself as a retro kitschy nice hotel!

JUST HEAVEN: “This celestial room is embraced by golden cherubs and kissed in shades of blue to create a little heaven here on earth. An enchanting staircase winds upward into a private viewing tower above the king bed…where gentle rays of sunlight filter through multi-colored glass during the day and soft touches of moonlight linger at night. Graceful French-style furnishings fashion an affectionate ambiance in this heavenly creation for two.”

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