Self Catering Searcher
A UK-wide guide to self-catering holidays — cottages, apartments, chalets and houses across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Whether you plan to stay in a Highland glen, a Cornish fishing village or a Welsh market town, here's an honest starting point for choosing where to go.
What "self catering" actually means
A self-catering holiday means you book a whole property — cottage, apartment, chalet or house — rather than a hotel room, and look after your own meals and day-to-day living, the same as you would at home. It suits families, groups and anyone who'd rather have their own kitchen, their own front door, and their own pace than a fixed hotel routine. Most self-catering owners deal with enquiries and bookings directly, so it also tends to mean a more personal, less corporate way of arranging a UK break.
Choose your region
Scotland
From the Highlands and Islands to the Borders — glens, lochs and a genuinely wild coastline.
Wales
Coastal Pembrokeshire, the Gwynedd mountains, and the market towns of the Marches.
Northern Ireland
The Antrim coast, the Fermanagh lakelands, and six counties with a lot packed into a small area.
South West England
Cornwall and Devon's coastline, plus Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
South East England & London
Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, the Chilterns, and the city itself.
Central & Northern England
The Peak District, the Lakes, Yorkshire, East Anglia and the Midlands.
How to choose where to stay
Start with what you actually want out of the trip rather than the map: a coastal walk means Cornwall, Pembrokeshire or the Antrim coast; hills and lochs point towards the Highlands, Snowdonia or the Lakes; a market-town base with easy day trips suits somewhere like the Cotswolds, the Yorkshire Dales fringes or the Scottish Borders. Distance matters more with self-catering than with a one-off hotel night, since you're usually there for a week or more — a shorter drive leaves more of the holiday for the holiday.
About this guide
We keep this site to short, honest regional guides rather than a live property database — availability, prices and individual owners change constantly, so we don't try to list them here. For finding an actual property to book, we'd point you to a dedicated self-catering booking site or search engine; this site is simply here to help you work out where in the UK to look.