Unique Living
Here we come together with our owners, guests and friends to bring you inspiring blog posts to ensure that you can ‘Live Unique’ all year round, long before and after your own Unique Homestays experiences.
Lifestyle
The Great British Spa-cation
Put the wrapping paper down and the feet up. This year, the most sought-after winter stays are all about warm water therapy, palatial living, and never missing out on poolside champagne.
More by Vanessa
Lifestyle
Travel the folkways
There was a time when we romanticised travel; singing for coaches, dreaming on locomotives. If you care as much about the journey as the map pin, these are homes to travel the folkways for.
Lifestyle
Meet the architect-designed homes
Here, we celebrate some of our most intentional architect-designed homes; the ones that stand out, sink in, defy gravity, or might as well be brandishing invisibility cloaks.
Lifestyle
Could this really be Britain?
These are homes in the nation´s most disorienting destinations; ones that take us far from familiar. You might not need a passport, but you´ll surely do a double-take. Could this really be Britain?
Lifestyle
The secret gardens
And just like that, it was summer. Now’s the time to visit those homes with rosemary-scented potagers and apple orchard. But best hurry, before the bees and butterflies beat you to it.
Lifestyle
The summer pilgrimage
This month, we’re waymarking a modern type of summer pilgrimage, made for hikers who still hold a candle for rainfall showers, Champagne lunches, and heated pools in the wildflower garden.
Lifestyle
The big five: safari on home soil
These days, safari extends beyond the deltas and deserts of the Okavango and Kalahari. We’re rounding up our big five: the properties with a front-row seat to all that’s wildlife and wilderness.
Lifestyle
A pool of one´s own
On your marks, get set, splash! Since April marks the grand reopening of our piscinas, we´re rounding up where to go for a pool of one´s own, with 19 of Britain´s best homes with private pools.
Lifestyle
Meet the storybook homes
With turrets and follies, islands and eiderdowns, these are the real-life residences that welcome you to fall down the rabbit hole to a life of fairytale proportions. Meet the storybook homes.
Lifestyle
Finding the family tree
We’re finding the family tree; homes made for the inner child and sitting with sister in the garden. One of life’s great nostalgias is rooted in a falsehood. You can go home again.
Lifestyle
Foraging on the Cornish coast with Simon Greenwood
The coast is a reliable habitat for foragers: winkles, whiting, rock oysters, and rosehip in their tangier-and-tangy hundreds. Here, Simon Greenwood creates a dish to be eaten by candlelight.
Lifestyle
10 places to stay in the UK and Ireland in 2024
From luxury homes on Cornwall´s coast to hot tub hideaways in the Welsh hills, we´re rounding up 10 places to stay in the UK and Ireland in 2024. Think hot pools, saunas, and copper tubs.
Lifestyle
At-home epicureans
It’s about time we returned to the dinner table, where poppadoms are piled and honey pitchers are passed. To the Tucci´s and Nigella´s of the world, let fly your at-home epicurean.
Lifestyle
Where was Saltburn filmed? (And 8 real-life estates you can rent this summer)
Filmed in Lowick, Northamptonshire, at Drayton House, the façade of Saltburn´s stately backdrop might be locked behind a fortified gateway, but we have the key to places just as bodacious.
Lifestyle
The year of AI: Architectural Integrity
Not anti-AI, but antidote. Architectural Integrity our counter-float. Craft is who we are, trust is what we offer... and from cloister to cantilever, nothing about us is artificial.
Lifestyle
To the ends of the Earth
Ah, the ends of the Earth. From Ittoqqortoormiit to Alaska, all explorers have their own idea on the matter. But the notion that an “end” exists reveals a truth so often missed. Call it a reawakening.
Lifestyle
The British Nordic
We owe much to The Nordics. Givers of Edvard Munch and the Moomins, of saunas and smörgåsbords. Here, we offer up our most earthen homes, built on hygge foundations.
Lifestyle
The best houses to rent for a New Year’s Eve getaway
From glittering affairs where grandparents waltz under crystal chandeliers to romantic getaways in cottages with hot tubs, New Year’s Eve parties are as unique as the folk who make them.
Owner Chronicles
A photographer´s "Secret Garden meets Gatsby" manor
On the walls, there are original works by Testino. On the bookshelves, there´s hardbacks on Weegee. There’s even a portrait of Kate Moss in its loo. A photographer´s home — surely.
Lifestyle
The season inbetwixt
Curators of memories, now´s the time to find a place that´ll see you through from Hocus Pocus to Home Alone; a home where the devil (and the angel) is in the detail.
Lifestyle
The Whimsies: behind the scenes
Our new digital and London Underground campaign, The Whimsies, is a celebration of the anti-norm from a brand who know that it takes unique people to make unique places.
Lifestyle
The summer house
From grand villas with crooning Salzburg appeal to playful clapperboards that feel more Colorado than Cornwall, here is our round-up of the best summer houses in Britain and Ireland.
Lifestyle
Stories from the hills
When we were kids, they were our Himalayas. The rivers were lava, and the ledges were crevasses, and there were always cheese sandwiches in the hamper. They’re still there, you know, those hills.
Lifestyle
The best surfing beaches in the UK and Ireland
Surfing nirvana needn´t be confined to far-flung places. Whether a seasoned boarder or a born-again “grommet”, surf trips on home soil know how to pack a punch (and stay under the radar).
Lifestyle
Wedding wanderlust: The UK´s best wedding and honeymoon destinations
This wedding season, it´s all about "the scene". Though there´s much to love about embroidered veils and Swiss meringue, modern lovers know that such sweet details don´t hold a candle to the destination. That´s where we come in.
Lifestyle
Five UK honeymoon ideas for a romantic getaway
Whether your day is set to be a humble affair or a grandiose event fit for the silver screen, one thing’s for sure: you’ll want to stay in the newlywed fog a little longer. Discover our five UK honeymoon ideas for a romantic getaway.
Lifestyle
On island time: places in Britain that feel like private islands
Of all the places a person can go, private islands might be the most impassable; pins in the map reserved for the likes of Dion and DiCaprio. Until now, that is...
Lifestyle
Things to do in Devon this Easter
While Easter brings familiar foil-wrapped traditions by the pitcher, it´s one of the sweetest times to come out of your shell; with little ones on a break from phonics and numeracy, there´s days to be filled under the West Country sun.
Lifestyle
The most beautiful pub walk in the Peak District
There’s pub walks in the Peak District, and then there’s the most beautiful pub walk in the Peak District; read on to discover our ale-laden amble of choice in the Derbyshire Dales, the six-mile-long Chatsworth Estate Circuit.
Lifestyle
Valentine´s breaks in the UK: things to do, places to stay
Laying on a blanket, picking out constellations... If a Valentine’s break in the UK is whispering sweet nothings in your ear, beckon your beau to the sofa and pick a place to hole up for a long weekend (before the other lovers beat you to it).
Lifestyle
Our round-up of new-wave well-being escapes
You may have rushed in, but you’ll float out. It’s the travel era we’ve all been waiting for: new-wave well-being escapes that are deliberately unconventional. Think eco-ponds, floating glass meditation rooms, and garden pizza parlours.
Lifestyle
Our top dog-friendly walks in the Lake District
It’s time for the dogs to kiss their city park cronies goodbye and take their place in the rabbit-sniffing country; find out where to go with your pack in our round-up of the top dog-friendly walks in the Lake District, from Windermere to the Knotts.
Lifestyle
A love letter to winter
The salt and pepper months; when the sun puts her hat on and the moon ushers in, taking a high path through the sky and pouring silver nectar into the last remaining pockets of darkness.
Lifestyle
Five unique experiences for a luxury family holiday in Dorset (and where to stay)
With thousand-year-old castles telling tales of treachery, bracing clifftop trails where dinosaurs roamed, and island wildlife sanctuaries where red squirrels reign, family holidays in Dorset have a lot to offer.
Lifestyle
The season for lovers
From dog-friendly cottages containing lots of little luxuries to hot tub hideaways that hang over secret Cornish beaches, what lovers don’t wish for a winter getaway?
Lifestyle
The Unique guide to autumn
Autumn´s here, bringing hallways lined with wellies and walls hung with woollen scarves, just in time for the Unique Homestays guide to the best things to do and where to stay this Autumn.
Lifestyle
A love letter to autumn
The turn of axis has begun, and Earth rolls out a carpet of copper leaves that whish and fissle underfoot: a catalyst for squirrelling away in second-hand bookshops.
