Our favourite country cabins and seafront cottages to take over as your own
For a low-key weekend break, taking over a whole building via one of the best Airbnbs in the UK is a brilliant option: lots of space to spread out in, no other guests to worry about and the chance to really live like a local. Before Airbnb was founded in 2008, tracking down a holiday home was much harder. Now it's almost too easy – there are millions of properties listed on the site – but search fatigue can be overwhelming. Which is where we come in.
To point you in the right direction, we’ve rounded up all of our favourite Airbnbs that our editors have genuinely stayed at – across some of the UK's best places to visit, from the South West to Scotland. They are all in beautiful settings – by the sea, in the heart of the countryside, in the middle of buzzy towns or cities – and have pretty interiors, excellent reviews and fond memories.
In this article:
Editors’ picks of the best Airbnbs in the UK
For couples: Morlanow, Falmouth
For families: Bonington Farm, Nottinghamshire
For big groups: Edenhall Estate, Lake District
For interior design fans: Rogue's Cottage, Deal
For a room with a view: The Blue House, Camber Sands
A morning coffee at Strawtop Cottages in The Cotswolds. By Sarah James.
Horses at golden hour outside of a two-storey bunk in Nottinghamshire. By Sarah Bannerman.
Strawtop Cottages, Addebury
Strawtop Cottages in Addebury, owned by Josie and Charlie Irons, has been firmly on my staycation wishlist for a while: Two 16th-century thatched-roof cottages sitting side by side merrily on a quiet street in a quaint little village. Josie (aka @Josieldn on Instagram), a local content creator, and her husband, Charlie (who manages the properties), have been custodians here for just a small part of the cottages’ centuries-long history. But their meticulous renovations have restored the spaces beautifully, preserving all the Grade II-listed original features that make staying here feel like a journey back to a simpler, more peaceful time, while adding plush finishing touches that feel every bit as cosseting as those of one of the area’s top-of-class hotels. Sarah James
Sleeps: Four
Price: From around £1,350 for a three-night stay
Rogue's Cottage, Deal
Deal is tiny, but full of spirit with its wiggly lanes and un-tapped antique shops lying hidden just beyond the high street. It feels like there’s so much to explore and you could go on rifling, roaming and rambling, for days, weeks, months… and in the midst of it all is Rogue's Cottage. This gorgeous stowaway is in a suitably old building, a Grade II Listed Georgian cottage with over 200 years of stories and memories within its walls. Unusual, for a cottage, it spans three floors with a delightfully helter-skelter staircase and sprawls back further than you’d think. Downstairs, the front door opens into a warming living room, complete with cosy hearth. Behind it, a chic kitchen, and beyond that yet another space, a snug dining room with banquette. This, followed by a beautifully-designed downstairs loo and then – yes, and another space! – a small outdoor terrace. This is what I love about Deal – it’s full of little quirks and nothing is quite what it seems. Megan Rose Murray
Sleeps: Four
Price: From around £763 for a two-night stay
Bonington Farm, Nottinghamshire
This characterful two-storey, bunk-inspired layout looks like a human-sized doll’s house, and my children were as thrilled as I was with the aesthetic on our visit, pattering up and down the stairs to yell gleeful chants at me through the wrought-iron bars. Despite being fairly open-plan, cleverly chosen heavy patterned curtains blocked sound and light in a way that felt unique and fun as opposed to strict and traditional, and (crucially) meant that once the tinies were in bed, adults could continue to chatter freely, lounging on the forest green boucle sofa, which I later tried Googling to order for my own home. A low-slung coffee table, a stack of photography books and framed paintings on the walls completed the aesthetic – all choices that wouldn’t look out of place in a Soho House. Sarah Leigh Bannerman
Sleeps: Eight
Price: From around £770 for a two-night stay
Edenhall Estate, Lake District
Owned and run by the Holden-Hindley family for more than five centuries, Edenhall Estate's exteriors are virtually untouched – bar some glossy new windows – and the main house's are punctuated by a clock tower crafted by the foundry behind Big Ben. Once you step inside, though, the home feels like a wonderfully strange mix of the 1700s and 21st century. While the kitchen offers what could be a walk through Gwyneth Paltrow's sleek Hamptons pantry, the studies and drawing rooms are unequivocally English: think De Gournay-esque wallpaper, gold-plated busts, ornate wood panelling and an antique Steinway. Tamara Southward
Sleeps: 14
Price: From around £7,149 for a three-night stay
Chris Fynes
Tewinbury Farm, Hertfordshire
It’s a rare treat to be able to take my two small children away for the weekend without having to strategically pack and mentally prepare for the journey. On a particularly sunny weekend in July, we hopped on the tube and wound our way to Finsbury Park station before boarding a Great Northern train for 25 minutes to Welwyn Garden City. From there, we strolled up to the taxi rank outside the shopping centre and a 7-minute drive later, we arrived at Tewinbury Farm. Suddenly the air was fresher, time slowed down, and the only sound was the trickling of the chalk stream. Lauren Burvill
Sleeps: Four
Price: From around £189 per night
Morlanow, Falmouth
Morlanow is a one-bedroom former stable and store building, intelligently redesigned by local architect Nina Jones and her partner Alex. It has a curious, sculptural, rounded exterior, which is exactly what stopped me in my tracks mid-scroll during my initial Airbnb search. Inside, the coastal theme is clever as opposed to nautical. The design is inspired by the way boats work, fitted with built-in furniture that doubles as storage, so there’s plenty of room to stow everything a surfer might need for a weekend. It’s compact, but doesn’t feel small. Every inch has purpose without feeling overly engineered. Aesthetically, it’s playful but ‘cool’. Vibrant flashes of colour contradict tactile, natural finishes and pale-wood walls. Drew Burns
Sleeps: Two
Price: From around £250 for a two-night stay
Little Combe, Crowcombe
The first time I stayed at Little Combe, a cabin on the outskirts of Crowcombe in Somerset, I did what we all do when arriving somewhere new: I walked a lap of the living space, taking in my surroundings and imagining the next few days there. At that moment, something caught my eye. Placed on a bench at the end of the buttery-yellow king-size bed was a book I had once bought my mum for her birthday. Nests, by Susan Ogilvy, features life-size paintings of British birds’ nests. I have thumbed through the pages many times, marvelling at nature’s architects and their ability to engineer a safe place to rest, sleep, and eventually raise their young. Some are meticulous in design; others are gloriously messy – much like our own homes, I suppose. Just this summer, I watched a pair of wrens build a nest beside my front door, carefully camouflaging it into the old stone wall with lichen and moss, then lining the inside with soft feathers. Camilla Hewitt
Sleeps: Two
Price: From around £362 for a two-night stay
The Engine House, Suffolk
The Engine House in Suffolk sits down a mossy, hidden track, handily only 15 minutes from Bury St Edmunds, surrounded by fields, farmland and – luckily for me – a nearby vineyard. When art director and photographer Sandy Suffield stumbled across this dilapidated electricity store it had been empty for over 100 years. Built to supply a close by stately home with power, which too had long been abandoned, it still bore the remnants of two oil-covered engines. A few more clues to its former life remained; white-washed walls scrawled with produce orders from a brief stint as a vegetable store in the 1940s and those gorgeous Victorian quarry tiles. Megan Rose Murray
Sleeps: Six
Price: From around £1,223 for a three-night stay
Liba Vinyard, Porton
This autumn, I was desperate to get out of the city and focus on writing my upcoming book, so I needed a cabin stay that wasn't an 'off-grid' concept. Luckily, Liba Vinyard has super-fast Wi-Fi, fold-out tables that double as desks and beautiful walks right on the doorstep. Once I'd settled into the Hawthorn Pod, I realised I wouldn't need to leave at all during my stay. The pods are dotted along winding wood-chip paths, which branch off towards the three cabins: Beech, Hawthorn and Elder. All sleep four people and have a wood-fired hot tub, although Hawthorn is slightly more snug than the other two and better suited to solo visitors and couples. Beech is best for anyone travelling with children, while for larger groups, renting all three would be a fun way to celebrate a birthday. It's a spot that can be both solitary and social, depending on what you're after. Chloe Laws
Sleeps: Four
Price: From around £406 for a two-night stay
Home Farm, Oban
Often, driving through the Scottish Highlands is the trip, and as we follow the dramatic landscape that leads to Oban from Edinburgh, I finally understand why. This is the closest I’ve felt to having received my Hogwarts letter, and I love it. But at the end of our route is another reason worth travelling for, and one that makes me want to stop time – and definitely stay put – for the foreseeable. Home Farm dates back to the 1600s and is steeped in history, but more tangible than that is our hosts’ emotional connection to it. Owners Paul and Antonia have spent the last few months lovingly restoring every element of its interior to celebrate its heritage while ensuring it works seamlessly for the demands of modern life. For Paul, the connection to Home Farm spans decades. As a child, he stopped by daily after school to visit the horses that were kept here in the winter, and after moving to Glasgow for work, he was drawn back to Oban when he spotted the property for sale years later. “[as a child] I thought of it as a hidden place, something from a fairytale with its many gables and old stones”, he says. Sarah Leigh Bannerman
Sleeps: 10
Price: From around £2,980 for a four-night stay
Hillside Hever, Kent
Hillside Hever is so much more than its rooms (five, comfortably sleeping 14 in total) and location (Hever, 30 miles from London). It’s striking in terms of architecture, with a soaring A-frame and large sky lights above the landing and in the bedrooms on the top floor. It’s also beautifully presented, with sleek polished concrete floors and sprawling U-shaped banquette seating downstairs. Upstairs, there are two primary bedrooms, each with ensuite. The larger of the two, with its earthy tones and tactile textures, opens up to reveal a mezzanine balcony with a sitting area that overlooks the living area and out into the garden via the large picture window. Lauren Burvill
Sleeps: 14
Price: From around £2,905 for a three-night stay
The Farm at Avebury, Wiltshire
My city-born children still gasp when they see a cow, so a farm stay where they get to see animals up close is the ultimate weekend away in their eyes. We’ve been to lots around the country but The Farm at Avebury, in Wiltshire, is the one my five and nine-year-olds keep asking to return to. The reason? The owner Alice has designed a stay that she knows will delight children. The farm, known as Galtee More since the 1890s, is a working farm that has been in the Hues family since 1922. Rob Hues, the current farmer, and his wife Alice are the fourth generation to work it, growing crops and rearing livestock. But, with the increasing challenges of running a family farm, they spied an opportunity for diversifying and decided to convert six dilapidated stables into stylish holiday “hideaways”, which were completed in 2021. Jessica Salter
Sleeps: 16+
Price: From around £3,998 for a two-night stay
Shabby chic coastal retreat, Margate
My base for the weekend is a gorgeous, topsy-turvy Georgian townhouse built in 1835 and perched on the secluded, leafy Hawley Square. The square itself is steeped in history, having been developed in the 1760s as a reaction to the rise in visitors being advised by medical professionals to "take in the sea air". The house is owned and occupied (when not rented out) by architect Sam and their partner, Carlos, an artist who travels between Margate and Bogota frequently for work. What sets this property apart is the care, love and creativity that you feel in every corner and detail throughout. Eclectic artwork covers much of the wallspace. Forget about generic prints of Big Ben or wishy-washy seascapes in ill-fitting frames; here, expansive pieces span entire walls, palm trees climb through furniture, towers of baked-bean cans stand sentry and hammers are purposefully lodged in the living room wall. The walls themselves resemble artwork, too, with distressed paint adding texture and character. Everything about this place seems to breathe as if it has a mind of its own, giving new meaning to the phrase “if these walls could talk.” Lucy Bruton
Sleeps: Four
Price: From around £413 for a two-night stay
The Blue House, Camber Sands
When I stumbled across (read: meticulously crawled the internet for) The Blue House on Airbnb circa five years ago, it went straight into my ‘saves’ and has lived rent-free in my app and my mind until now. The glass-fronted, four-bed house with direct access to the beach did not disappoint. In fact, it was better than I imagined, and it’s been designed to celebrate its unbeatable location. The entire front of the property is glass, and everything – from the kitchen to the bed in the master room – faces out. We arrived as the last few day trippers were leaving, carried our bags and a pre-arranged food shop 100m across the sand and set up camp at the long wooden table on the decking to watch the sun set. With a glass of Kentish sparkling in hand (Tillingham is in pit-stopping distance, after all), I felt the week melt away almost immediately. Sarah Leigh Bannerman
Sleeps: Eight
Price: From around £1,968 for a two-night stay
Jane Austen's House, Bath
There’s a bohemian vibe at this apartment, which was the home of the Austen family from 1801 to 1805. Walls are stacked with art, and there’s creatively mismatched furniture in the flagstone study and original Georgian panelling throughout. The eclectic Holburne Museum is close by and the walk to the pretty town centre takes about 10 minutes. Andrea Bussell
Sleeps: Three
Price: from about £200 a night
Alcoves, the Cotswolds
I've become quite partial to a cabin stay in the UK countryside, during which I try to unfurl and reconnect with myself. When cabin stays first rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, they occupied a space somewhere between camping and an Airbnb: basic amenities, pared-back interiors and lockboxes for phones. But as the market has grown, so too have the offerings. This is where Alcoves comes in, with its extra touches of luxury and thoughtful design. So, when I heard about these new cabins, of which there are currently two – The Green Cabin and The Blue Cabin – I was eager to escape my London life for the weekend and become the first guest to check in. I've been having a pretty full-on 2026 so far, and both my body and mind were aching for fresh air, no to-do list and 48 hours of uninterrupted calm. Chloe Laws
Sleeps: Two
Price: From around £460 for a two-night stay
Gairnsheil Lodge’s Laggan Cottage, Scottish Highlands
To me, this is the perfect rental. Somewhere that has you feverishly dreaming of selling up and starting a new, romantic life in the country as soon as you clap eyes on it at the bottom of its gently winding, single-track approach. Sitting in the heather-clad hills and circled by a tumbling stream, it’s the stuff of Scottish storybooks. Lying low under sagging winter skies in its hollow, it’s a traditional cottage carved out of Speyside stone with sweet multi-pane windows and double chimney breasts book-ending the building. To one side there’s a new porch to stuff with wellies and jackets, which leads onto a kitchen, through to a lounge and continues on to the one downstairs bedroom, before you head upstairs to two more rooms with their own beautiful bathrooms (more on those later). It has the distinct advantage of going against the grain when it comes to its aesthetic, too, presenting as even nicer than the pictures in real life, rather than the other way around. Rosie Conroy
Sleeps: Eight
Price: From around £1,800 for a two-night stay
Dairymaid Cottage, Sussex
I’d never considered myself much of a winter staycation-er, but this season I found myself yearning to be wrapped in a blanket by an open fire listening to the sound of the rain. Call it the Wuthering Heights effect, but it suddenly sounded like a pretty romantic scenario. When I heard about the newly opened Dairymaid Cottage on the Goodwood Estate in Sussex, I needed little further convincing that this was, in fact, my idea of the perfect weekend retreat. My husband and I packed our bags and drove from London until we reached the countryside. Winding roads, pheasant-dotted fields, snuffling spotted pigs greeted us as we pulled up to the grade II listed cottage in Goodwood’s sprawling grounds. Megan Wilkes
Sleeps: Six
Price: From around £1,250 for a two-night stay
Seamark, Camber Sands
I scoured my most recent Airbnb saves and deemed Seamark in Camber Sands the winner. Brand new for 2026 with glass doors that ran the length of the building and opened directly onto the stony beach, we’d be able to dart out (and, crucially, back in again) during any uncharacteristically sunny moments without it being a great expedition. Anyone wild enough to brave the cold-water sea swim could also do so without having time to overthink their decision. Sarah Leigh Bannerman
Sleeps: 10
Price: From around £3,010 for a two-night stay
How we choose the best Airbnbs in the UK
We've vetted these listings based on Superhost status, ratings, amenities, location, previous guest reviews, and decor. All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveller are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This is our pick of the best Airbnbs in the UK.
More of our favourite Airbnbs in the UK
More inspiration on where to stay in the UK