Welcome to our September 2026 newsletter!
September brought us some absolutely beautiful weather here in Dorset — and an incredibly busy month at Well Cottage!
We spent almost the entire month doing what we love most: welcoming guests and sharing this beautiful part of England with them. And September was particularly special because so many of those joining us were familiar faces.
We began with a week welcoming back guests for their fourth English Cottage Vacation. Their stay was a lovely combination of sightseeing and excursions alongside spending precious time with family they have here in the UK — one of the wonderful things about a tailor-made stay with us being that we can build those personal plans into their vacation.
Later in the month, we welcomed another set of returning guests for an 11-night adventure — their fifth stay with us! This time, they decided to include one of our Additional Location Options. They began with three nights here at Well Cottage before we whisked them away to Cornwall, where they spent five nights in a beautiful cottage we had chosen for them in Perranporth. Then it was back home to Well Cottage for another three nights before they continued to London.
Our Additional Location Feature takes you with them to Cornwall, as we share what those five nights in Perranporth and the surrounding area actually looked like — including a day-by-day look at their itinerary and some of the wonderful places they experienced along the way.
We rounded off the month with one of our Shared Cottage weeks, which carried us right through until 2nd October. This time, every guest was completely new to English Cottage Vacation, which made it particularly lovely for us to introduce a whole new group to Well Cottage, our little corner of Dorset and everything that makes an English Cottage Vacation so special.
So yes… this September newsletter has arrived a little later than planned! But for the very best reason: our guests always come first.
Now that the Summer has come to an end we start to prepare for the festive, winter season and, wonderfully, more returning guests too.
We never take that for granted. Seeing guests choose to travel across the Atlantic and come back to us again and again genuinely fills our hearts. For us, there can be no greater endorsement of what we have created than people experiencing English Cottage Vacation and deciding that they simply have to come back.
And looking ahead to December… we have ONE room left!
We simply must fill this room and we want it to be you!
Our Shared Cottage week from 7th–14th December has just Bedroom One remaining — our beautiful US King bedroom — and we have decided to offer it to our newsletter followers at an extraordinary 50% OFF. Plus a further 5% off for our returning guests!!
If you’ve been following us for a while and wondering what it would actually be like to experience English Cottage Vacation for yourself, this could be the perfect opportunity.
December at Well Cottage is rather magical. The cottage is dressed for Christmas, the fire is roaring, the countryside has taken on its winter coat, and you’ll experience England at one of its most atmospheric times of year.
And this is quite literally our final available experience of 2026.
So, if you can make your way to England for 7th–14th December, get in touch with us and we’ll send you all the details.
It’s a wonderful opportunity to experience your first English Cottage Vacation at a truly unbeatable rate — and perhaps, like so many of the guests we welcomed this September, it won’t be your last!
Christmas at Well Cottage
Now, on with our rather belated September newsletter…
This month, we’re excited to share:
- Featured Additional Location – A spotlight on A Guest’s Experience: Five Nights in Cornwall
- Featured Excursion – Exploring the New Forest on Two Wheels
- Another Sterling 5 STAR Guest Review
- Guest Gallery – Recent photos of our guests enjoying their English Cottage Vacation!
- Local News Corner – From the North Pole to North Dorset: Meet Our Intrepid Neighbour, Pen Hadow
- Well Cottage Garden September 2026 – A Garden Update and Mini Tour
- ‘Behind the Scenes’ at English Cottage Vacation, Featured Blog –The magic of table-scaping
- A Taste of Well Cottage – Laura’s Easy Tomato & Basil Soup
- Your chance to get your hands on Laura’s Recipe Book
- Our Food Gallery – More examples of Laura’s delicious creations
- Travel Advisor Programme – A chance to work with English Cottage Vacation and bring this wonderful experience to your clients.
- Help Us Improve – We’d love your feedback! Complete our short survey to help shape future newsletters.
- Picnic Basket Winner – Find out who has won this month’s English Cottage Vacation picnic basket. Could it be YOU?
- Everything You Need to Know – Quick links to planning your itinerary, FAQs, payment information, cancellation policies and everything else you need to plan your stay.
- UK ETA Reminder A helpful reminder for international guests travelling to the UK.
- Step Inside Our Community – Join our For the Love of England Facebook community and share your passion for England with fellow Anglophiles.
So, settle somewhere comfortable and join us as we look back at another busy, colourful and memorable August at Well Cottage.
Featured Additional Location: North West Cornwall
A Guest’s Experience: Five Nights in Cornwall
If you read our Welcome, you’ll know that September gave us the opportunity to put one of our Additional Location Options into action as part of an 11-night tailor-made vacation for two of our returning guests.
Their vacation began with three nights at Well Cottage before we packed up the Mercedes and headed west for five nights in Cornwall, followed by another three nights back at Well Cottage.
For their Cornwall stay, we based ourselves just one mile from the seaside town of Perranporth, perfectly positioned for exploring both the north and south coasts and venturing all the way down into West Cornwall.
Our Home Away from Well Cottage
Choosing the right property is particularly important when we take English Cottage Vacation on the road. We need somewhere that gives our guests the comfort and privacy they are accustomed to at Well Cottage, while also allowing Nathan and Laura to remain close at hand as their hosts.
For this trip, we found a beautiful three-bedroom cottage tucked away in a wonderfully quiet and peaceful part of the Cornish countryside. Despite its secluded setting, it was just one mile from the beach and the seaside town of Perranporth.
Watch a video of this delightful little cottage!
It really gave us the best of both worlds — a peaceful countryside retreat to return to each evening, with the spectacular North Cornwall coast almost on our doorstep.
The layout couldn’t have suited us better either.
Our host bedroom was downstairs, along with a separate bathroom, giving us our own space away from the guest accommodation. Upstairs, our two guests had a choice of two lovely bedrooms, including a beautiful bedroom with its own en-suite bathroom.
It gave everyone plenty of space and privacy while allowing us to recreate that very special hosted experience away from Well Cottage.
And, needless to say, changing location certainly didn’t mean leaving the indulgences of English Cottage Vacation behind! Our guests continued to enjoy all the usual treats, meals, drinks, little luxuries and personal attention they would expect during their time with us at Well Cottage.
Take a Look Around…
Want to see where we stayed?
Take a look at the video above, where we’ll show you around the beautiful cottage we called home for those five nights, situated just one mile from the seaside town of Perranporth, as well as giving you a glimpse of Perranporth itself and its wonderful Cornish coastline.
Then read on to discover just how much of Cornwall we managed to experience during our five-night adventure…
So, What Did Five Nights in Cornwall Look Like?
The Journey Down — A La Ronde
The adventure began before we even reached Cornwall. Rather than simply driving straight to Perranporth, we made the journey part of the vacation with a stop at A La Ronde, the wonderfully unusual 16-sided National Trust house in Devon, before continuing on to our cottage.
Day One — The Lost Gardens of Heligan & South Cornwall
Our first full day began at the magnificent Lost Gardens of Heligan, before spending the afternoon exploring the South Cornwall coast.
We took to the coastal roads, enjoying the scenery and stopping to explore the tiny villages of Portloe and Veryan before returning to our cottage near Perranporth.
Day Two — Cornwall’s Mining Heritage & Pendennis Castle
The following morning took us to the King Edward Mine Museum, offering a fascinating glimpse into Cornwall’s extraordinary mining heritage.
From there, we continued to Pendennis Castle, the historic fortress overlooking the sea at Falmouth.
And, as is so often the case on an English Cottage Vacation, the journey home became part of the sightseeing too, taking us through St Agnes and Perranporth before returning to the cottage for the evening.
Day Three — St Michael’s Mount & St Ives
Next, we headed into West Cornwall, beginning in Marazion.
With the tide in, we took a little boat across the water to the spectacular St Michael’s Mount, before returning to the mainland and continuing to St Ives for an afternoon wandering around one of Cornwall’s most famous seaside towns.
Day Four — Padstow & the North Cornwall Coast
For our final full day, we headed north to Padstow, with time to explore its beautiful harbour and fishing town and visit the National Lobster Hatchery.
We then enjoyed lunch overlooking the estuary towards Rock, before beginning our journey back along the spectacular North Cornwall coastal road.
We stopped at Newquay along the way before returning to the cottage for our final evening in Cornwall.
And Then… Back to Well Cottage
After five nights exploring Cornwall, it was time to head back to Dorset via Castle Drogo in Devon, for the final three nights of their English Cottage Vacation at Well Cottage.
From there, our guests continued independently to London for a couple of nights, bringing quite an English adventure to a close!
It’s important to mention that this particular Cornwall experience was created specifically for these guests as part of their tailor-made vacation. Our Additional Location Options aren’t fixed packages, so another visit to Cornwall might involve a different cottage, different places and an entirely different itinerary.
That’s part of the fun.
They give us the opportunity to take everything our guests love about English Cottage Vacation beyond Well Cottage — the personal hosting, chauffeuring, wonderful food, thoughtful little indulgences and having everything taken care of — while opening up an entirely new part of England to explore.
For these returning guests, that meant five nights in Cornwall, a beautiful cottage near the sea, an itinerary stretching from Padstow to St Michael’s Mount, and Laura & Nathan right there with them throughout.
Not a bad little extension to an English Cottage Vacation!
Watch this video to find out about the History of Cornwall!
To begin planning your perfect English experience contact us today:
Featured Excursion: Exploring the New Forest on Two Wheels
Not every English Cottage Vacation excursion has to involve wandering around a stately home or exploring a castle. For our more active guests, sometimes the best way to experience the English countryside is to get right out into it!
And one of our favourite places to do just that is the New Forest National Park.
Around an hour from Well Cottage, the New Forest is a wonderful landscape of ancient woodland, open heathland, pretty villages and quiet country lanes — and, of course, its famous free-roaming ponies, alongside cattle and other animals that still wander freely through parts of the Forest.
Swap Four Wheels for Two
For guests who enjoy cycling, we can incorporate a few hours exploring the New Forest by bicycle into their itinerary.
And don’t worry — we’re not suggesting you bring your bicycle across the Atlantic!
There are several cycle-hire operators within the New Forest, including those offering electric bicycles, and we can arrange the hire as part of your day.
E-bikes are a particularly lovely option because they allow you to cover more ground without turning your English Cottage Vacation into the Tour de France.
The New Forest has an extensive network of waymarked cycling routes, including more than 100 miles of off-road routes, so we can choose something to suit the guests taking part rather than expecting everyone to tackle the same ride.
You might spend a couple of hours pedalling along gravel forest tracks, through woodland and across open heath, passing grazing ponies along the way. Some routes are predominantly off-road, while others combine forest tracks with quiet lanes and take you between some of the New Forest’s lovely villages.
And because this is an English Cottage Vacation, we’re certainly not suggesting you spend the entire day exercising…
There Should Always Be Time for a Pint!
Part of the pleasure is being able to stop along the way.
Park up the bicycles, find a traditional country pub and settle in for a well-earned pint or something refreshing before climbing back into the saddle for the next part of your ride.
It’s a rather wonderful way to experience the New Forest at a completely different pace. Instead of watching the countryside pass by through a window, you’re amongst it — hearing the sounds of the woodland, travelling beneath the trees and suddenly finding a New Forest pony grazing just beyond the track.
There are routes of varying lengths throughout the National Park, including several circular rides designed to take around two to three hours, making cycling very easy to incorporate into a larger day exploring the area.
And, of course, Nathan and the Mercedes won’t be terribly far away!
A Different Way to See England
This is exactly why our tailor-made itineraries don’t have to be endless lists of traditional tourist attractions.
For some guests, their perfect day might be a castle and afternoon tea. For others, it might be an e-bike, a forest trail, roaming ponies and a pint in a country pub.
And for those who fancy a bit of both? Well, we can arrange that too.
Cycling within the New Forest is restricted to the permitted waymarked network and appropriate roads, helping to protect this particularly special landscape and its wildlife.
EXPLORE ALL OUR AMAZING EXCURSIONS
Another Sterling Guest Review
“An Absolutely Unforgettable English Experience”
My English Cottage Vacation was over-the-top wonderful! I’m typically the kind of gal who sleeps in a tent, but I wanted to give myself a special retirement gift and truly immerse myself in England—and this experience did not disappoint.
Nathan and Laura were incredible hosts and completely embraced our interests. We planned everything from castles, charming villages, breweries, pubs, hiking and cheese caves to some activities they had never even done themselves. When we suggested science-themed adventures, they didn’t blink an eye! We went on a fossil tour along the Jurassic Coast and even snorkeled in the English Channel searching for seahorses.
And then there was Laura’s food. Every evening we returned from our adventures to the most incredible meals, thoughtfully curated around everything we had told her we loved (and didn’t love!). The cottage itself was absolutely quaint, and while I wasn’t accustomed to being pampered at that level, it was never too much—it was the perfect balance of comfort, adventure, and personal attention. They even brought a masseuse to the cottage for a spa day!
I cannot say enough about Nathan and Laura. They somehow made every day feel like an adventure designed just for us. If an English Cottage Vacation isn’t already on your bucket list, put it there. You won’t regret it!
– Rebecca Finch, August 2026
We do everything we can to take all the work and worry out of your vacation so you can simply relax and enjoy the experience. We’re always so grateful to receive feedback like this that acknowledges our attention to detail, thank you Elizabeth!
Have you been a guest of ours? We’d be so grateful if you can share your experiences on TripAdvisor and Google Reviews too! Also be sure to check out the testimonials featured on our website!
Guest Gallery: Memories from Well Cottage and around the South West of England
Clockwise from top left: Picnic at Stourhead Gardens; Cream tea in front of the fire in the snug; Another wonderful dinner at The Compasses Inn in Lower Chicksgove!
Clockwise from top: A secret view point of the Roman City of Bath; A rare lunch at the cottage with chef Laura; Our guests in front of their home for the week, Well Cottage.
Clockwise from left: Corfe castle, Portland and the Jurassic Coast, Castle Combe in the Cotswolds
SEE MORE PHOTOS ON OUR GUEST GALLERY
Local News Corner: From the North Pole to North Dorset – Meet Our Intrepid Neighbour, Pen Hadow
Polar explorer and Arctic conservationist Pen Hadow
One of the things we love about an English Cottage Vacation is that our guests don’t simply come to Well Cottage to see England’s famous sights — for a little while, they get to become part of our England.
That means discovering the tiny villages, country lanes, local pubs and people that make up everyday life around Well Cottage. And every now and then, one of those local people has a rather extraordinary story to tell.
Just up the road from Well Cottage lives our neighbour Pen Hadow — one of Britain’s most accomplished polar explorers and Arctic conservationists.
Pen has been involved in Arctic exploration since 1989, but he is perhaps best known for an extraordinary achievement in 2003. He became the first person to trek solo and without resupply from Canada to the Geographic North Pole — travelling some 478 miles across the constantly moving sea ice of the Arctic Ocean over 64 days. Remarkably, the feat has still never been repeated.
And this wasn’t simply a very long, very cold walk!
During the expedition, Pen travelled across shifting and breaking sea ice, encountered stretches of open water and at times had to swim through the freezing Arctic Ocean. He hauled his supplies behind him and completed the journey entirely without resupply.
His connection with the polar regions extends far beyond that one expedition. Pen is also the only Briton to have trekked without resupply to both the North and South Geographic Poles from their respective continental coastlines. He later led the Catlin Arctic Survey, an international scientific research programme studying the changing Arctic Ocean, and today much of his work focuses on protecting the wildlife and ecosystem of the Central Arctic Ocean.
And after all those adventures at the very top of the world?
He lives just up the road from Well Cottage!
Even better, Pen is always very open to a friendly chat. So, if you’re staying with us and polar exploration, great British adventurers, conservation or tales of surviving in some of the most inhospitable conditions on Earth happen to be your sort of thing, do mention it to us.
If the opportunity arises and Pen is around and available, you never know — we may be able to introduce you for a chat.
It’s another little example of something we think makes English Cottage Vacation rather different. Sometimes the most memorable experiences aren’t necessarily the ones printed in the itinerary — they’re the people, conversations and unexpected encounters that come from actually living with us in our little corner of England for a while.
Watch more about Pen’s adventures below!
From the Garden at Well Cottage
September 2026
Laura standing at the front of Well Cottage in the September morning sun
A Garden Still Bursting with Colour as Autumn Arrives
September has been another beautiful month in the Well Cottage garden, and although the temperatures have started to dip and the evenings are drawing in, there’s still been plenty of colour, life and activity to enjoy!
We’ve been fortunate enough to have some lovely weather throughout the month, which has meant our guests have still been able to enjoy sitting outside, relaxing in the garden and soaking up the last of the summer sunshine.
And what a colourful September it’s been! Our flowerpots and planters have continued to look absolutely wonderful, with some still bursting with blooms and showing very little sign of wanting to give up for the season. The garden has certainly been putting on quite a show!
Laura takes you on a 4 min tour of the beautiful Well Cottage gardens
Still Plenty Coming from the Kitchen Garden!
Despite autumn creeping in, I’ve continued harvesting a wonderful selection of vegetables from the garden, keeping the Well Cottage kitchen supplied with lovely homegrown ingredients.
Tomatoes have been particularly abundant this September! I’ve been collecting huge quantities of beautifully ripe, red tomatoes, both from the vegetable patch and from the plants still growing happily in the greenhouse. There’s something enormously satisfying about bringing in basketfuls of homegrown tomatoes, and needless to say, they’ve been finding their way into all sorts of dishes in the Well Cottage kitchen.
In fact, with so many lovely ripe tomatoes to use, it seemed only fitting that this month’s A Taste of Well Cottage recipe should be my homemade Tomato & Basil Soup, which you’ll find elsewhere in this newsletter!
I’ve also been busy planting again, including more broad beans and French beans, which have been thriving!
If you ask our guests from the past couple of weeks, they’ll tell you that French beans have made quite a few appearances on their dinner plates — prepared in all sorts of different ways! When something is growing so beautifully just outside the kitchen door, it seems a shame not to make the most of it.
The cucumbers, unfortunately, have started to come to the end of their season, although I do still have one rather determined English cucumber plant that continues to reward me with some beautiful cucumbers. I’m certainly not complaining!
Meanwhile, there’s butternut squash growing in the vegetable patch, which I’m particularly looking forward to harvesting as we head further into autumn.
And there’s more good news on the fruit front, too. The raspberries have started coming into fruit, although I have a feeling October is going to bring a much more abundant harvest. Fingers crossed!
There’s something particularly satisfying about being able to pick fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden and serve them to our guests just hours, or sometimes minutes, later. It’s one of the little pleasures of life at Well Cottage, and something I absolutely love sharing with everyone who stays with us.
More September photos of Well Cottage Front Garden and views from inside
Golden Skies and Autumn Evenings
One of the loveliest things about September is the changing light.
As the nights begin drawing in a little earlier, we’ve been treated to some truly beautiful sunsets, while the early mornings have brought equally gorgeous sunrises across the surrounding Dorset countryside.
There’s a certain magic to Well Cottage at this time of year. The garden is still full of colour, but the light is softer, the air a little fresher, and you can feel the seasons gradually changing around us.
And with tomatoes still ripening, beans flourishing, squash growing and raspberries just getting started, the garden clearly hasn’t received the memo that summer is over!
Take a Little Wander Around Our Garden
We’ve put together a few lovely clips from September to give you a glimpse of how the Well Cottage garden has been looking throughout the month.
Watch our September garden video above and enjoy the colourful pots, flourishing vegetable garden and beautiful early autumn atmosphere.
We hope you enjoy this little snippet of our garden as much as we’ve enjoyed sharing it with our guests.
‘Behind the Scenes’ at English Cottage Vacation, The magic of table-scaping
A Different Table, Every Evening – The Art of Making Every Meal Special
At English Cottage Vacation, we believe that it’s often the little things that make the biggest difference. And one of the ways we love to make our guests feel special is through our beautifully dressed dinner tables.
Every evening, as our guests gather for their three-course dinner at Well Cottage, we create a different table setting, carefully choosing everything from the table linens, napkins and crockery to the flowers, candles and decorative finishing touches.
Sometimes the setting is elegant and sophisticated, sometimes colourful and playful, and sometimes inspired by the changing seasons. But whatever the theme, the aim is always the same: to make every evening feel like a special occasion.
Over the years, we’ve created hundreds of different table settings, and it’s very rare for two to be exactly alike!
Of course, this takes time, creativity and quite a lot of effort, particularly when there’s already so much happening behind the scenes. But that’s exactly what English Cottage Vacation is all about.
We don’t believe in simply repeating the same experience day after day. We want our guests to feel that thought, care and personal attention have gone into every part of their stay, right down to the way their dinner table looks each evening.
It’s this commitment to making things personal, rather than ordinary, that we believe makes an English Cottage Vacation so special.
And while a beautifully dressed table might seem like a small detail, it’s one of the many ways we go above and beyond to make our guests feel genuinely cared for.
So, for our final feature this month, we’ve put together a lovely little video showcasing a selection of our dinner table settings from over the years.
Take a look and see just how many different ways we’ve found to dress the Well Cottage dinner table!
After all, when you’re on vacation, shouldn’t every evening feel like something worth celebrating?
Watch our table scape collection video here
A Taste of Well Cottage: Laura’s Simple Tomato & Basil Soup
As autumn begins to arrive, soup season is most definitely upon us!
There’s something wonderfully comforting about a bowl of homemade soup when the days begin to cool — warming, filling and particularly lovely served with plenty of fresh bread and butter.
This month’s recipe is one of my simplest: Tomato & Basil Soup.
At the moment, I still have an abundance of tomatoes ripening in the greenhouse and garden at Well Cottage, so this is the perfect way to make the most of them. And because we grow plenty of basil too, much of this soup can quite literally travel from the garden to the guests’ bowls!
I often serve soup for lunch on arrival day. Arrival days are particularly busy for me in the kitchen: while our new guests are settling into Well Cottage and enjoying lunch, I’m already thinking ahead to everything I need to prepare for their first evening meal. A delicious homemade soup that can be made ahead and reheated makes life considerably easier.
It’s equally useful at home if you have friends coming over and want something delicious that doesn’t require hours of preparation.
And while I love making this with tomatoes straight from the garden, good-quality canned tomatoes work perfectly well too.
You’ll Need
Serves approximately 6-12
- About 20 medium-to-large ripe tomatoes, or 3–4 cans of good-quality chopped tomatoes
- 1½ large onions, roughly chopped
- 3–4 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon — I like plenty!)
- A generous bunch of fresh basil, around 10–20 stalks
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 cup dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio
- 300 – 500 ml Vegetable stock, or 1 vegetable stock pot/cube plus 300 – 500ml water
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- A little onion powder, optional
- Around 2 tablespoons maple syrup, to taste
Optional for extra creaminess: a splash of cream, natural yoghurt or coconut milk.
If You’re Using Fresh Tomatoes
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil and while waiting score the tomato skins with a knife. Then carefully lower your tomatoes into the water. Leave them for a 1-2 minutes making sure the water stays at boiling — until the skins begin to curl at the score line as it is lifting away from the tomato.
- Remove them and immediately transfer them into a bowl of iced water.
- Once cool enough to handle, peel away the skins and remove the stalk centres. Don’t worry about making them look pretty — they’re all heading into the blender anyway!
To Make the Soup
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add your roughly chopped onions. Gently sauté until softened.
- Add the garlic and cook briefly with the onions, being careful not to let it burn.
- Turn up the heat and pour in your cup of white wine. Allow it to bubble away for a few minutes so the alcohol cooks off and the wine reduces slightly.
- Add your prepared fresh tomatoes — or canned tomatoes — followed by your vegetable stock. For thicker soup use less liquid.
- Roughly chop your very generous handful of basil (or more) and throw that in too. Add onion powder at this stage if you like.
- Bring everything to the boil, then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer until the tomatoes have completely softened and all those lovely flavours have come together.
- Season with a lots of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. I sometimes add a sprinkling of onion powder too.
Now Make It Beautifully Smooth
- Transfer the soup carefully to a blender and blend until completely smooth and creamy.
- A little word of caution: if you’re blending the soup while it’s still very hot, don’t completely seal boiling liquid inside your blender. Allow the steam to escape and, if necessary, blend it in batches.
- I like to give mine a really thorough blend until it’s beautifully silky.
- Pour it back into your saucepan and have a taste.
Laura’s Little Trick…
Depending on the tomatoes you’ve used, you may find the soup needs just a touch of sweetness to balance their acidity.
You could use ordinary sugar, but I prefer maple syrup. Start with a little and taste as you go — around 2 tablespoons for the whole batch is usually plenty.
At this stage, you can also add a little cream, yoghurt or coconut milk if you’d like an even creamier soup.
But personally, I often find that once those tomatoes have been properly blended, it really doesn’t need anything else.
And that’s it.
A very simple, very comforting Tomato & Basil Soup, perfect for the beginning of autumn — and particularly satisfying when some of the ingredients have travelled only a few steps from the Well Cottage garden to the kitchen.
Serve piping hot with lots of lovely fresh bread and plenty of butter.
Enjoy!
Laura x
More of Laura’s Food Served at Well Cottage
FEAST YOUR EYES ON LAURA’S FOOD GALLERY
A taste of English cottage life, wherever you are
Laura’s English Cottage Kitchen Recipe Book is exactly that. A collection of the dishes our guests fall in love with during their stay, each one rooted in comfort, tradition, and a genuine joy for bringing people together around the table. It’s not just a cookbook, but a wonderful piece of the Well Cottage experience to take home and revisit time and time again.
For those who love the feel of a beautiful book in their hands, the stunning 98-page hardcover edition makes a truly special gift:
Or for any other territory, simply search “English Cottage Kitchen Recipe Book by Laura Kurton” on Amazon.
And if time has quietly slipped away, the digital version is ready in an instant, perfect for a thoughtful last-minute surprise that still feels deeply personal:
Travel Advisors Programme!
We have recently launched our new Travel Advisor Programme here at English Cottage Vacation.
If you are a travel advisor and would be interested in offering our unique, fully hosted English countryside experiences to your clients, please reach out and we will send you further information about working with us.
info@englishcottagevacation.com
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Celebrating our luxury picnic basket winner!
It’s that time again! We’re thrilled to announce this month’s luxury countryside picnic basket! A beautifully handcrafted willow hamper filled with all the essentials for a dreamy alfresco outing is on its way to one lucky subscriber…
Jesse Long
Please reach out to us by email so that we can arrange delivery!
info@englishcottagevacation.com
Congratulations! Your 2 person English picnic basket includes:
- Fine china plates and real glassware
- Stainless steel cutlery and linen napkins
- A tartan picnic blanket
Didn’t win this time? Don’t despair – we’re giving away another one next month! Simply stay subscribed to our weekly newsletter and you’re automatically in the draw.
And if you know someone who would love a touch of English charm in their inbox, feel free to forward this email or share the sign-up link – here it is! They could also be in to win!
*Disclaimer: The basket we deliver is subject to availability but we will always strive to ensure comparable quality!
Essential info: Everything you need to know, all in one place
More September photos of Well Cottage back garden
From your first enquiry to your farewell at Heathrow, we’ve designed every step of your English Cottage Vacation to be smooth, simple and utterly stress-free.
Whether you’re curious about availability, wondering how payments work, or ready to shape your tailor-made itinerary, the links below will guide you through it all – clearly, quickly, and with complete confidence.
Your Tailor-Made Itinerary, Discovery Process
UK ETA Reminder: Important note for international visitors to the UK
If you’re planning a future visit to Britain, please note that most overseas visitors – including those from the US and Canada – will now need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before entering the UK.
Visit: https://www.gov.uk/eta/apply
The ETA is a quick and straightforward online travel permission (similar to the US ESTA). It costs £16, is typically approved within a few days, and allows multiple entries over a two-year period.
Airlines began checking ETA status from 25 February 2026, so please bear this in mind if your English Cottage Vacation is already in the diary.
If you’re unsure how this might affect your travel plans, don’t worry – we’re always happy to help!
Step inside our online community!
Join our Facebook group for a peek behind the scenes, seasonal updates from Well Cottage, and a friendly space to connect with fellow Anglophiles. We’d love to welcome you in!
Until Next Month… well you know what we mean!
It’s time for us to start thinking about winterising the cottage. So although we won’t have guests coming for a little while we will be busy in the garden, deep cleaning the cottage and getting all of those lovely Christmas trimmings up in time for the arrival of our first Festive Winter guests on November 23rd!
That doesn’t mean we’re not here you though! Not only will you be receiving our October Newsletter in just a few weeks, we always have time to hear from you, answer your questions, send you a quote or even better still, get you booked in for your very own English Cottage Vacation experience!
It would be our absolute pleasure, and as our prices will be increasing in the New Year. Now is the time to start the enquiry and booking process!,
See you in just 2 weeks! Take care, keep dreaming of England – and reach out for a friendly chat whenever you’re ready to make those dreams come true!
With our very best wishes,
Nathan & Laura
Founders & Hosts
English Cottage Vacation
* All you need to do is arrive – we’ll take care of everything else!
Reach out today to begin your effortless, luxury English countryside escape.
