HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVE? - Family Traveller

CARSON BLACK samples a growing trend in holidays – villa rentals with a bespoke concierge service.

We drove on motorways, then A roads, B roads, then country roads, then country lanes with an occasional passing point carved into the hedgerow, onto, frankly, country tracks with just about enough room to accommodate a tractor.

And then, before us, we saw the wrought-iron gates protecting entry to a short sweeping driveway.

We had arrived on the edge of Dartmoor to stay in a large country house – a home to millionaire business people – to experience the big new thing in everyday travel - a bespoke weekend of luxury.

Usually the holiday preserve of the extremely wealthy, the concept is to make the get-away-from-it-all-and-do-nothing-without-having-to-mix-with-the-hoi-polloi affordable.

One of the leading exponents of this new trend in travel is Oliver’s Travels who have 1,400 country homes and luxury villas across Britain and Europe on their books.

The villa break is great, except at least one of you still has to do the driving, the washing, ironing, cleaning. And usually they won’t be too pleased about the prospect of shifting duties from home to another home, but with some sun. Not much of a break for them, admittedly, whichever one of your family it is.

Oliver’s Travels claims to be able to rectify that by designing a bespoke holiday for you with everything taken care of. They will arrange cleaners, excursions, adventure trips, taxis and even a chef to cook your meals every night.

So here we were in deepest Devon, expectations running high.

We had already been sent a list of activities available locally to choose from. Or, we could do nothing, just laze around in our luxury accommodation if that’s all we wanted to do. Tempting, I know. But in the spirit of sampling the fare, we choose a couple of ‘activities’, simply to build up an appetite for the pre-arranged seven course tasting menu cooked in our own kitchen by a chef who has worked in two-starred Michelin establishments, that had been arranged for us each evening.

One of the activities was a foraging expedition across Dartmoor. This was led by Emma Cunis, who trades under the name of Dartmoor’s Daughter. A former business woman who gave up the high life to dedicate herself to the lower life of foraging and organising tours of Dartmoor. For three hours she led us through horizontal rain and wind to the top of Dartmoor and down again via country tracks pointing out various edible plants which, frankly, to me all tasted a bit like wet grass, collecting samples en route that we would be using in our evening dinner! Oh and we were also meant to be ‘communing’ with nature. This part of Dartmoor is beautiful, if you can see it. Best to forage when the weather is clement, however.

Foraging on Dartmoor

Shattered and soaked, we returned to a rather skeptical chef who took a look at our foraged goodies and decided they did not fit into his planned seven course gourmet offerings and probably broke every health and safety rule he’d ever come across in his lustrous career.

The only thing to do before dinner then was to retreat to the house’s spa – a heated indoor pool and sauna - to warm our wind and rain battered bodies.

It is just one of the luxuries Puggiestone House, near Chaford, offers. The house is surrounded by beautifully manicured gardens that sweep down to a river which runs through the grounds. Our bedroom, the house’s master, was the size of a London apartment, with walk-in wardrobes big enough to accommodate the outfits from a whole series of Strictly.

They charge from around £4,200 in low season to £8,300 a week in high season. But it has seven double luxury bedrooms so you and a group of friends could split the cost, which works out at just over a grand per couple – cheaper than many less luxurious villas in Europe in high season. The bespoke extras – chef, excursions etc – are extra, of course.

Puggiestone House

There are plenty of walks from the house and half a mile up the road is Gidleigh Park hotel, with its two Michelin starred restaurant, should you tire of the home-cooked fare, which would be hard to do, I must say. The chef from catering company Dine Indulge arrived alone each morning and spent the day preparing, cooking and dishing up our gourmet offering each night, as good a food offering as I’ve tasted.

Day two we ventured out again care of Visit Devon. This time it was to Parke, a National Trust property in Bovey Tracey with 250 acres of woodland, orchards with working apple presses and Dartmoor ponies. Highlight here was Nick Smith’s Home Farm café, only four years old and already an award-winner, serving sumptuous and well portioned food, mostly locally sourced, at less than a G&T in some fancy hipster London joints.

Apple Pressing in Parke, Bovey Tracy, Devon

Back again to our country pile for another swim and sauna and taste pallet tickling meal.

I guess this is the way the other half live, with their manor houses and Mayfair apartments. And Oliver’s Travels can offer us mere mortals the chance of sampling that life for a short time at affordable prices. I can see this concierge villa/chateaux/country house service catching on. I will certainly be back for more.

Oliver’s Travels offers a range of apartments and villas across Europe and the Caribbean. Puggiestone House starts at £4,293 per week.

www.oliverstravels.com or 0203 637 0999.

parke@nationaltrust.org.uk or 01626 834748