Regular readers will know that The Sunday Times likes a bit of five-star. Mud
wraps, we enjoy. Hand-dived scallops, we endorse. But romance is our
weakness, and no amount of Molton Brown or Moët can beat the simple allure
of a wild, abandoned shack.
Last autumn, I stayed at Sheneval, a boggy bothy at the heart of the Highland
wilds: stags bellowed from the slopes, ghosts rattled around the rickety
rafters, walkers shared single malts round a dung-fuelled fire. Draughty and
dank, creaky and cold, it made my inner Rob Roy weep with glee.
So, from Lundy to Lapland, from the Highlands to the Hindu Kush, here are the
beach huts, bothies, cottages and cabins that will make your wild heart
sing.
Unless stated, prices are per person, based on two sharing. Flights, where
included, are from London. Contact the operator for regional departure
options
KORNATI COTTAGES, Croatia
Legend says that when God was making the earth, he tossed a handful of soil
over his shoulder into the Adriatic – and where it fell, so rose the Kornati
islands. George Bernard Shaw said that God created them “out of tears, stars
and breath”. A colleague stayed here a week, and put his clothes on only to
meet the Tuesday supply boat and to row to a neighbouring island cafe. You
get the idea. Largely uninhabited, the 150-odd islands sprinkled between
Zadar and Sibenik are a tiny turquoise slice of holiday heaven. Hotel heaven
they are not, however, as there aren’t any. What there is, though – one,
two- and three-bedroom, gas- or solar-powered fishermen’s cottages, if not
on their own island, then on their own private bay – is a Crusoe dream, with
rowing boats (£107 per week) and fishing rods (£36 per week) the only
distraction from your reading.
Croatia for Travellers (020 7226 4460, www.croatiafortravellers.co.uk
) has seven nights, self-catering, in a one-bedroom cottage from £442,
including flights with Croatia Airlines to Split and transfers.
OLD SCHOOL, Lundy
You could kip on Lundy in a leaky tent with a Force 8 gale wrestling your
flysheet into the Atlantic and struggle to wipe the wonder from your smile –
trust me, I’ve done it. Upgrade to any one of the island’s 23 Landmark Trust
properties, and it’ll be a mournful 10-mile crossing back to North Devon at
the end of your stay. Particularly if you go for the lighthouse-keeper’s
cottage, the electricity-free lookout house or, my favourite, the old
school.
In fact, it’s no more than a one-bedroom corrugated-iron shack, with a
floorplan so snug you can pretty much lie on the sofa and cook your
breakfast at the same time. The Blue Bung, as locals call it (as in blue
bungalow), is far from fancy, but what it lacks in luxe, it more than makes
up for in snug, weather-beaten cosiness, blinking out from its hillside
perch across the windswept Bristol Channel. A solitary pub is perched just
up the hill, seals sing from the bays and there’s a wonderful eight-mile
walk around the island’s cliffs; but curling up in the old school will be
action enough for most. It sleeps two, with prices starting at £118 for a
two-night minimum stay; return ferry crossings from Bideford or Ilfracombe
cost £52. Call 01271 863636 or visit www.lundyisland.co.uk
.
SONG-KUL YURTS, Kyrgyzstan
From Pembrokeshire to the Peloponnese, yurts are popping up across the
European holiday map like little, wicker-framed, pointy tent things. Which
is all very well, but a lot of them lack something of the true Central Asian
experience. So, for the real deal – yak hair in your butter tea, puppies
chewing at your laces, grannies cackling in the corner – head to the shore
of Song-Kul lake, in central Kyrgyzstan. Five hundred miles from the nearest
town, reached by 90 minutes of off-road driving across river beds and
landslides, the yurts here – set up only for three months in summer – are
the real thing. So is the experience: hunting for your supper by day and
sleeping with your host family by night, with all the vodka and fermented
mare’s milk your inner Khan can handle.
With Dragoman Overland (01728 861133, www.dragoman.com
), a 15-night Mountain Kingdoms of Kyrgyzstan overland trip, starting in
Tashkent and ending in Bishkek, with three nights in a yurt at Song-Kul,
costs £833, including all food when camping (55% of the time), but not when
in hotels. Flights with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul start at £550.
SHENEVAL BOTHY, Highlands
Let’s cut to the chase: power-shower territory this is not. In fact, it’s not
even shower territory, unless you count the river out back. No beds, either,
come to think of it. With wooden platforms for your sleeping bag, a
bring-your-own-coal fireplace for comfort and a two-hour, river-riven walk
from the nearest road, this ancient drover’s cottage couldn’t be less
luxurious if they made you bed down with snoring strangers. Which, such is
Sheneval’s enduring popularity, you normally have to do.
But hoots, man, what wild, abandoned magic. Hidden away at the foot of An
Teallach (you’ll find it on OS Landranger 19), staring in awestruck wonder
at the brooding Beinn Dearg Mor, with six Munros circling overhead, Sheneval
is a Highland hideaway worthy of the name. And it’s all free, apart from the
hangover.
VALGEIRSSTADIR, Iceland
A converted farmhouse wedged between summit and sea at the northwestern tip of
Iceland, Valgeirsstadir is one of 30 remote mountain huts owned by the
Icelandic Touring Association (ITA). And it’s ridiculously remote: fewer
than 10,000 people live in this 3,700-square-mile part of the West Fjords,
where killer whales trawl the coastline, arctic foxes patrol the plateaus
and seal colonies shelter below 400ft cliffs.
If ITA huts are not what you’d call overly encumbered with luxuries – there’s
always a stove, but you have to bring food and a sleeping bag –
Valgeirsstadir, which sleeps 12, does have electricity, with a crown of
mighty peaks at its back and a black-sand beach at its front to help take
your mind off the lack of a spa bath. It’s £24 per night through the ITA (00
354 568 2533, www.fi.is ), with discounts for
members. Icelandair (0870 787 4020, www.icelandair.co.uk
) has return flights to Isafjordur via Reykjavik from £242; car hire starts
at £45 per day.
FANNARAKHYTTA, Norway
Picture the Scottish Highlands at their most rugged and remote, halve the
walkers, double the height of the hills, throw in the odd wolverine, lynx
and reindeer, and what you’ve got is Jotunheimen National Park – 450 square
miles of hiking Valhalla in southern Norway. As well as lakes and glaciers,
the Home of the Giants has more than 150 peaks above 6,500ft, including
northern Europe’s highest, Mt Galdhoppigen (8,100ft); but best of all are
the 30-odd mountain refuges (with food store and stove), which allow you to
tackle the most savage of wildernesses carrying little more than sleeping
bag, map and compass.
Best hut in the park? That’s hard to say. From cosy six-bedroom cabins to
bustling, staffed 40-bunk huts with late-night rambler’s chat on tap, most
have huge charm – but for location alone, Fannarakhytta takes some beating.
This former weather station stands right on the edge of the Fannarak
glacier, at a height of 6,775ft.
The price is £25 a night, with the Norwegian Trekking Association (00 47 22
822822, www.turistforeningen.no
), which offers discounts for members; meals cost about £15. DFDS Seaways
(0871 522 9955, www.dfds.co.uk ) has return
overnight Newcastle-Bergen crossings in summer from £596 for a car and
passengers, including ensuite cabin.
VAKKARAJARVI, Sweden
It’s not every mountain hut that comes with its own log-cabin kennels, but
then not every mountain hut sits 100 miles inside the Arctic Circle,
frequently up to its eaves in Lapland snow, and, in winter, accessible only
by snowmobile or skis, or with the help of a team of huskies. Vakkarajarvi
cabin is fabulously no-frills – toilets are outside, water is retrieved from
the lake out front once you’ve drilled through the ice, and, though there is
a private room, you’re mostly looking at bunks and snoring Swedes – and
cockle-warmingly cosy, with a wood-burning stove in the lounge and even a
sauna.
Original Travel (020 7978 7333, www.originaltravel.co.uk
) can tailor-make husky-sledding trips, staying at Vakkarajarvi and similar
mountain cabins, with dog teams led and looked after by you. A four-night
package would cost £1,150, with one night, B&B, in a five-star
hotel in Stockholm, a night, B&B, in the Ice Hotel, in Jukkasjarvi, a
three-day dog-sledding safari (two nights, full-board), transfers and
flights to Stockholm and Kiruna with SAS.
SNOW LEOPARD LODGE, Pakistan
Eight thousand feet above sea level, two hours by foot from the nearest 4WD
track, with nothing but snow leopards and ibex for company, and the
snow-crowned Afghan border filling your bedroom view – Snow Leopard Lodge
isn’t so much off the beaten track as up the Khyber, down slippery scree and
into the heart of the Hindu Kush.
Owned by the travel writer, latterday Marco Polo and adventure-travel operator
Jonny Bealby, this is extreme shacking at its most ruggedly romantic:
charpoy beds are usually hauled out under the stars at night, meals are
cooked by the Kalash couple who live just down the hill, while walks to the
back of the shack yield views of Tirich Mir (25,230ft), the highest summit
in the Hindu Kush.
Snow Leopard Lodge can be rented privately (£60pp per night, full-board) or
used for group tours such as the Hindu Kush Spring Festival Tour (May 8-18)
offered by Wild Frontiers (020 7736 3968, www.wildfrontiers.co.uk
). The 10-night trip costs £1,785, full-board, including transfers and
flights with British Airways to Islamabad.
WOLWEDANS PRIVATE CAMP, Namibia
There’s nothing new about a honeymoon suite hidden away from the main-lodge
hoi polloi, but sticking it nearly a mile into the Namib desert, with only
hyenas, ostriches and the odd passing oryx for company, is taking the
privacy thing to spectacular extremes.
As shacks go, mind, this two-bedroom lodging errs dangerously on the luxurious
side: they call it a camp, but there’s not a carry mat for several hundred
miles, just a wood-frame suite with canvas flaps that open on three sides to
let the desert breezes waft you to sleep. With vast white linens covering
the beds, ensuite bathrooms, and scaly-feathered finches nesting in the
wood-beam roof, the private camp is the perfect blend of sumptuousness and
safari. Sit on the veranda at sunset, the dunes burning red against the last
of the rays, and it’s only the clink of ice in your G&T that
reminds you you’re not the last person on earth.
Expert Africa (020 8232 9777, www.expertafrica.com
) has nine nights in Namibia, with two nights at Wolwedans private camp, two
more in Damaraland and three at Etosha, from £3,232, full-board with drinks,
including all air transfers, game-viewing activities and flights with Air
Namibia to Windhoek.
BUSH CAMP CABINS, Australia
Perched high above Faraway Bay at the northwestern tip of Australia,
accessible only by sea or air, Bush Camp’s eight timber and corrugated-iron
cabins look like something Ned Kelly might have called home if he’d shacked
up with an interior designer.
Nothing too fancy, mind: toilets are communal and housed over at the main
lodge, while the cabins themselves are mostly taken up by the bed. The views
from your cabin’s veranda, however – out over the Timor Sea, with just the
odd sea eagle and saltwater croc to disturb the peace – are everything.
For all Bush Camp’s isolation, the list of activities is impressive: with 140
species of birds, a snorkel tick list including turtles and whales, dugongs
and dolphins, some of the best fishing on the planet and Aboriginal rock
art, as well as the 300ft King George waterfalls, a boat ride away, there’s
plenty to tempt you away from the plunge pool and hammock back at the lodge.
Audley (01993 838800, www.audleytravel.com
) has a 14-night trip, taking in Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef and the
northwest, from £3,600, B&B, including four nights, full-board, at
Bush Camp, car hire and flights with Qantas via Singapore.
SEA PUSS 2, Jamaica
Bothies can be luxurious. Created 17 years ago by the set designer Sally
Henzell, and run by her son today, Jake’s is a determinedly dramatic
collection of stage-set-fabulous cottages, dotted around Treasure Beach, on
Jamaica’s unspoilt south coast. Initially a backpacker hang-out, it’s now
owned by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. The guestbook may
read like a Who’s Who of pop and fashion – Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Robbie
Williams and Joni Mitchell among others – but the spirit, and the prices,
still have something of the traveller’s hostel.
With 38 cottages to choose from, including Moroccan-style villas that are more
like pashas’ palaces than Caribbean beach huts, choosing your chic shack is
tricky at Jake’s. However, for the sheer “I can’t believe you can fish from
the veranda” thrill of having a hut lapped by the waves themselves, the
three Sea Puss cottages (with alfresco showers) are the ones to go for. Sea
Puss 2, on the east of the bay, offers the best backdrop for your sunset
piña colada – and the ultimate spa room for the in-house masseuse.
The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646, www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk
) has seven nights in Sea Puss 2 from £1,385, room-only, including transfers
and flights with Virgin Atlantic to Montego Bay.
SINDABEZI, Zambia
Just upriver from Victoria Falls, with five open-sided thatched cottages
marooned on a tiny island in the middle of the Zambezi, Sindabezi camp is
not for the fainthearted. Even the strong-hearted might want to pack some
Valium.
It’s not the lack of comfort you need fret about: admittedly, there’s no
electricity, but that just makes for the sort of hurricane-lamp-lit dinners
under the stars that Karen Blixen would have killed for. No, it’s the
wildlife, specifically the hippos, which snort, scrap and wallow just yards
from your bed as you try to sleep at night. Let’s just say that while it
doesn’t do much for your sleep patterns, it doesn’t half make your soul
sing.
Sindabezi is 20 minutes by canoe from its sister lodge, Tongabezi, and just
arriving is adventure enough, often turning up hippos, crocs, elephants and
a world of birds. Once you’re on the island, daytime activities include
safaris by foot and canoe, fishing and boat trips along the Zambezi to
Livingstone Island, perched at the top of Victoria Falls.
Western & Oriental Travel (0845 277 3355, www.westernoriental.com
) has five nights at Sindabezi for £1,780, full-board, including most
activities, transfers and flights with BA to Livingstone via Johannesburg.
ANDEAN COTTAGE, Peru
More than 12,500ft above sea level, surrounded by Lake Titicaca, in the
Altiplano of Peru, Suasi Island hotel doesn’t make much noise about being on
what must be the highest island in the world, but then shouting’s not really
its style. The country’s only entirely solar-powered hotel, Suasi Island is
all about the peace: so remote, it is reached only after a 3½hour crossing
from Puno town (or a bone-rearranging drive around the lake’s northern
shores), this is a seriously mind-clearing refuge. Especially if you book
yourself the hotel’s Andean Cottage, a two-bedroom stone and adobe lakeside
shack with mighty views across the lake. I say shack, but this is no
Scottish bothy: instead, it has its own pier, a butler, a wood-burning stove
and enough colonial touches to thrill a conquistador.
As for ways to fill your day when the quiet begins to echo through your head,
just make sure you take some decent binoculars and boots, as the island – a
100-acre eco-reserve – is crawling with wildlife, including llamas, alpacas
and the endangered vicuna, which looks like a small, slightly disappointed
camel that has lost its hump.
Steppes Travel (01285 880980, www.steppestravel.co.uk
) has 10 days in Peru from £2,170, B&B, including three nights,
full-board, in the Andean Cottage, transfers and flights with Lan Airlines
via Madrid to Lima and Juliaca.
