December was a whirlwind of a month! We had the works finishing up as we entered the month and I ended up travelling the 10 hour journey to Scotland three times! It's fair to say I am only just recovering from such a busy period. I am defiantly making sure that this December is going to be a little less STRESS and a little more REST. However, I do not regret any of it for one second. We managed to do a full renovation of the lodge, giving the lodge a brand new bathroom, full repaint throughout, new beds and mattresses, new carpets and extending the decking out. I then had a 1:1 holiday with a girl friend where we played games, went for walks, took content for my social media and just connected <3 After this, I had 11 family members fly/drive up to the lodge where we all then celebrated Christmas and New Years. We went for daily dips in the freezing loch, went out for a paddle on the kayaks, went on long mountain walks but mostly we filled our bellies with good food and played lots games...oh and we can't forget the two day power cut (thank you Storm Gerrit) and the car crash that saw one of our cars being written off! Oooof. It really was a wild journey.
Since the New Years, we've been getting in bookings every day for this year and I have LOVED reading about all of your holiday plans for 2024. So many of you are hiking Ben Nevis, so many are travelling around the Scottish Highlands and using the lodge as a base. One thing that always surprises me, not many bookings come in a say they're staying at the lodge to relax, play and enjoy the loch and cook good food. It surprises me, because this is my favourite thing to do whilst at the lodge. It makes me wonder if we only really consider the classic all inclusive resorts in the south of Spain/France for when we're wanting to relax on our holidays?
I used to travel the world with my young children, in fact, they had travelled to 40 countries before they reached they age of 5. We travelled anywhere from staying in a shack in Asia to staying in an All-Inclusive resort in Egypt. Then Covid hit and suddenly we transformed all of our travels in to UK travels where we fallen in love with the UK throughout our van travels and often gravitate to our Scottish Highlands self catering lodge! We get to enjoy the comfort of a private space where we can unwind without the hustle and bustle of a hotel. We can create our own schedule, providing a more relaxing and personalised holiday experience. There is SO much to do around the lodge, we have a bunch of Hidden Tips sharing our favourite things to do. However, this isn't the point I want to make, we all know the Scottish Highlands are incredible...right? What I feel you don't know if you've not visited the lodge yet, is how bloody wonderful it is to just relax indoors and around the park that we're situated on. We are just 28 steps away from the loch, where you can swim all year round (if you're brave enough), the summer months it is fairly reasonable and with a wetsuit, is highly enjoyable! Make sure you do a big food shop before you arrive or get it delivered and you can cosy in for your holiday and cook all your favourite, you can play games together and as evening turns, you can select one of our DVD's and cuddle up on our sofa together.
It's like a home away from home, but without all of the appointments, places to be, clubs to attend, jobs to complete etc etc etc. I currently have a guest staying in the lodge throughout the whole of January. She needed a place to escape the hustle and bustle of life. Even telling me it has been a retreat for her and her daughter <3 I promise you, you will not regret booking your stay at the lodge, the only regret you may have, would be not staying long enough...so cheesy, but it's all I can ever think when I visit!
Anyway. That was a whole brain dump. I am glad I have this space to offload, I find it therapeutic and it shows you I am just a real person scraping through the day-to-day life, like the rest of us! I will try and not leave it so long until I do another one of these! Until next time,
Elle xoxo