Farm Stay Near Me: Nearest Farms by Drive Time

How do I find a farm stay near me?

Most farm stay websites list hundreds of farm cottages, self catering barns and B&Bs with no idea how far each one is from your front door. This page works the other way round. Find the city you live in, or the one closest to you, in the table below. It shows the closest farm, the runner-up and how many of our 21 farms you can reach in 120 minutes or less. The times are real road routes from the city centre to each farm gate, so add a bit on a Friday afternoon when everyone else is heading for the countryside too.

Click any farm name to read our full guide to staying there, from the animals guests meet to the view from the tent door.

Two hours is the sweet spot.

That's close enough to leave after school pick-up, light the stove and still get the children into bed at a sensible time, but far enough that it feels like a proper holiday. Bristol does best of anywhere, with eight farms inside that window.

Leeds and Sheffield have none that close yet, so we've listed the closest anyway. It's a long drive for a weekend. For a half term week, though, it's well worth it.

Nearest farm stays from 22 UK cities

Times are rounded to the minute from a routing engine on today's roads, and you can tap any column heading to sort.

If you're in Yorkshire or the North West, you'll spot the gap straight away. There's no farm in Yorkshire on the list yet, so your closest choices are the Shropshire hills, North Wales or the Scottish Borders, each a comfortable half-day on the road.

Billingsmoor Farm, DevonMeet the calves, cows, dogs. Sleeps up to 10. Stays from £450.

Check dates

Farm holidays near me in the South West

Six farms across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset make this the best-stocked corner of the country, and plenty of them are close to the coast and local beaches. Warren Farm sits high on the Mendips above Cheddar Gorge, just 33 minutes from Bristol, and guests give it 9.8 out of 10 from 400 reviews. Kids meet the sheep, calves, goats and chickens, there's an indoor play area for wet days and a playground for dry ones.

In Devon, Billingsmoor is an organic dairy farm 28 minutes from Exeter, deep in the rolling mid Devon countryside. On Saturday evenings the pizza oven is fired up for guests, and the biggest lodge sleeps ten, so it's a good pick for two families sharing.

Further west in Cornwall, Gwel Teg by Looe is a family friendly dairy farm with a playground and a private hot tub lodge, about 32 minutes from Plymouth. Treganhoe, out towards Penzance, has en-suite washrooms and home-made meals you can order in, a treat after a day on the local beaches, with the coast a short drive away. Back in South Devon, Fountain Violet sits above Kingswear on the Dart, a quiet beef farm with cows and calves in the fields and lovely views. Its 9.7 guest score comes from 157 reviews. And for the lowest price on this page, East Shilvinghampton outside Weymouth has a canvas lodge for two from £176, with alpacas, goats and ponies over the fence.

• Best for beaches: Treganhoe, Gwel Teg, East Shilvinghampton, Fountain Violet
• Best for Devon: Billingsmoor for dairy cows, Fountain Violet for the Dart
• Best for a group: Billingsmoor, Warren Farm
• Compare them on our Cornwall farm stays, Devon farm stays and Somerset farm stays pages

Farm stays close to London and the South East

Londoners are spoilt, with six farms inside 120 minutes of the capital, and Sunninglye Farm outside Tunbridge Wells is the closest at about 72 minutes. It's a mixed farm with sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys and horses, plus a playground and farm tours that most kids rate as the highlight. Guests score it 9.6 from 435 reviews.

Manor Farm by Alton (81 minutes) has a hot tub lodge and grazing sheep by the water meadows. Layer Marney Tower outside Colchester (87 minutes) adds a Tudor tower to the farm walk, along with a playground and hot tubs. Foxglove Farm, by the village of Inkpen, has bicycle hire and a local pub within walking distance. New Barn Farm in Bedfordshire keeps everything from pigs and ponies to guinea pigs and geese, and Lunsford Farm at Pett is the pick for the Sussex coast.

• Closest to the capital: Sunninglye, Manor Farm, Layer Marney Tower
• Most animals: New Barn, Sunninglye, Foxglove
• Hot tubs: Manor Farm, Layer Marney Tower

Compare them on our farm stays within reach of the capital page, or see the single-county pages for Kent and Sussex.

Farm stays in the Midlands, Herefordshire and Shropshire

Birmingham has three farms within about 70 minutes. Hollings Hill by Malvern is a working dairy farm where every lodge comes with its own private hot tub, from £570. Hidcote Manor Farm outside Chipping Campden is a sheep and horse farm with Cotswold views, right next to the National Trust's Hidcote garden, one of the loveliest gardens in England to wander with a picnic and a good day out for the whole family.

Then there's Moor Farm outside Gloucester. It's a regenerative farm with goats, ponies and a playground, and guests score it 9.8 from 439 reviews. Stays start from £250, which makes it one of the best value family friendly farms on the list.

Upper Shadymoor, out past Shrewsbury, has woodland play, a hot tub you can add and big open views across the Shropshire countryside. See them side by side on Cotswolds farm stays and Shropshire farm stays.

Farm stays in Norfolk and the East

Norwich families can be on a family friendly farmstay in half an hour. College Farm at Beccles has an indoor play area, a hay barn and spring lambs, with a 9.8 guest score from 438 reviews and stays from £230. Heydon Grove is an arable farm growing barley and sugar beet, with friendly donkeys, an outdoor playground and plenty of open countryside for long walks. Both are an easy run to the Norfolk coast.

• College Farm: indoor play, hay barn, from £230, no dogs
• Heydon Grove: donkeys, playground, from £240, dogs welcome
• Layer Marney Tower in Essex: hot tubs, 74 minutes from Cambridge

Both Norfolk farms are on our Norfolk farm stays page.

Farm stays in Wales

Pant y March by Bala is a traditional farmstay on a hill farm with around 300 Welsh Mountain ewes, a sauna and hot tub lodges, set among the hills of Eryri National Park. It's the closest farm to Liverpool at 97 minutes, and the views from the tents are huge.

Down in Ceredigion, Berthlwyd Farm sits 10 minutes from the harbour at Aberaeron, where kids collect eggs, groom the ponies and help at feeding time, then soak in one of the two hot tubs once they're booked. More on our farm stays in Wales page.

Farm stays in the Scottish Borders and the North

Chesters is a private estate outside Jedburgh with just four tents, ancient woodland and deer, and every lodge has a hot tub. It's 70 minutes from Edinburgh, 88 from Newcastle and under two hours from Glasgow, which makes it the only farm on our list that works for a weekend from the North East. Guests rate it 9.6 from 153 reviews, and the private estate, with its ancient woods and open parkland views, feels a world away from the city. Read more on Scotland farm stays.

Which nearby farm suits your family?

Distance matters, but so does what you want from the break. Here's how the farms line up:

• Spring babies: 15 farms have lambs, and at Gwel Teg and Foxglove you'll often see newborns and bottle feeding. Our lambing season guide covers timing.
• A hot tub: eight farms have hot tub lodges, from Berthlwyd in Ceredigion to Manor Farm in Hampshire, plus one as an extra at Upper Shadymoor. They're all on our farm stays with hot tubs page.
• Bringing a pet: 13 of the 21 say yes, while College Farm, Hidcote, Hollings Hill, Layer Marney Tower, Lunsford, Treganhoe, Upper Shadymoor and Berthlwyd can't, so check our pet-friendly farm stays first.
• Young children and wet days: College Farm and Warren Farm both have indoor play areas, and Gwel Teg, Heydon Grove, Layer Marney Tower, Moor Farm and Sunninglye have outdoor play areas. More on farm stays with play areas.
• A tighter budget: East Shilvinghampton from £176, College Farm from £230, Heydon Grove from £240 and Moor Farm from £250.
• A bigger group: Billingsmoor's largest lodge sleeps ten, and Moor Farm, Warren Farm, Hidcote and Lunsford all take groups.
• Animals galore: New Barn, Sunninglye and Foxglove have the longest lists, so see our farm stays with animals for the lot.

What is farm glamping really like?

The canvas lodge

It isn't a farm cottage, and it isn't camping either. Picture a cosy canvas lodge with proper beds, a fully equipped family kitchen and your own private toilet, warmed by a wood-burning stove you'll cook breakfast on. After dark the light comes from oil lamps and candles, because there's no mains electricity and no wifi.

Kids stop asking for screens surprisingly fast once there are eggs to collect, a cosy stove to gather round and a whole farm to explore.

It's still self catering, just closer to nature. Think of it as luxury glamping on a real working farm: the comfort of a holiday cottage, the outdoor life of a campsite and the farmstay experience of feeding the animals every morning. Guests who've tried both often say it beats a luxury cottage, simply because the kids are outside all day.

Three kinds of shower

It's worth checking which one you're booking.

• Farmhouse: a short walk up to the farmhouse buildings.
• Private outdoor: hot water right beside your tent.
• En-suite: inside the lodge itself, which is lovely with little ones on a cold night.

Honesty shops and pizza nights

Most farms have an honesty shop, usually by the farmhouse or the barns, for the basics and local produce, and many fire up a pizza oven so guests can make their own. If you've never cooked on a stove like this, our guide to cooking on a wood-burning stove will save you a smoky first supper. For the bigger picture, see farm glamping or what makes Feather Down farms different. All 21 farms are bookable through Feather Down's farm list.

These are working farms, with real jobs going on every day, so gates, tractors and livestock come with the territory. That's half the fun. A quick read of the Countryside Code with the kids before you go sets the rules nicely, and it's a family friendly read that takes five minutes. Close every gate behind you, keep pets on a lead around livestock and let the children ask the farmer before feeding anything.

How far is worth driving for a farm break?

For a weekend or a three-night midweek break, keep it to 120 minutes or less. You'll lose half a day to the road otherwise, and that's half a day less with the animals. For a full week, though, the picture changes: a Londoner heading to Treganhoe in West Cornwall faces almost 350 minutes in the car, but you'd gladly swap that for seven days of sea air, sandy beaches and Cornish cows!

The right farm isn't always the closest pin on the map. Sometimes it's the second closest one with the hot tub, or the one 40 minutes further on with a playground and a bigger list of animals.

Whichever you pick, pack for the outdoors:

Our full what to take glamping list covers the rest.

When's the best time to go?

Spring

Spring is when farm life is at its busiest, with newborn calves, the first lambs in the fields and long light evenings. It's also when the hedgerows wake up, and an Easter holiday on a farm catches the first warm days of the year.

Summer

Summer holidays bring the warmest nights round the campfire, outdoor meals in the long evening light and days on local beaches, and they book up first, so it's worth looking early if you need a particular week or a farm close to home.

Autumn

Autumn is quieter and good value. October half term on a farm means conker hunts, stove-cooked stews and early dark skies full of stars.

Ready to pick?

Compare every farm's animals, showers and prices on our all farms page, or scroll back up to the cards and check dates at the one closest to you.

Compare the farms

Guest scores and review counts are from Feather Down's own farm pages. "Stays from" is the lowest price in Feather Down's feed for a sample stay; your dates will differ.

On the map

Questions people ask