The weather forecasts are buzzing with news this week of another record-breaking heatwave, with temperatures set to reach a whopping 32 degrees celcius in London and the South East on Wednesday or Thursday. I’m so glad I no longer live in London – the humidity and closeness in the big smoke during hot summers like these make it a pretty unbearable place to live!

With all this lovely hot weather it seems even less appealing to me to spend my hard earned dubloons on a holiday abroad. There are so many beautiful places in England, Scotland and Wales you can drive to and have a wonderful week off, escape from the pressures of work just as you would on the beach in the Costa Del Sol, but without the hole in your bank balance at the end of it. Personally I’m gonna take the Mrs off to a holiday cottage somewhere in Cornwall next month – if the weather remains like this it will be absolute paradise.

But a word of warning if you’re considering a staycation in a holiday home – the last time I stayed at a cottage up in the Lake District a few years back the owners tried to swindle me by blaming me for some quite serious damage to the property which was like that when we got there. I fought my corner of course and didn’t accept any responsibility, but apparently their holiday home insurance policy didn’t cover unnocupied property, and the damage was apparently done while the cottage was left empty for three months previously.   So my advice would be, when you first arrive at a rental cottage, make sure the owner is with you and do a little inventory of the place first, a bit like you would in a new house.  It may seem paranoid, but you never know when someone is trying to pull a holiday cottage insurance swindle on you!  Happy Staycationing!