All Lincolnshire Destinations
Browse our complete collection of group cottage locations. Each destination offers unique experiences and carefully selected properties perfect for group holidays.
Discover amazing group cottage destinations across Lincolnshire. From coastal retreats to the rolling Wolds and historic market towns, find your perfect group getaway location.
Browse our complete collection of group cottage locations. Each destination offers unique experiences and carefully selected properties perfect for group holidays.
Lincolnshire is England's second-largest county, so where you base your group changes the whole trip. A house near the coast suits a beach week with children. A farmhouse in the Wolds suits walkers and anyone who wants quiet. A cottage near Lincoln or Stamford puts a cathedral city or a Georgian town within a short drive for a day out.
Pick the area first, then the house.
Our group cottages in Lincolnshire are listed by town above. Each location page shows the large houses in that place first, then others within about 15 miles, with sleeping numbers on every card. This guide explains what each area is like for a group, so you can pick the right base before you compare houses.
Prefer to search by size? Browse all our large holiday houses, or go straight to cottages sleeping 8 or more, 10 or more or 12 or more. Every card shows how many each house sleeps.
The coast runs for around 50 miles from the Humber down to the Wash, with long sandy beaches, dunes and old-fashioned seaside towns. It's the busiest part of the county in summer and the easiest place to keep a mixed-age group happy.
Skegness is the county's biggest resort. Butlin's opened its first holiday camp here in 1936, and the seafront still has the pier, arcades, fairground rides and donkeys on the sand. Natureland Seal Sanctuary rescues seal pups on the North Parade. Just south of town, Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve has dunes, salt marsh and a visitor centre, and makes a good half-day walk away from the crowds.
Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea are quieter than Skegness, with wide beaches, rows of beach huts and a promenade that is flat enough for pushchairs and older relatives. Good for a proper seaside week. There's no fairground, and the beach is just as good. Dogs are welcome on parts of both beaches all year.
Burgh le Marsh is a small market town five miles inland from Skegness, with a five-sailed windmill on the edge of town. It's quieter. The beach is still ten minutes away.
The Lincolnshire Wolds is a National Landscape (the new name for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) of chalk hills, small valleys and quiet lanes. It surprises people who expect the whole county to be flat. The Viking Way long-distance path crosses it, and there are plenty of shorter circular walks from the villages.
Louth is the main town of the Wolds, with independent butchers, bakers and a busy weekly market. The spire of St James' Church rises to around 287 feet and is the tallest medieval parish church spire in England. Louth works well for groups who want walking by day and a choice of pubs within reach in the evening. Hubbard's Hills, a wooded valley on the edge of town, is free to walk and easy with children.
Market Rasen sits on the western edge of the Wolds and is best known for its racecourse, which holds jump meetings through the year. A race day is an easy group outing to plan around, and Lincoln is about half an hour away.
Horncastle is known for its antique shops and centres. It sits where the Wolds meet the fens, so you can walk the hills one day and visit Tattershall Castle, a tall 15th-century brick tower run by the National Trust, the next.
Lincoln is the county's cathedral city. Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world for over 200 years, until its central spire fell in 1548. Lincoln Castle, across the square, holds one of the four surviving 1215 copies of Magna Carta, and its medieval wall walk gives views across the whole city. Steep Hill links the old upper town with the shops below, and it's as steep as it sounds.
The International Bomber Command Centre on the edge of the city tells the story of the RAF crews who flew from the many airfields around Lincolnshire in the Second World War. The county is still often called Bomber County.
Stamford, in the far south of the county, is a stone-built Georgian town that has stood in for period settings in several films and TV dramas. Burghley House, one of England's grandest Elizabethan houses, is on the edge of town, with a deer park that is free to walk in. Stamford is also handy for groups travelling from London or the Midlands, as it sits just off the A1.
Boston is a fenland port town whose church tower, St Botolph's, is known as the Boston Stump and can be seen for miles across the flat fields. You can climb the tower on many days. Boston gave its name to the American city, and the Pilgrim Fathers were held in the town's Guildhall after a failed attempt to leave England in 1607.
Woodhall Spa is a quiet Victorian spa village among pine woods. It has the Kinema in the Woods, a 1920s cinema that still shows films, and the National Golf Centre, home of England Golf, with two highly rated courses. That makes it a popular base for golf weekends. The Petwood Hotel in the village was the officers' mess of 617 Squadron, the Dambusters.
Most large houses here are booked for a special occasion: a big birthday, an anniversary, a hen or stag weekend, or a reunion that brings three generations under one roof. Holiday cottages give you something a hotel can't. You get private space, one kitchen and one long table, so everyone can stay up talking after the children are in bed.
A few places in the county cope well with large numbers. Doddington Hall, an Elizabethan house five miles west of Lincoln, has gardens, a farm shop and a café. Gunby Hall, a National Trust house near Burgh le Marsh, has walled gardens and parkland. Normanby Hall Country Park in the north of the county has open grounds, a farming museum and space for children to run.
For a weekend with friends, look for accommodation with a games room or hot tub, and a pub within walking distance. A short break of two or three nights is often possible outside the summer holidays. Ask the owner before booking.
| Area | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Skegness | Families, multi-generation beach weeks | Busy in school holidays, so book well ahead |
| Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea | Quieter seaside breaks, older guests | Flat promenades and beach huts |
| Louth and the Wolds | Walking groups, countryside weekends | Hilly lanes; bring walking boots |
| Lincoln | City breaks, history, shopping | Easy rail links from Newark and Doncaster |
| Stamford | Celebrations, groups travelling from the south | Just off the A1 |
| Woodhall Spa | Golf weekends, quiet breaks | Close to Tattershall Castle and the Wolds |
A house that sleeps a big group only works if everyone can eat, sit and park together. Before you book, check these on the property page:
For the school summer holidays, Easter and Christmas, book six to twelve months ahead. Houses that sleep 16 or more are few, and they go first.
Yes, and plenty of them: use the pet-friendly filter on the cottage pages and check how many dogs each house allows.
A handful of the larger houses have an indoor pool. Use the pool filter to find them.
July and August are the busiest months on the coast, and the best houses book up months ahead. May, June and September are quieter, often cheaper and usually still warm enough for the beach. In November and December, grey seals give birth on the beach at Donna Nook on the north coast, and the reserve's viewing area is one of the county's most popular winter outings.
The A1 runs down the west side of the county, and the A46, A15 and A158 link it to Lincoln and the coast. Trains run to Lincoln, Grantham, Boston and Skegness, but most villages and coastal houses are best reached by car. When you compare houses, check the drive time to the places your group most wants to see. The county is bigger than it looks on a map, and coast-to-Stamford is a drive of well over an hour.
