A hosted holiday means you stay in a small house run by people who actually live there — hosts who cook your meals, know the walks and the tide times, and sit down with you of an evening. Your days are your own; your evenings are shared. It sits between two more familiar ideas: renting an empty place, and joining a big escorted tour. If you've been searching for what "hosted" really means, that's the short version. Here's the fuller one.

What does a hosted holiday actually mean?

On a hosted holiday you're a guest in a real home rather than a customer in a hotel or a name on a coach manifest. Someone greets you, feeds you, and points you at the good beach and the quiet path. Meals are usually included — often half board — so you're not hunting for dinner every night in a place you don't know. You come and go as you please during the day, then gather round a table with the hosts and the other guests when you get back. It's independent and sociable at the same time, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.

How is it different from self-catering or a coach tour?

Think of three models.

Self-catering hands you the keys to an empty place. Total freedom, and total responsibility — every meal, every plan, every evening is yours to sort out. Lovely if you want to disappear; a bit flat if you're on your own and were hoping for some company.

A big escorted tour is the opposite: a coach, a flag, a fixed itinerary and a new hotel every couple of nights. You'll never be stuck for something to do, but you're on someone else's timetable from breakfast to bed, moving as one of forty.

Hosted is the relaxed middle. One house, real hosts, and days you shape yourself — walk, surf, read, do nothing — followed by an evening of good food and easy company. No packing and unpacking, no whistle, no empty fridge.

Why does a hosted holiday suit solo travellers so well?

Because it settles the two things that put solo travellers off. You don't eat alone, and you don't have to organise the whole thing yourself — but nobody herds you either. You can spend the entire day in your own company and still have people to talk to at dinner.

More of us are travelling this way. ABTA's Holiday Habits research found around 19% of British holidaymakers took a solo trip in the past year — a record, and growing fastest among the under-45s. The ONS reckons about 8.4 million people live alone in the UK as of 2024. Coming on your own is ordinary now, and a hosted house is built for it.

What does a hosted week look like at Casa Agara?

Casa Agara is an 18th-century casona in Fresneda de Cabuérniga, in the green Cabuérniga valley of Cantabria — the Atlantic, forested north of Spain, well away from the Costas. This is Green Spain, inside the Saja-Besaya nature reserve.

Rob and María host, with Chispa the house dog usually somewhere underfoot. Half board is included: breakfast and a home-cooked dinner every day, vegetables from the garden, and — unusually — the house wine, beer and spirits poured all day, on the house. Individuals join a scheduled per-person week and come alone or as a couple; many weeks run with the UK operator Spice Escapes (ATOL 9046, which applies to flight-inclusive packages). A group can take the whole house instead.

Days are mostly the free, restful sort. Walking starts at the door in the Saja-Besaya reserve, with the fringes and viewpoints of the Picos de Europa about an hour away. Wild Atlantic surf beaches are around 40 minutes off, gentle enough for a first lesson at any age. There's riding, cycling, yoga, painting and fishing too, plus Santillana del Mar (about 20 minutes), Gaudí's El Capricho at Comillas, and the Altamira caves — where you see the Neocueva replica, and you must book ahead.

What about the single supplement?

There's no forced single supplement here. As a solo guest you can twin-share — Spice pairs you with a same-sex room-mate at no extra charge, and if no match is found they cover the room supplement themselves — or you can have a room of your own for an optional supplement. Rob and María confirm the exact terms and figures for the week you choose.

How do you get there?

Santander airport is about an hour away, with direct UK flights from Stansted, Manchester and Edinburgh.

If a small house with real hosts and easy evenings sounds more your sort of holiday, tell Rob and María what you're after and they'll help you find the right week.