Starting Up with Becky Simpson @ Secret Cottage

In August I started a new business – a day tour of Cotswold villages that includes visiting my own home for morning coffee, a buffet lunch and a traditional cream tea.

What gave me the idea for the tour was that every tourist yearned to see inside our Cotswold cottages to see how the English conduct their daily lives. Suddenly I thought....“I live in a pretty thatched cottage and I’d love to show people what I experience every day”.

So now I drive a minibus of our guests to outstanding hidden villages that are inaccessible by public transport.

The unspoilt villages that I’ve carefully selected are made up of thatched cottages, clipped lawns and dusty lanes, which perfectly illustrate what life was like in the 16th century. Having lived in the area for 25 years, my local knowledge is suddenly invaluable!

Food also plays a big part in the tour. It breaks the day up nicely, guests quite quickly realise that they are not going to go hungry and it means I can utilise all sorts of fabulous local producers and foodies, from butchers and bakers to coffee bean and cake makers.

I serve Colombian coffee with pastries made that morning by La Tradition, a local French bakery in Chipping Campden. The buffet lunch is like a picnic, with a locally made pork pie from Simple Suppers in Todenham. The scones for the traditional cream tea are baked in my Aga, while the hand-made fresh cakes are supplied by Cacao Bean in Moreton in Marsh.

And while our visitors are usually overwhelmed by the experience of being invited into a private home, with many of them describing it as fairyland, it was a frustrating six months setting up the business before we received our first booking, very time consuming and a lot harder than I ever imagined.

Licensing the minibus, taking a special driving test, passing a medical, qualifying for a five-star hygiene certificate, insurances, building the website, getting registered with tourist information, banking, accountants, paypal.

What an experience it’s been, working 100 hours a week for six months without any money coming in!

When I started taking bookings in August I was expecting a high proportion of foreign tourists, but to my complete surprise half the visitors have been from the UK.

However it’s all paying off now, and word spreads quickly when your reputation for quality food is recognised.

What was a blessing in disguise was Indian celebrity chef Saransh Goila hearing about the cream tea at Secret Cottage, so when visiting the Cotswolds he filmed a whole episode for a television series which was organised by Visit Britain, Virgin Atlantic and Cotswold Tourism.

This filming was a complete stroke of luck and has launched my small business in a very spectacular way, with bookings made for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. What a great way to see the new year in.

cotswoldtourismtours.co.uk/indian-chef-saransh-goila-takes-cotswold-tour/

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