We were born in the UK but have lived in Australia for 30 years now. Love coming back to the UK and exploring parts we never got to or spent time in. We house sat for two dogs in Marlow on the River Thames in May 2022. A beautiful town with lots of pubs, old churches and close to the Chiltern Hills.
We enjoyed our long walks along the tow paths seeing the locks and rowers practicing for the Henley Regatta, popping in to visit old Abbeys, quaint old villages crossing the iconic Marlow suspension bridge. Thoroughly recommend this town.
We have a two week sit in Cornwall and two weeks in Devon this coming July which we’re really looking forward to exploring.
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You are mistaken. Someone specifically mentioned the West of Ireland and someone else mentioned Ireland.
Hi @ElEd
Ireland (both ends of the island) have a wonderful advertising campaign “Fill your Heart with Ireland” promoting the whole of Ireland, we’ve seen the ads in Australia, Spain and now on BBC. Loving it and have a sit coming up just west of Belfast.
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Oh lovely, presumably you’ll be fairly close to Lough Neagh and within striking distance of the Mournes and the lovely Causeway Coast. Hope you have a great time!
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Ok @ElEd 
obviously directionally challenged, south west- I’ll post a pic of the area during the sit. We’ve done Port Stewart and the beautiful coastline - just stunning. Only on our third sit but have 6 more lined up in France and the UK before we “tourist” back to the EU and home (Australia) in time for Christmas.
Co. Armagh direction? I’m the next county down just south of the border. If you get a chance to explore the Ring of Gullion near Newry I highly recommend it, Ireland’s best kept secret in terms of stunning landscape.
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As an urbanite, I’ve focused most of my sits in England in and around London including: Clapham North, Willesden, Surbiton, Kingsclere, Seven Oaks, Carshalton, and Hemel Hempstead.
Last year, I started to head out of the urban jungle and did a sit in Stroud (Cotswolds). I extended my stay to include Bristol and Bath.
Despite being a relatively small country, the vast differences throughout make it a great place to sit, explore, and play. If you sit fulltime, since the site is UK focused and the majority of European sits are there, you could do many sits and never get bored.
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Ireland is gorgeous! I live there but didn’t grow up there. I don’t know any place more beautiful though. Still I love to visit other countries and explore.
We completed a sit near Stourbridge in the West Midlands, not knowing very much about the area and we were very taken with it. This is how we also found out about the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, if you are a Peaky Blinders fan you will know this has been used as the set of many of the episodes, particularly the canal wharf scenes! 
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Just seven days and counting until we arrive in Ireland for 16 glorious days of sightseeing this beautiful Country!
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I’m from Ventura CA and LOVED my petsit in Brighton, England with 2 cats. The owners had a large house and even let me bring two friends along. It was a swap so we agreed on the dates to coincide with Brighton’s Annual art festivals.
We also got to go to Bath, which is on my list for a petsit in the future. I came away from my journey excited to go back to visit other parts of Britain.
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I’ve been very fortunate. My first UK sit was in a 19th C grade 2 listed castle in Somerset for 3 weeks - great labs, a pair of mainly outdoor cats, use of the car to explore. Followed by a week in Edinburgh with a flat coat retriever and good access to the local bus.
Then covid - finally got back to the UK in Jan 2022 and did 3 2 month sets of sits.
Hayes, a suburb south of London, then a Tudor house near Tewkesbury, then Sandbach, near Stoke-on-Trent, then Frodsham near Chester (Liverpool too, but it was a short sit so I only went to Chester). Ended that trip with a week in south Yorkshire. I could go on, but for me the opportunity to explore new and ‘unlikely’ to visit places made the sitting enjoyable - and having animals to spend time with.
I’ve had 3 London proper sits and they’ve been great - but so have the chances to explore!
Would love more sits in new places in Scotland.
A challenge is that the UK auto insurance companies seem to have changed their rules. Pre-covid HOs were able to add the sitter to their auto insurance fairly cheaply and that seems to have ended.
tom
Tom
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Oh boy! I am a US citizen but I have spent more time in the UK than any other country since 2018. I absoluvit! All pet sitting btw. I’ve been to Wales, Scotland and England. Many repeats but many, many one time short 4 day and longer 1-2 month sits in anywhere from remote places, fascinating little villages and. Of course the grand cities.
Prior to sitting I would visit as often as I could.
Love love love
Lots of opportunities depending on your personal preferences. Ask lots of questions both in your applications and to yourself as to what you are interested and willing to do.
Pet sitting has helped me learn to be more independent and confident but also have learned to care for animals I had no prior experience with like sheep!
It’s been wonderful.
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Hello,
We’re from the US and began our THS adventures last September in the UK. We have sat in St Neots, just outside of Cambridge, Chandler’s Ford, just outside of Southampton, Uddingston, just outside of Glasgow Scotland, and Osmotherly, close to Northallerton. We really loved all our sits for different reasons. St Neots was a wonderful village near Cambridge. Cambridge has some of the most beautiful architecture around every corner. Osmotherly was a nice sit with easy bus access down to Southampton and up to Winchester. Uddingston was a nice place with easy access to Glasgow and even Edinburgh, both with incredible architecture. Osmotherly was a quaint little village but we didn’t explore much from that sit as it was a short sit and we didn’t have a car.
We’re looking forward to getting back the UK again in the future to explore much more of it!
Have a good time!
Dan and Nan
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I’ve just finished week three out of two months of pet sitting in England and Geneva Switzerland. I spent 10 days in Manchester with two lovely cats. Then, two nights in Baths, not sitting. And now I’ve been just outside the town of Marlow taking care of three cats. I’ll be going to Geneva from here, then back to London for the last two weeks of May.
I can definitely see myself doing 2-3 months housesitting in the UK every year. But…… I have to take some driving lessons first as too often a car is required. Last week I rented a car in Marlow. I had read a lot and most everyone said it was easy to adapt to left side driving (I’m from the US). Well, less than 30 minutes after getting the car, I had a flat. I found myself driving way too far to the left as I felt like I was in the on-coming lane.
I called the rental company and they came out with another car. We had to drive back to the office and I asked if I could drive and the guy said yes. In the couple miles I drove back he had to tell me to go further right at least a half dozen times. It was partly driving on the left, but even more so being on the ‘passenger’ side of the car, with super narrow lanes that just kind of freaked me out. I have driven in many challenging places (Panamá City, Panamá, Milan, Italy, Athens Greece and all over Europe). But in England, I was too afraid. Very demoralizing and I decided to turn the car back in. I had it reserved for a week and they gave me half that back.
But, between the rental fee and the insurance deductible - I was out of pocket $800 and no car. I’ve decided that when I come back next year, I’ll start the trip having several hours of lessons before I just drive off in a rental.
I’m currently sitting in Medmenham, just two miles west of Marlow.
Thank you for sharing.
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