Whether you tend to go on holiday within the UK, within Europe or in far-off lands, chances are most of us have been on a self-catering holiday. They’re great fun and usually allow you to save a great deal on accommodation costs, but what about when we want to take our own self-catering on holiday that little bit further?

The obvious answer would be to forage for our own food, find our own ways of cooking it and even build our own shelter. Anyone can go out into the wilderness and do that Bear Grylls-style, but there are also plenty of ways to hire accommodation with the opportunity to find your own food and create your own entertainment.

If you’re really looking to get down to nature and test your stamina then a hunting and/or fishing holiday in Canada may be just the ticket. Places like Eagle Lake, Ontario have a number of private log cabins, big enough to house a family for a fortnight, that allow visitors to kill and cook their own meat and fish. The location is remote enough to mean that you need to ensure your own self-sufficiency, but it’s also only a three-hour drive from Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Extreme self-catering needn’t mean a holiday in isolation, however, as there are many self-sufficient communities that welcome visitors within their walls too. The area where this kind of practice is most popular has to be Israel, where Kibbutz houses are an incredibly popular destination. The ideology and history behind Kibbutzim is lengthy (not to mention interesting) so we won’t go into it here. The main point is that anyone can book a holiday stay in a Kibbutz community and take part in their daily life, helping with the agriculture, preparing food and helping to grow it too. In fact, many young people take their gap year in Kibbutzim to give their university applications leverage, because these places are so far removed from commercialism and dependence on large industries that the experience is particularly eye-opening and rewarding.

‘Eco tours’ and holidays are a relatively new travel phenomenon, whereby groups are getting together and going self-sufficient in all areas of the world as a holiday. Many of these involve working on eco-friendly projects (for example replanting trees that have been culled or protecting endangered wildlife), and some even involve luxury accommodation but without all the home comforts. The Telegraph published a particularly useful article on Eco holidays in the UK, just last year. Take a look and you’ll find a wealth of destinations, from Cornish seaside cottages to guesthouses in the northern Welsh mountains of Gwynedd.

Extreme self-catering holidays won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It all depends on what you find to be relaxing; some people enjoy getting stuck into nature, while others enjoy being pampered, without having to worry about where the next meal might come from. If you fall into the first category then don’t limit your options to within your own country. There are destinations all over the world where you can learn how to live in a completely new environment, and more importantly do so without relying on your tour operator or hotel staff.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.