When my parents retired my mother decided she wanted 12 weeks of holiday. In the UK both of my parents had public sector pensions so they had the traditional, lump sum and then annuity, which would give them a monthly payment for the rest of their lives.

To give my mum these 12 weeks of vacation she invested part of it in 6th of a Farmhouse in Brittany in France.  This was an arrangement of friends and friends of friends and they formed a company to get around France's Napoleonic property laws.  The other 6 weeks would come from an investment in something called the Holiday Property Bond (HPB). 

This was over 30 years ago and my Mum told me just last week how people told her that HPB was some sort of “timeshare” and was therefore a scam.  In fact my mum has seen over 30 years of use from the investment and now we use it, as part of the deal is that you can pass the Bond on once to a nominated person. My mum past it onto me once my dad was in the nursing home and she wasn't really able to travel. 

In summary, with HPB is that you are investing into the company and they take that money and invest in their own properties.  When you stay at the property you pay a nominal maintenance fee, which covers the maintenance of the property, cleaning etc. To give you some idea the order of that fee, we recently stayed in Keswick in the Lake District for a week and it cost us £635

We've now stayed at HPB properties in Lanzarote; Majorca; Tuscany; La Gomera; Dordogne; Madeira; Portuguese Algarve; Cornwall; Northumberland, Keswick; Puglia, Italy; Île de France, and The Trossachs, Scotland; which gives you an example of the variety as well as properties in the UK and in Europe. We are off to Turkey this year

What we like about HPB is that there is no researching on the internet.  You turn up and they tell you the best places to drive, the best places to go, where the supermarkets are and the best restaurants. There is also an active (non-official) Facebook group, which is a great community of advice as well as a knowledge base of ideas and advice.  We are told by Julie's children to be spontaneous on holiday, I get that, but do you really want to spend the vacation searching for an AirBnB or place to go or somewhere to eat? Surly a holiday is where you do no thinking? 

If you are interested in joining HPB, I get a bottle of wine or something if I refer you, so please come through me