Departures: Cottage industry

NORFOLK-BASED English Country Cottages offers self-catering packages to New England. New England Country Homes (0328 856666) has properties in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 'We have produced a portfolio of self-catering holiday homes of comparable (to English Country Cottages') calibre, individuality and elegance with a distinctly New England flavour,' says the marketing director, Tim Fullam.

A white clapboard cottage with exposed timbers, set in a three- quarter-acre garden, in West Brookfield in Vermont costs pounds 828 per person (based on two sharing) for two weeks during mid- season, including return air travel with Virgin, car hire, an overnight hotel and insurance.