I really am asking for a friend. She’s an Anglophile or more accurately a royal watcher, and has booked for the royal enclosure at Ascot this year (by paying someone buckets of money), if not cancelled or if travel from U.S. is not curtailed. The hotels are not taking bookings as they, too, are waiting to see if the thing comes off, so she is dreading the booking scramble, and would be truly despondent if she gets to attend the races but is stuck in the equivalent of a Motel 6 across from the runway at Heathrow.
I can personally attest she is a superb and generous guest, the royalty obsession being the only peculiarity I’ve noticed. Anyone aware of an STR within a reasonable distance?
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I will ask a very good friend - we went to school together - who was once a total Ascot fan, but is no more. She says it’s become too vulgar in the last decade! In fact, she might be your friend’s next best thing to Royalty… She’s a cracking good laugh, and a total pisshead!
Her daughter is a doctor who has been working on the Covid wards, so she can also ask her for wisdom about your friend’s intentions.
She doesn’t do STR, only LTR in several properties scattered across their farm, a Tudor farmhouse for real. The stairs are so steep, I can barely climb them these days. However, they have loads of ensuite bedrooms, and possibly an LTR vacant. One is a converted Oast House opposite the farm house, with part of the building resting on an old threshing stone, or some such.
I doubt very much if the major members of The Firm will attend this year, always supposing it goes ahead. Minor Royals just might, or even Andrew in his Epstein induced disgrace.
Boris has just announced this afternoon that a decision on foreign holidays for Brits has been postponed until mid June, until there is more clarity on “the Data” from certain countries. That coincides with the Ascot dates, so the Brits seem to being let down gently.
I honestly have to say that I think Ascot will be cancelled again this year, vaccinations or not. The scientists think we’ll head for another wave, once the pubs open. If it is cancelled, I hope your eccentric friend gets a refund.
Thanks much, Joan, and I am always PM-able. My friend is in somewhat of a quandary about whether to banish Harry and Meghan from the display cabinet, but I pointed out her Edward VIII coronation mug (which I actually spotted and grabbed for her from a local retirement home thrift shop), and opined that Harry should suffer no worse a fate than Edward.
I would suggest then that she books somewhere with a flexible cancellation policy on an STR site @dpfromva . There are some lovely villages around Ascot.
As @Joan says there is no certainty at this stage that it will go ahead. Having said that - in Bristol we have major festivals that are booking for the summer so big ticket events are going ahead.
If she needs to cancel though, I am not sure event cancellation will be covered by her travel insurance, so that would be a risk.
https://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/places-to-visit/ascot-p281491