Farm life is calling…

TikTok is inundated with farm getaways, and the new luxury is reinventing the ‘simple life’.

There comes a point in winter when we are all trying to get cosy, and the city just doesn’t fit the bill. The idea of spending a weekend somewhere with a wood-burning stove feels like an essential minor medical intervention. Give us a muddy path, a farm shop, and absolutely nothing in the diary, and we are officially healed.

The countryside escape has become a particularly appealing fantasy for people who spend most of their lives surrounded by noise, notifications, and a rigid schedule. Airbnb's latest UK data found that bookings for farm stays were up 14% this summer compared with the previous year, while bookings among Gen Z travellers rose 41%. The appeal seems to be a need for fresh air, open space, slower mornings, and a temporary escape from the speed of everyday life.

It is telling that this is happening alongside the country-house reinvention of luxury. Soho Farmhouse has become a particular kind of rural fantasy framed by muddy wellies, bicycles, fireplaces, swimming, long lunches, and the reassuring knowledge that you can return to London whenever you fancy. Now other private members' clubs are following the same route. Knight Frank's latest research describes a growing movement of clubs away from cities and towards countryside locations, with nature and wellbeing becoming central to the new rural luxury offer. Demand for homes within a 15-minute drive of Soho Farmhouse, it reports, is more than double that of surrounding areas.

There is something quite funny about the modern version of “escaping to the country”. We don't necessarily want the work of country life; we want its aesthetics. We want to collect eggs, but perhaps not at 6 am. We want to wake up to sheep, make soup and read a book by a fire, before getting back in the car and returning to our central heating. The fantasy is about getting a little distance from modern life.

That makes sense as to why winter might be when that fantasy makes the most sense. Research into nature and wellbeing has consistently linked time spent in natural environments with improvements in mood and reductions in stress, while the simple act of getting away from familiar routines can create psychological space. But perhaps we don't need another study to explain why a dark January afternoon makes a countryside cottage look particularly seductive. When daylight disappears at four, there is something comforting about a life organised around the weather.

Government data published this month found that 63% of people aged 16 and over in England had taken a holiday in England in the previous year, with 28% staying in the countryside or a village. Meanwhile, the number of nights spent in UK short-term lets rose 11.5% in 2025, with domestic visitors accounting for 67.2% of guest nights.

Perhaps what we're really buying when we book the farmhouse is not simplicity, exactly, but a break from complexity. Just a walk, something warm to eat, and a few hours in which nothing particularly needs to happen. The irony is that the simple life has become quite a luxury. We drive there, pay for it, photograph it, post it, and eventually drive home. Sometimes the appeal of the farm is simply knowing that, for 48 hours, nobody needs anything from you.