Stretton

Stretton has no large hotels of its own, being a small Rutland village, so most visitors treat it as a quiet base and look to nearby Oakham, the villages around Rutland Water, or historic Stamford for a wider choice of places to stay. Oakham, Rutland's county town, has a handful of traditional coaching inns and small hotels within a few minutes' drive, useful for anyone wanting shops and a railway station close by. Around Rutland Water itself, several villages have country pubs offering rooms, along with farmhouse bed and breakfasts set among working farmland, well suited to walkers and cyclists using the reservoir's circular trail.

For something with more choice, Stamford, just over the Lincolnshire border, is a well-preserved Georgian stone town with a good selection of townhouse hotels and coaching inns, many in listed buildings, plus independent restaurants and shops within walking distance. It also has a mainline railway station. Self-catering cottages are common throughout the villages surrounding Stretton, ranging from simple stone cottages to larger farmhouses, and tend to suit families or groups visiting for walking, cycling or exploring Rutland Water over several days. Whichever base is chosen, distances are short: Stretton, Oakham, Rutland Water and Stamford are all within about a fifteen-minute drive of one another, so accommodation choice can be driven by budget and style rather than location.

Stretton itself is a place to unwind rather than sightsee, but the surrounding area packs in more than its size suggests.

• Rutland Water — a vast man-made reservoir with a 17-mile circular cycle and walking trail, sailing, fishing and one of the country's best-known ospreys reintroduction projects at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve.
• Normanton Church — the half-submerged former church on the edge of Rutland Water, now a small museum, and one of the most photographed buildings in the East Midlands.
• Oakham Castle — a rare surviving twelfth-century great hall in the county town, famous for its collection of ceremonial horseshoes presented by visiting peers of the realm.
• Rutland County Museum — housed in an eighteenth-century cavalry riding school in Oakham, covering local history, agriculture and rural life.
• Barnsdale Gardens — the former garden of BBC Gardeners' World presenter Geoff Hamilton, near Rutland Water, with more than three dozen individually designed garden areas.
• Stamford — a well-preserved Georgian stone town over the border in Lincolnshire, often used as a filming location for period drama, with independent shops and Burghley House on its outskirts.

Stretton's own dining options are limited, reflecting its size, though the village has long been associated with the Ram Jam Inn, a historic coaching inn on the former Great North Road just outside the village that was reputedly used by Dick Turpin and later gave its name to 1960s band Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band; the pub closed in 2013. For a meal out today, Oakham and Stamford offer a proper range of pubs, cafes and restaurants, and the villages around Rutland Water include several well-regarded country inns.

Rutland's gentle countryside around Stretton is well suited to a low-key camping trip, though it is worth being clear from the outset that wild camping without the landowner's permission is illegal in England, unlike in parts of Scotland, so a proper campsite or a farmer's explicit agreement is needed. The terrain here is rolling arable and pasture land rather than dramatic hills, with Rutland Water providing the main scenic draw nearby, so campsites in the area tend to be small, family-run sites rather than large holiday parks, often with easy access to the reservoir's walking and cycling trails.

The best camping season runs from late spring to early autumn, when the ground is drier and the long summer evenings suit an after-dinner walk or cycle around Rutland Water. Midsummer weekends can get busy at sites closest to the reservoir and during Rutland's county show and local events, so booking ahead in July and August is sensible. Spring brings newly arrived ospreys to the nature reserve and fresh green farmland, while a settled spell in early autumn can be a quieter, cooler alternative with the harvest in and the crowds thinned out.

For those who prefer a roof over their heads without giving up the outdoor feel, glamping has taken hold across Rutland in recent years, with shepherd's huts, safari tents and small wooden pods appearing on farms and smallholdings around Rutland Water and the villages nearer Oakham and Stamford. These sites typically offer a step up in comfort, with proper beds, log burners or heating, and sometimes private hot tubs, while keeping guests close to the reservoir, local pubs and Rutland's quiet lanes. As with traditional camping, always book a recognised site or confirm permission directly with the landowner rather than pitching informally.