Fine character Country House accommodation in secluded countryside settings throughout Britain, great food and relaxed, friendly Bridge. You can learn the basics with us, or enjoy a break for more experienced duplicate players with seminars in the morning, leaving you free to do as you like until tournaments start around 4.30pm. We break for an excellent dinner of course!

Other holidays offer escorted sightseeing tours in the daytime instead of the coaching seminars, or a choice of guided walks in some of Britain's premier national parks and other equally beautiful places. Some holidays focus on coaching aspects of your game such as Better Bidding or Brush Up Your Acol. We always start Bridge at 4.30pm or so, whatever your daytime interest.

You don't need to book with a partner - everyone is welcome, and our experienced directors and teachers will sort out partnerships. As we own our Country House accommodation we run other Leisure Activity breaks at the same time so you can bring a friend who does not share your interest in Bridge. Our prices hide nothing and represent remarkable value for money - you'll only need to spend a modest amount on sightseeing if you wish to.

Please select a holiday form the left hand menu.

Get Started with Bridge

If you can count to 13, you can play Bridge. Actually, it's not quite that simple, but we can promise that we will make this introduction as basic as possible and will try to light the fuse that sets so many on their way to a lifetime's enjoyment (for some an obsession!) in this sport of the brain. The basics are indeed easy to grasp and you will soon be able to play the game with friends and enjoy a whole new social scene. Full morning seminars with a nice long rest for coffee, afternoons free to relax and sightsee, plus a further, late afternoon teaching session will help you make progress. Gentle, supervised competitions in the evenings give you a chance to practice new skills.

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Next Step Bridge

You have done a beginners course (possibly with HF Holidays) and you want to go further - we will go over the basic bidding that you have already learnt, delving a little deeper into it with a look at the underlying principles. We will learn how to tackle the competitive auction and try to develop basic card play, for your all round game. Evening competitions start at around 5.00pm.

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Bridge Improvers

An unbeatable mix of Country House comfort and relaxing, friendly duplicate bridge. If you want to improve your game, optional seminars up to a mid-morning coffee break will cover a host of topics such as Defensive Planning, Overcalls, Doubles, NT Bidding and Play, or Opening Leads and Signals. These are pitched flexibly at the appropriate level of knowledge. After coffee you may choose to stay in and play a few supervised hands on the seminar theme, enjoy a second seminar topic depending on the individual leader's approach, or venture out and enjoy the area. The nightly bridge competition starts at around 5.00pm.

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Bridge Players

The same format as for Bridge Improvers but for more advanced players, with seminar topics to suit. We promise to make you think - the rest is up to you.

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Bridge and Walking

This classic combination draws on the unmatchable expertise of our walking holidays. The glow of satisfaction after a day's guided walk will be matched by the anticipation of nightly bridge competitions, and the satisfaction at the end of your stay that you have exercised both mind and body. We usually leave the house at 9.30am, returning with an hour or so to freshen up before bridge starts at 5.00pm. Typically there is a choice of walks, which are either 4 to 5 miles, or 7 to 9 miles long, and always in areas of superb countryside. There are no seminars on this action-packed holiday but we will be happy to discuss any points which arise. You'll need a certain amount of kit for walking, please click here for more details.

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Walking & Bridge in Europe

Relaxed, friendly competition is the essence of our Bridge and Walking holidays. During the day enjoy a choice of walks selected from our Classic Walking programme, and then in the late afternoon and evening compete in a range of informal bridge competitions. There is no requirement to book in pairs as partnerships can be arranged. Please note that these holidays are on a Half Board basis.

*Half Board; Single room supplement £8.50 per night

Flights (provisional):

Transfer from airport: 1hr, supplement £15 single (free if you book your flights with us).

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Bridge and Sightseeing

Miss out on nothing as we marry our expertise in tour planning to your favourite activity (what, bridge isn’t?). From Conwy (Snowdonia), Malhamdale (Yorkshire) and Haytor (Dartmoor) , we show you the best of the area daily leaving at 9.30am to take in the major attractions of each, such as Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, plus some less famous venues, for variety. A return by 4.00pm gives time to refresh before settling down for a variety of friendly competitions from 5.00pm.

Alternatively if you prefer more tricks than trips, we offer a different formula - from Alnmouth (Northumberland), Brecon (Mid Wales) and Freshwater Bay (Isle of Wight) we enjoy full day sightseeing tours as above on three days. On other days, we offer morning seminars exactly as in Bridge Improvers.

We prepare each itinerary carefully and can advise the detail on request three months before departure. On both formulas, for your flexibility we have not included the cost of admissions to places of interest but can advise on charges.

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Tips for Winning Bridge

The best way to improve is to play with good players and learn from the tips they give you. We offer in three days what might take you months or even years to accomplish at home; learning 60 of the best tips experts use in their bidding, declarer play and their defence. Seminars with a difference - learning is all about asking the right questions, so we have a 20-questions quiz and if you know the tip, you'll get the answer right! Numbers are limited on this holiday for tuition purposes.

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Transfer Bids and No Trump

Not everyone likes transfer bids so we look at the pros and cons on this themed break. We will be encouraging you to bid No Trumps to the limit and by the end you'll have gained confidence as well as skill.

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Improve Your Defence

Many contracts succeed only because of poor defensive play. Find the killing defence and you will find immense satisfaction. We will look closely at defensive planning and partnership co-operation, and consider how to select a good opening lead. But then, what do you play in response to partner's opening lead? We'll answer this and tell you when to cover an honour, how to communicate the strength and shape of your hand to partner, when and what to discard and how to pass information on by signalling.

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Better Bidding

Find your way into those elusive slams and thin games. Seminars will pay special attention to the use of various forms of doubles and with overcalls.

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Better Card Play

Designed for duplicate players who wish to learn how to improve their play as both Declarer and Defender in NT and suit contracts whether "on lead" or responding to partner's lead. We look at finessing, hold up and avoidance plays for both Declarer and Defender plus leads, signals and discards as a means of providing your partner with as much information as possible.

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Brush up your Acol - NEW

Due to popular demand we have added an additional ‘Brush up Your Acol’ holiday. This bridge holiday is perfect for people who have played bridge and would like to revise or reinforce the key principles of basic bidding and learn about some modern developments and the Standard English system. Seminars will focus on opening suit and No trumps bids, responses and Rebids. You will also learn to handle those big hands when you open the bidding with a Strong Two.

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