Rent a bungalow
A bungalow is a house on one level, with no stair inside. The word settles nothing beyond that. The roof can be flat or pitched, and the walls may be masonry, timber or prefabricated panels. On campsites and in holiday parks the name belongs to the small houses that stay fixed on their plot, often with a roofed veranda in front. What separates them from a mobile home is the foundation: a bungalow stands on the ground, not on a chassis.
What to check before booking
- Is there a bathroom of its own?
- This is the largest difference between two buildings that both go by bungalow. Some have shower and toilet inside, for others you walk to the sanitary building. On Mediterranean sites both versions sit side by side in the offer.
- And the kitchen?
- Anything from a full kitchen unit to a fridge and nothing else occurs. If you want to cook, check whether there is a hob and how much crockery comes with it.
- Is everything really at ground level?
- Single storey does not automatically mean without a threshold. One or two steps often lead up to the veranda, and the shower has a rim. If measurements matter to you, ask for door widths and threshold heights rather than for the word accessible.
- How close together do they stand?
- It depends on the site. Some houses stand alone on their own patch of garden, others are lined up close together, and then the neighbours' veranda is a few paces away. The site map shows this better than any photograph.
- How is it heated and cooled?
- Neither comes as a matter of course with this type. In high summer on the Mediterranean the air conditioning counts, in spring on the coast the heating does.
Who it suits
Made for
Everyone who would rather not climb stairs: older guests and anyone arriving with a lot of luggage or a pushchair. It also suits a first holiday on a campsite, because nothing has to be put up. And longer stays, because a solid house takes more rain than fabric does.
Less so for
Anyone after quiet and an open view should check the site map first; in tightly packed holiday parks one house stands close to the next. Where no bathroom is included, the walk to the sanitary building becomes part of the day. A rental bungalow is also seldom a house with a history, since it is usually built to be practical.
Where it comes from
The word comes from Bengal: bangla means roughly house in the Bengal manner, and it described a low building with a thatched roof and a veranda running round it. Employees of the British East India Company carried it into English, where it is recorded from the 1670s. The first bungalows in Britain were built by the architect John Taylor in 1869 and 1870 at Westgate-on-Sea on the Kent coast. As ordinary housing the form spread later, in Germany above all during the 1960s.
Good to know
Ground level is not step free
A step up to the veranda or a raised shower tray is common. If you depend on it, ask for measurements instead of the catchword.
The walk to the shower
Without a bathroom of its own, the sanitary building becomes part of the daily routine. Check how far it is before booking.
Dogs not in every house
Rental accommodation has rules of its own, and not every bungalow is released for animals. Better to ask beforehand than on arrival.
