Thanks Chris. I'll report on how things go with the cottages after the trip. Like I said in a comment above we did enjoy the B&Bs and you got the personal touch of meeting the hosts and they were all very helpful with suggestions of what to see and do. I get the impression the cottage owners are less hands on and some are managed by agencies.

It's worked out not to be that bad cost wise, if you have someone to share the car rental and lodging with it's really quite reasonable. And my argument to hubby was our kids are all grown and we have limited window of opportunity to do things like this while we still have our health and can enjoy travel (I am well aware of the health issues after working in health care for 31 years).