Creative OATS accomodation options
I'm considering accomodation options near OATS and currently B&B or a lavishly appointed tent are favoured options!
I plan to spend 2-3 nights a week near the school - say Tue, Wed, Thur and commute the other days from home approx 50 miles away (50 mins journey last night when I left Oxford at 6.45pm). Failing that, there's always a night in OATS halls I guess although a previous post didn't exactly rave about those!
The attraction of B&B is that for 2-3 nights a week it would be an easy 'drop in' kind of option but that would cost £50-£75 a week and offers no cooking facilities. I'd thus have to eat in a pub (expensive - or at least it is with a couple of pints!) or go to a chippy (bad for waistline) or eat at OATS - can anyone indicate the cost and quality of OATS evening meals?? Can anyone recommend a good B&B near OATS and indicate prices?
The other option is to buy a large tent with plenty of space to stand up inside, study if the weather's bad etc. This is likely to cost £200+. I have the rest of the equipment to camp apart from an electric hook-up cable (£80) which would provide electric light and power a refrigerated cooler box (to keep the beer chilled!)
Cost is £5 a night approx and you get hot showers, your own place, plenty of fresh air, and the ability to cook your own meals as well as having more cash to eat out if you choose. Given that I could slip into a B&B during the cold months I could still spend from May-Sept this year and April-July next year living in a tent a couple of nights a week.
I have done quite a lot of camping, indeed I love it even in our existing small 2 man tent so a big 5-6 man dome would feel like the Hilton.
I spoke to a local campsite who said they'd had several OATS students on site in a mixture of caravans and tents as well as one instructor - if they're fellow ppruners perhaps they could indicate how they found it?
Initially I thought this a bit off the wall, but I think it could work quite well, heck if there were a few of us doing it, it could be a fun summer (inbetween the huge amounts of work ahead!)
Desk-pilot