Vacation rentals on British royal estates, from Sandringham to a Scottish castle to Transylvania in Romania

Live like a king at Garden House on the Sandringham estate where the late Queen Elizabeth spent Christmas or Captain’s House at her mother’s favourite castle

For something more rural, why not rent a barn conversion on a Welsh farm or a cottage in a hamlet in Transylvania, Romania, where King Charles stayed in May?

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Britain’s King Charles plans to open up some royal properties to the public, but some are already available for rent, including places on royal estates such as the Castle of Mey (above) in the far north of Scotland. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:15pm, 17 Oct 2022

In September, just days before Britain’s Queen Elizabeth died, news broke that one of her houses was available for rent on Airbnb.

Discreetly posted as: Garden House, Sandringham, United Kingdom, and “hosted by Norfolk Hideaways”, the posting created some excitement. But there are several British royal properties that can be leased as holiday lets.

And this is likely to continue because King Charles III seems keen to open up royal properties to the public.

In 2021, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Charles planned to turn the royal residences from “private spaces to public places” when he became king.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth hosts a garden party at Sandringham House in Norfolk in 2002. Photo: Getty Images

Buckingham Palace and Clarence House in London; Windsor Castle; Sandringham, in the east of England; and Balmoral, in Scotland, were said to be earmarked by the monarch. Balmoral may become a public memorial to the late queen, according to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper.