Bridge is addictive, competitive, deadly serious, and great fun. Learn some new skills or combine bridge playing with a walking break or a sightseeing tour to give you a total holiday to remember.

IMPORTANT FACTS

• We’ll arrange partnerships so you don’t have to book with someone. There are usually two leaders on our bridge holidays, so we can cover odd numbers and be flexible.
• Experienced Directors will organise a variety of competitions and usually, optional morning coaching
  sessions (unless otherwise stated).
• Our bridge rooms are comfortable, quiet and as light as possible. All equipment and stationery is supplied.
• Relaxed competition is the hallmark of our bridge, with small prizes offered, for fun.
• Unless otherwise indicated, the timetable usually starts with teaching and coaching sessions at 9.30am and continues to lunch, with a break for coffee. Afternoons are free, unless otherwise stated.
• The main bridge playing competition usually starts around 5.00pm or a little earlier depending on the holiday, with a break for dinner. See Bridge & Sightseeing description for details of later starts.

Play Bridge in a club or social group?
Lots of bridge players have discovered HF Holidays through enjoying a weekend break with their friends and playing partners on a dedicated stay. Contact us if you are an organiser and see what we can do for you;
attractive discounts, tailor made stays at locations and dates to suit you. Take over a Country House, take a part of it. We'll loan you tables and equipment and ensure you have everything you need to enjoy your bridge in whatever way you want. Call our groups department on 0845 470 7557.

Please select a holiday form the left hand menu.

Get Started with Bridge

If you can count to 13, you can play bridge. It’s not quite that simple, but we can promise that we’ll make this
introduction as basic as possible. It’s easy to grasp and you’ll soon be able to play the game. There’ll be teaching sessions in the morning and late afternoon, with gentle, supervised competitions in the evenings to give you a chance to practice new skills.

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Next Step Bridge

So you’ve done a beginner’s course (possibly with us) and you want to go further. We revise basic bidding and delve a little deeper to 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 5pm..

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Bridge Improvers

Improve your duplicate bridge through morning seminars covering a host of topics such as Defensive Planning, Overcalls, Doubles, NT Bidding and Play, or Opening Leads and Signals. Afterwards you can stay in and play a few supervised hands on the seminar theme, or venture out and enjoy the area. Nightly bridge competitions start around 5pm with a break for dinner. Join us at Bourton-on-the-Water in December for that ultimate bridge-playing Christmas break.

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Bridge Players

Moving on from Bridge Improvers, this break will take the seminar topics into more detail, getting you to think hard about your game. Following the learning sessions you can choose to stay and play, or explore the local area. Serious (but still for fun) bridge competitions begin at 5pm with a break for dinner.

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Bridge and Walking

Exercise mind and body on this classic combination from the walking holiday experts. We usually leave around 9.30am, returning to freshen up before bridge starts at 5pm, followed by a break for dinner. There’ll be a choice of harder (7–9 miles) and easier (4–5 miles) walks and, although there are no bridge seminars, our leaders 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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Bridge and Sightseeing

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Tips for Winning Bridge

Two or three days in the company of expert players. They’ll concentrate on passing on 60 of the best tips for use in bidding, declarer play and defence. These are bridge seminars with a difference – our 20 questions quizzes and will reinforce the tips you’ve learned. Numbers are strictly limited on this holiday for tuition purposes.

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Brush up your Acol

Even experienced duplicate players need refreshers at times. The aim of this break is to revise your Basic Acol and Standard English bidding and, at the same time, look at some modern developments. There’ll be a mix of formal revision lessons, optional practice play and competitive duplicate bridge.

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Improve Your Defence

Many contracts succeed only because of poor defensive play. Find the killing defence and you’ll get immense satisfaction. We’ll look closely at defensive planning and partnership cooperation, and consider how to select a good opening lead. We’ll also see how partners can communicate, and what messages are being sent out.

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Better Bidding

Even experienced bridge players can use a little help at times. Find your way into those elusive slams and thin games. Seminars with an expert tutor will pay special attention to the use of various forms of doubles and with overcalls.

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EBU Master Points NEW

A great opportunity for experienced duplicate players to play competitive bridge with like minded people, and clock up recognised Master Points. The serious competitions start at 5pm, with a break for dinner. This leaves you the whole day to explore the local area, or play informally with your fellow guests in our dedicated bridge playing rooms.

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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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