The cheap way to cottage country

Why burden yourself with the expense of buying and maintaining a cottage when you can lounge on the dock of someone’s nature retreat for next to nothing? We asked Penny Caldwell, editor of Cottage Life, for tips on sweet-talking your friends into inviting you to their cottages. The surefire way, she says, is to offer to do work—cutting firewood, helping build that new deck, cooking a meal or playing bartender. If you want to be invited back, chip in for gas for the car and boat. Entertain yourself, don’t stay too long and, most of all, never complain. “Love everything about the cottage.”