The long ride, weekends and extended bookings with room to breathe

A Saturday might begin with a late breakfast, a wander through the Italian Gardens at the top of the Long Water and an unhurried hour in the V&A in South Kensington. The afternoon could be as simple as a nap and an old film, the evening a table in Marylebone and a nightcap in the hotel bar. Sunday tends to move more slowly still: newspapers, coffee, perhaps a stroll beside the Serpentine before a late lunch. The pleasure of a longer booking is that nothing has to be crammed in.

Longer bookings are usually planned with a little time apart each day, because good company depends on it. Across a weekend, a companion will typically keep a few hours to herself for sleep, a change of clothes or simply some quiet. The desk agrees this rhythm with you in advance, so both of you know when the day's plans begin and end and nobody is left guessing.

Liana, slim with long chestnut hair, loves French novels, pilates and her garden, and her gentle timing makes a long weekend feel unhurried. Cindy, blonde and blue eyed, sails, practises yoga and carries a camera everywhere, so a weekend with fresh air in it is right up her street. Lucy, slender with dark curls, runs early and loves astronomy, so a clear sky on a trip out of town suits her perfectly.

Patricia paints in watercolour and lingers in bookshops, and Vanessa, with her sandy balayage, likes cycling beside the canal and a relaxed pace of life. All five are among our slim and slender companions.

Not every extended booking falls on a weekend. A guest in town for a week of meetings near Westminster may prefer company on several evenings and one free day in the middle, perhaps a Wednesday among the glasshouses at Kew or on a riverboat down to Greenwich. The desk can write the whole week as one extended booking, quoted in writing, or book each evening separately on the standard ladder, whichever sits better with your diary. Midweek plans like these are often easier to arrange at short notice than weekends.

For anything longer than a night, tell the desk about the dinners, the dress codes and any outing that calls for particular clothes, a day at the races, say, or a long walk in the country, so she can pack for all of it. Keep the plan loose enough to enjoy, though. The best weekends usually include at least one afternoon nobody planned at all.

Most long ride bookings stay in London, often around Marylebone, Kensington or the hotels beside Hyde Park, where there is enough to fill three days without ever needing a car. Others head out, to a country house hotel, a weekend by the sea or somewhere across the Channel. Anything with a journey in it follows the same rules as our trips away: tickets and rooms agreed in the quote, and the 50 percent deposit with its non-refundable travel share.

Weekends are claimed first, so a week of notice gives the widest choice, and a month is not too early for a bank holiday or a busy event week in town. Send the desk your dates, where you are staying, a rough outline of the plan and the companion you have in mind. A written quote follows, and once the deposit arrives the dates are held for you. For the complete fare ladder, see the rates page.