The Grove serves some of the best elaborate meals in Pembrokeshire, with an award-winning wine list.
Billionaire Gerald Chan’s luxury country house, only an hour from London and surrounded by 400 acres of grounds, is something rather magical. Show Prices . It dates from 1680 and oozes character from every pore. Flanked by York Minster to one side and a delightful acre of mature garden on the other, Gray’s Court enjoys one of the finest locations in York. Honeymoon Hotel is a directional creative design studio and art boutique. Inside has bags of character, with traditional hunting lodge fixtures counterbalanced by contemporary design pieces and modern art adorning the walls. All the rooms are delightful, many with interesting original features. This terrific bed and breakfast has it all: a dreamy west-facing location just above the shore, overlooking a sea-loch and the headland beyond, and all the comfort you could desire in two light-filled, delightful bedrooms with awe-inspiring sunset views (and if you’re lucky, northern lights).
Babington House's extensive facilities are a major selling point: there are sizeable indoor and outdoor swimming pools (both heated year round), a sauna and steam room, plus a cinema showing films every evening. Floor-to-ceiling windows mean triple glazed Crittall glass and modesty blinds are crucial: some rooms overlook the courtyard and tables and others the Soho jungle. This hotel oozes style and while remaining sympathetic to its Georgian footprint, there are attractive Poirot touches to the rooms: elegantly curved ocean-liner styled walls and rippled stucco, blond-wood panelling and fabulous on-trend bed throws. Welcome touches include fresh milk in the mini-fridge (complimentary prosecco is provided in Ancient House rooms), a room gift of stripy seaside rock and a complimentary pass for Holkham’s beach and estate car parks. With its golden stone, gables and mullion windows, this is a dreamily romantic house. Venison is sourced from the Isle of Muck; fish and shellfish fresh from the pier at Mallaig. Number five has a four-poster; while seven has a Narnia wardrobe door: step through and you are in the sunken bathroom. Corn dollies for ‘do no disturb’ signs, cocktails based on ingredients from the estate, and bath and spa products inspired by the 18th-century horticulturalist William Wildsmith (who created an arboretum here) are just a few of the many intelligent and surprising touches. You can hike into the hills from the back door. Ham Yard Hotel's setting, at the bottom of Regent Street, is perfectly placed for Mayfair and Soho.
If you want to explore, complimentary bikes are available. If Pugin designed gothic revival love nests they would look like this: an outrageous riposte to modern minimalism. The bar always has around six or seven of their own-brew ales. The nine suites are an antique dealer’s dream: the rooms set-dressed with fascinatingly eclectic clutter; all jewel-coloured velvets, silks and brocades, carved wood, gilding and candle-light - think decadent ecclesiastical.
The 19 rooms each have their own identity but running throughout are French influences — Parisian side tables, French-style rattan beds — with an East Asian edge (an antique painted wardrobe from China).
The nine bedrooms have strong, personal characters. Book a room with an outdoor bath overlooking the golden syrup sunsets of the Exe estuary (sunsets are notorious here).
With Albert and Michel Roux Jr in charge of the kitchen the food is as good as the peerless service. Affectionately known as The Vic, this 19th century inn lies equidistant between a vast, sandy beach and the parkland surrounding Holkham Hall. The Gilpin might seem like a lost world, set in delightful landscaped gardens — but civilisation is on the doorstep (Bowness is a six-minute drive away). Fishing, shooting, horse riding, mountain biking, paintballing and treasure hunts can also be organised on-site. Built in 1812 as the holiday home for the Duchess of Bedford, Georgiana Russell, this wildly romantic, chintz-free country estate, owned and designed by hotelier Olga Polizzi, is steeped in royal history. Lying at the foot of Ben Nevis, girdled by a ring of highland peaks (particularly lovely when coiffed with snow), this is a place of quiet beauty, with no indication that the hustling, bustling tourist town of Fort William is only a mile or two up the road. Go for a room with a loch view. Inside, the interconnected bar areas have beams dripping with dried hops, boarded and flagstone floors and antique tables laid out with brass candelabra and fresh flowers. Fruit, salad, herbs and vegetables are grown in the walled gardens, and wild mushrooms picked in the neighbouring woodland. Breakfast included. It was the ancestral home of the photographer Lord Snowdon, Princess Margaret’s husband.
This extraordinary collection of fantasy suites near Edinburgh Castle is the ultimate romantic hideaway: sumptuous, indulgent, and slightly (delightfully) mad. Add to this an indoor and outdoor pool, boating lake, tennis courts and horse riding. There is even a magical fourth floor roof terrace, with olive trees, lavender and vegetable beds. Rooms are beautiful, with bespoke minibars and exceptional artwork, and gardens or balconies in some cases; fire-pits are provided — the sort of rooms you just don’t want to leave. Life at the Gilpin is all about kicking back: the five cedar lodges have their own personal en-suite spas with outdoor saunas, a hydrotherapy hot tub hemmed in by Eden-like walled gardens, a steam room, stone bath, crackling fires and views of the Lake District moors. There's also an outdoor hot tub. The bedroom upstairs is larger and more luxurious in style, boasting a super-king bed with a window reaching from the floor to the eaves, looking out over the sea. Special OfferFree arrival and departure transfers. They employ vintage style fabrics, chandeliers and beautifully dressed beds, with the Pigs’ signature Roberts radios, well-stocked ‘larders’ and excellent bathrooms. Master rooms offer glorious vistas of loch and mountains. Here, The Good Hotel Guide recommends 10 great honeymoon hotels, ranging from lavish and luxurious hideaways.