The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Find cosy moments to savour in the hotel of your dreams
Stepping inside is entering an imaginary world; the place is lit by candles
THE PERFECT PINT
The Ram Inn, Firle, East Sussex
At the foot of the South Downs Way, where the Bloomsbury Group gathered during the wars, the snoozy village of Firle is easy to miss. The 500-year-old Ram Inn is a corker – the kind of local everyone wishes they had. At the bar, friendly staff pull pints brewed on the doorstep, including artisan ales by Firle brewery Burning Sky and Long Man in Litlington, and there are craft ciders and wines from Sussex’s increasingly good vineyards. In dining rooms aglow from log fires, inventive dishes feature partridge, pheasant and Dexter beef from 8th Viscount Gage’s Firle Estate. Then it’s upstairs to bed in one of six mutedpalette rooms.
Doubles from £130 including breakfast (01273 858222; raminn. co.uk). For a full review and to book see telegraph.co.uk/tt-raminn
THE BATHTUB OF DREAMS The Witchery by the Castle, Edinburgh
The Witchery is a darkly seductive adults-only boutique hotel with all the magic its name suggests. Ducking off the Royal Mile and stepping inside the 16th-century hotel is entering an imaginary world, every theatrical inch embellished: gothic 17th-century carved oak panelling adorns walls and ceiling, cherubs play bagpipes atop carved stone pillars, heavily draped curtains are blood-red, the whole place lit by candles in antique church candlesticks. Climbing a stone turret to sleep in one of its nine suites, with views across the Old Town’s rooftops, is a fantasy come true. Perhaps even better than the beswagged four-poster beds are the deeply opulent roll-top bathtubs for two.
Suites from £395 including breakfast (0131 225 5613; thewitchery.com). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-witchery
WEARING OUT THE KIDS Another Place, The Lake, Lake District
For its second venture, the team behind surf go-to Watergate Bay chose a shore of Ullswater. It’s a peaceful and heart-stirringly beautiful setting – but pursuits at Another Place are similarly high-octane, with a massive choice of guided and freestyle activities: sailing, wild swimming, SUPing, kayaking on the lake; mountain biking, pony trekking and walking in the glorious fells – and in winter the Lake District turns into England’s best ski resort. As a retreat from the cold and wet (this is, after all, one of the wettest spots in England), Swim Club is a godsend: a family-friendly spa with a gorgeous indoor pool, walled in glass and overlooking Ullswater and the brooding peaks beyond.
Doubles from £190 including breakfast (01768 486442; another. place). See telegraph.co.uk/ttanotherplace
BLOW-OUT BRITISH
BANQUETING Hampton Manor, West Midlands
Smoke is omnipresent at Hampton Manor, the former estate of Sir Robert Peel built outside Birmingham. It scents the misty air among the monkey puzzle trees, and flavours the venison and postprandial Old Fashioned. It’s also the name of the hotel’s new restaurant, set in a Victorian furnace house in the walled garden. MasterChef: The Professionals champ Stuart Deeley’s five-course dinner – hearty, artful, fiery with passion – kicks off Hampton Manor’s two-night escape, a “food journey” that’s a celebration of the best of local and homegrown produce. There’s an adventurous wine tasting, sourdough bread making; and the highlight, a six-course tasting menu at Michelin-starred Peel’s.
Two nights from £395pp, including breakfasts, bar snacks, wine tasting and dinners (01675 446080; hamptonmanor.com). See telegraph.co. uk/tt-hamptonmanor
ART TO TURN HEADS Fife Arms, Scottish Highlands
Early influencer Queen Victoria pioneered over-tourism in Braemar with her painting trips to the Cairngorms village and subsequent purchase of nearby Balmoral. To house the crowds, the whopping Fife Arms Hotel was built. A century on, gallerist couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth have transformed the place into an arts wonderland, with layer upon layer of more than 14,000 artworks, curios, objects and artefacts. There’s a neon antler chandelier by Richard Jackson; a Steinway piano bleached(!) by Mark Bradford; a chimney piece carved with depictions from Robert Burns’ work; and paintings by Picasso, Lucian Freud and Queen Victoria, along with many Scottish artists. There are two restaurants and two bars, and its Flying Stag pub remains the heart of the village.
Doubles from £358 including breakfast (01339 720200; thefifearms.com). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-fifearms
COUNTRY WALKS WITH
THE DOGS
Lord Crewe Arms, Northumberland
In the pretty village of Blanchland, the thick honey-stone walls of the Lord Crewe Arms have offered respite from Northumberland’s harsh winters to travellers and their canine companions since the Middle Ages. Today, stays are set up as much for dogs as humans, starting with welcome drinks (Woof & Brew beer or Pawsecco) in the underground Crypt bar. After rambles over the moors, get cleaned up in the bath or boot room, before a fireside supper in the Hilyard restaurant, serving Emma Broom’s hearty modern British dishes. In the bedrooms (14 out of the 21 total of which are dog-friendly), kept toasty with real fires, four-legged guests get beds, towels and their own room service menu.
Doubles from £169 including breakfast (01434 677100; lordcrewearmsblanchland.co.uk).
See telegraph.co.uk/tt-lordcrewearms
INTERIORS LIKE A WARM HUG
The Pig at Bridge Place, Kent
Velvety, moody and deeply cocooning, the interiors of Robin Hutson’s Pig hotels are like a warm hug – and none more so than the Pig at Bridge Place in Kent. This Jacobean red-brick mansion has a darkly magical appeal in winter months, its rock ’n’ roll heritage lingering in its panelled walls: once Kent’s coolest gig venue, it has hosted Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Yardbirds and the Kinks. Sofas call “come hither” in snugs, and beside the elaborately carved fireplace in the bar painted the shades of an opium den, coloured vintage glassware filters the light from the window.
Chef Kamil Oseka has the bounty of the Garden of England at his fingertips, from kitchen garden vegetables to Whitstable oysters. Most atmospheric rooms are in the main house, while the weatherboard Hop Pickers’ Huts have roll-top baths.
Doubles from £145, room only (0345 225 9494; thepighotel.com). See telegraph. co.uk/tt-pigbridgeplace
MINDFUL ME TIME
Birch, Hertfordshire
In unlikely Cheshunt, Birch is a Babington for millennials; a country house done up on trend. Think dark blue walls, plaster peeling just-so, mid-century furniture, contemporary art on a giant scale, and more rattan lighting than an Ibiza beach club. Because it’s also a members’ club, the crowd comes in solos and groups as well as pairs, so a stay here is as sociable or solitary as you want it to be, with room after stately room for reading, working, eating, hanging out and creating; there’s a music room filled with instruments, a pottery studio, arts talks, yoga and spinning in the fitness studio. Workshops are inventive: CBD cocktail-making and tarot-card reading this winter, for example. And the lido, in a graffitied walled garden, is heated year round.
Singles from £150, room only (01992 633375; birchcommunity.com). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-birch
A SUPERB SUNDAY ROAST
The Wild Rabbit, Cotswolds
Daylesford founder Baroness Bamford is behind the Wild Rabbit, so you can expect similarly sky-high standards of food, drink and interiors at this 18th-century inn in Kingham. It’s all about the best of British: oak-beamed, stonewalled rooms, named after countryside creatures, are decorated in natural tones and artisan-made furniture. There are cottages nearby on the Daylesford estate, too, for those seeking wellness, yoga and cookery classes. Veg comes from the organic market garden and produce from local farmers, which chef Nathan Eades and his team in the open kitchen craft into painterly dishes. The bar serves elevated British classics such as venison Wellington and the finest Sunday roast you’ll ever eat. Winter tip: bag a table by the double fireplace if you can. Doubles from £195 including breakfast (01608 658389; thewildrabbit.co.uk).
See telegraph.co.uk/tt-wildrabbit
MOUNTAIN VIEWS FROM
THE HOT TUB
The Samling, Lake District
Beside a stream tumbling down through the ornamental gardens of the Samling’s 67 acres, Wordsworth recited poetry to fellow poet Felicia Hemans in a voice she described as “breeze-like in the soft graduation of his swells and falls”. The Georgian villa, which belonged to his landlord John Benson, was originally called Dove’s Nest – fitting for its position on a hillside above Lake Windermere. Walking trails start directly from the 12-room hotel, though guests don’t need to lace up boots to see one of the Lake District’s most sublime views: several beds look out directly over the lake, as does the restaurant, and in a clearing amid the woodlands is a stone-tiled hot tub, steaming in the winter’s air. Poetry recitals optional.
Doubles from £490 including breakfast (01539 431922; thesamlinghotel.co.uk). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-samling
DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR
Cliveden, Buckinghamshire
The Duke of Buckingham’s 17th-century stately home looks lovelier than ever in winter, when twinkling lights
illuminate its oak-panelled walls and morning mist shrouds the Thames below. A veritable Versailles for the English aristocracy, Cliveden hosted every monarch since George I until the Astors handed it over to the National Trust in the 1940s. Now anyone can wander its 376 acres, parterred and follied, but only hotel guests have the run of the Italianate mansion itself. Thickcarpeted
Art lover’s dream: the Fife Arms has come a long way from its hunting lodge roots and is now an art-filled boutique hotel
bedrooms are named after the illustrious guests who have slept there: Gladstone has a hot tub, Asquith a fourposter. Its listed outdoor pool, open and heated year-round, is where Christine Keeler met John Profumo, and so began one of the greatest scandals in history. Doubles from £495 including breakfast (01628 668561; clivedenhouse.co.uk). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-cliveden
A SEASIDE SPA
Cornwall in wintertime is a Cornwall of old – its splendid beaches and highhedged lanes are quiet, and you can pop to the pub without a reservation. Its seas and skies are particularly dramatic, too – and it’s hard to think of a lovelier place to watch the light than from the cliff-top hot tubs at the Scarlet. Everything at this contemporary spa hotel is orientated towards the ocean: the indoor pool, outdoor pool surrounded by reeds and rocks, a barrel sauna and tented treatment rooms. Bedrooms have balconies or terraces leading onto the wildflowering cliff, where steps lead down to the golden sweep of Mawgan Porth below.
Doubles from £260 including breakfast (01637 861800; scarlethotel.co.uk). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-scarlet
ROASTING CHESTNUTS ON AN
OPEN FIRE
Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire
Set in 110 forested acres on Scotland’s eastern shore, Glenapp becomes a festive fairytale in winter, when its turrets are dusted with snow, Christmas garlands decorate its baronial halls and the great fireplaces are lit in its drawing rooms and 21 bedrooms (yet, magically, the Big Man still finds his way down a chimney). For the ultimate family shindig, take over the new four-bedroom Endeavour apartment spanning the entire top floor. It has a dining table for 16, TV room, sauna, library, treatment room, plus butler and private chef. At night, wrap up in blankets for stargazing with telescopes and hot chocolates – neighbouring Galloway Forest is a Dark Sky Park.
Suites from £415 including breakfast; Endeavour penthouse from £2,750 (01465 831212; glenappcastle.com).
See telegraph.co.uk/tt-glenapp
A WARM WELCOME Grove of Narberth, Pembrokeshire
The warmth of the Grove’s personable owners, Neil and Zoe, fills this Pembrokeshire manor house so that every guest gets a familial welcome in the Preseli Hills. The cosy lounge bars buzz with couples and groups of friends, hunkering down beside the fireplace, cocktail in hand; while the cottage garden suites have their own log burners to curl up by after a day on the coast. The food – both fine dining and hearty Welsh – is some of the best in Wales, and the focus is on the homegrown, from lambs in the fields to nettles in the hedgerows.
Doubles from £193 including breakfast (01834 860915; thegrovenarberth.co.uk). See telegraph.co.uk/ tt-grovenarbeth
ALL-ROUND BRILLIANCE FOR
UNDER £100
The Gunton Arms, Norfolk Behind this gloriously reimagined shooting lodge, in a 1,000-acre deer park in Norfolk, is one hell of a supergroup. Stuart and Simone Tattersall (ex Hix), cook the estate’s own venison over the restaurant’s open fire, somewhat theatrically. Art comes from the collection of owners Ivor Braka and Sarah Graham, and alongside hunting-scene oils are works by Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst. On design: Robert Kime and Martin Brudnizki have created a marvellous trad-modern mix. Upstairs, countrycosy rooms (where Lillie Langtry once stayed) have age-old beams, antique furniture and bathrooms of marble salvaged from Alexandria.
Doubles from £95 including breakfast (01263 832010; theguntonarms.co.uk). See telegraph.co.uk/tt-guntonarms
In winter, Cornwall’s splendid beaches and high-hedged lanes are quiet