Cosseted in the Cotswolds

Tewkesbury Park is a 160 acre playground fit for the perfect luxury break, finds Martin Flanagan

Our train pulled into the Regency spa town of Cheltenham about 8:45pm on the Friday. A 15-minute ride later on, our taxi pulled up outside Tewkesbury Park. We were ravenous and in just the mood for what turned out to be a delicious meal in the hotel restaurant, with still enough vestiges of twilight around to see the beautiful Cotswolds and Malvern hills outside.

Exploration and country walks would wait. We both had mackerel, mustard mayonnaise and edible spring flowers as starters, nice if short of stunning. But my main of beef pavé steak and triple-cooked chips was the proverbial angel crying on your palate. Meanwhile, my wife was much taken with her more herbivorous dish of chickpeas and cheese beignets with Romesco sauce and spring onions. The bloody orange sorbets as pudding were icy zest epitomised.

A three-year renovation of Tewkesbury Park was completed last year, and now a plush sheen on the property in 160 acres oozes discreet hedonism. There is a significant health centre and spa offering at the hotel, and on the Saturday I had a relaxing swim in the indoor pool, while Isobel had a bespoke facial (£50-one hour). There are also tennis and squash courts, but the hotel’s signature offer is its 18-hole par 73 golf course.

Our room was an Opulence suite and it was, well, opulent. Highceilinged, with soothing pastel colours also typical of Tewkesbury Park’s public areas, there was also a spacious ensuite bathroom, and a bed whose size bore comparison even with London hotel aristocracy such as the Ritz and Savoy.

And the views! We pulled open the curtains on the first morning to sees verdant vistas stretching to the sweeping hills. Then downstairs to the restaurant again for my bipolar breakfast of a healthy porridge, honey and strawberries, somewhat undermined by a Full Monty fry-up to follow. We read the morning papers and had coffee on the hotel’s terrace as the first golfers were making their way to the coloured sweater joust. Fairway philistines that we are, we instead used our own metaphorical sand wedge to roll ourselves to the pleasant hotel cocktail bar for a pint for me, a Pernod for her, and some weekend break people-watching.

As we had come to this picturesque haven by train, and not hired a car, taxis were the transport mode of choice. We chose to visit nearby Tewkesbury and Regency buck Cheltenham.

Tewkesbury was the site on 4 May, 1471 for one of the defining battles of

the War of the Roses, with the Yorkist Edward IV emerging victorious in both the battle and the wider conflict. We walked by the riverside, with the town lying at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Avon, and by the timber-framed properties and down dark lanes that give the town its distinctive medieval look. We visited the soaring vaults of Tewkesbury Abbey, full of that hush and curiously dusty, sweetish smell such places exude when services are not being held.

Next we rested at tea rooms on the other side of the street to the Abbey, emerging refreshed but rarely having seen such commercial effort to put the twee into quaint. Elsewhere, pub names like the Tudor House Hotel and the Britannia Inn play up Tewkesbury’s history alongside antique shops and other independent traders. The town is certainly worth a visit.

The next day the lure of the 18th century health resort, Cheltenham, was to see it differently than I have three times over 40 years – when it is embraced by the raucous yet friendly Irish invasion for the Cheltenham Festival meeting in early spring. Then all is spark and music and vitality on

Clockwise from main: an Opulence suite at Tewkesbury Park; the hotel’s exterior; Tewkesbury Abbey

tap. By contrast, the mood in the town centre was much more sedate, even slightly vapid, as we walked along the Promenade and the high street, taking in the elegant architecture. We stopped for drinks at the Frog & Fiddle in the town centre, vivid red parasols sheltering us from a hot sun as we browsed the books we had bought in Waterstones in Cheltenham’s pedestrian precinct.

That evening at Tewkesbury Park we relaxed with drinks on the terrace, the hills beautiful as ever, and were wistful about the impending journey back to the hurly-burly. We had had a highly pleasant stay, good food and drink, and exemplary service in one of Britain’s picture-book settings.

The hotel has it about right, with enough leisure attractions on site to keep a short-stay person happily occupied; but with enough activities in the surrounding countryside, including cycling and walking in the Cotswolds and even a recently relaunched local steam railway, if someone is feeling a little more adventurous. ■

Rooms at the Tewkesbury Park Hotel (01684 295405, www. tewkesburypark.co.uk) start from £134 per night including breakfast. Suites start from £230, rising to £350

an Opulence suite, breakfast included. A round of golf is £38.

Renovated Tewkesbury Park oozes discreet hedonism