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If You Can Deal With Floral Decor, You'll Get a Deal at The Hartwell House
Not sure the countryside looks this green in October so expect some foliage changes.
Here’s a reason to thank the schooling system – Hartwell House, a grand old 17th century country mansion near Aylesbury (between London and Oxford) is knocking 50 percent off its rack rates to celebrate Half Term from October 25-29 , making the usual rate of £260 ($409) and up a night a rather more palatable £130.
The hotel itself is pretty special – rather than doing what most country house hotels have done, which is to make the bedrooms chic and modern, it’s kept them very traditional, so although it’s a little on the flouncy side (the rooms are covered in floral patterns), you really feel like you’re staying in an old home circa Jane Austen, rather than a designer gaffe.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Opening Rates / Design Hotels / Country Hotels / England Hotels / → All Tags
Green Gets Sexy at Cornwall's Scarlet Hotel
Green Hotels don’t usually equal sexy hotels – and if they do, you can generally assume that the eco side is more for effect than hardcore environmental causes. But a big exception to the rule has just opened up in Britain: The Scarlet hotel in boho Cornwall.
It may look like just another chic clifftop Cornish hotel with its slinky furnishings (it’s even a member of Design Hotels), Michelin-starred chef, Atlantic views and “private outdoor space” for each of its 37 rooms, but under all the glitz is lurking a seriously green hotel.
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Le Manoir Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary With a Mini-Music Festival
Music festivals – scruffy affairs where you sit on the floor, hopefully in the sun, and drink your own bodyweight, right?
Not any more, they’re not. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons - chef Raymond Blanc’s uber-posh country pile just outside Oxford – is 25 years old this year, and it’s celebrating with a mini-music festival.
But it’s no ordinary music festival. Oh no. This is Le Festival aux Quat’Saisons: an uberposh, gastro music festival and although it’s going on for three days, you’re only meant to attend for one night (presumably your stomach would give way, as would your bank balance, if you stayed any longer).
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Celebrate 250 Years of Guinness In Style At Ashford Castle
Ashford Castle – an actual, 13th-century castle in County Mayo, Ireland, that doubles as as five star hotel – is celebrating its 70th birthday next month. So far, so worthy. Forgive us being slightly more excited about the fact that Guinness is turning 250. Now that’s worth celebrating.
Luckily, the folks at the castle agree with us (it was once the country retreat of the Guinness family, which probably has something to do with it). So they’ve designated October as Guinness Month and 15 October as the date for a five course "Black and White dinner", where the head Brewer will talk about the black stuff.
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High Summer is the Time to Book an Autumn Stay in Shropshire
Excuse us for being persnickity, but isn’t it still summer right now? And we’d quite like to carry on thinking that until the hot stuff stops.
So we won’t be thinking about the “Autumn calendar of events” that Fishmore Hall in Shropshire has just launched quite yet. But for those of you who like to plan ahead, October and November will see in a Colour Me Beautiful day, when you can see whether you’re wearing the right clothes or need to invest in a new wardrobe (October 2, pencil it in ladies). It costs £25, and includes luck and a glass of wine (and the restaurant is a goodie – we stayed there when it opened and were very impressed).
In case (perish the thought) you’re more interested in imbibing than colouring yourself beautiful, there’s a special wine dinner — four courses plus French bottles — on October 22. Or if you’re the type who’s already planning Christmas presents, book in for November 28-29, when there’s a medieval fayre in town.
Having said all that, the hotel is lovely; supercomfy rooms and gorgeous views over the sheep-filled countryside. But, for now, let’s just think of it as a nice spot for a summer break, yeah? Doubles currently cost from £99.
[Photo: TripAdvisor]
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'Pooh-Pooh' Your Troubles At Ashdown Park
Childhood regression is always good – especially in tough times - but childhood regression combined with a posh hotel is definitely better. So we’re rather taken with the idea of going down to Ashdown Park Hotel in Sussex for a Pooh fest (we should probably clarify we mean Winnie the Pooh, natch).
Anyway, Ashdown Park is a rather sexy hotel in the middle of Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, where the Pooh books were set. And this summer they’re cooking up special picnics for you to take into the woods with you. At £13.95 each, they don’t sound bad value, either (unless we’re talking micro-portions) – free range chicken and roasted plum tomatoes, organic salmon and the hotel’s own citrus-marinated mozzarella. Kiddies get their own menu which sounds just as nice – especially the wild honey and sesame flapjack.
The hotel is also providing walking routes to take you to places as inspirational as The Enchanted Place and Pooh Bridge (don’t forget to play your pooh sticks). If you want to make a night of it, rooms start from £190, including a smacking full English breakfast – just the fuel for your pooh sticks.
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Primrose Valley is a Proper Cornish Cutie
Cornwall will be raking it in this summer. Not only are the Brits going hard for the whole staycation thing (even though it still costs way more to stay in the UK than it does in Europe, and the weather ain’t exactly on a par), but it’s just been named top UK destination by a survey commissioned for Travelodge as well.
Not that we’d necessarily recommend you stay in a Travelodge if you make it down there (and well done if you do, because you’re looking at four hours and counting on the train), because the point of Cornwall is that it’s cute and tiny.
One of the most obviously charming places is St Ives. Its chocolate-box setting and extraordinary light have made it a big deal for artists (though the branch of London’s Tate Gallery there isn’t much cop).
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Waves, Vines and a Touch of Celebrity at the Chateau L’Hospitalet
Cradled in the hills between the town of Narbonne and the Mediterranean beaches in France’s Languedoc region, the Chateau L’Hospitalet is a hotel, restaurant, winery and visitor center all in one.
L’Hospitalet is the brainchild of former rugby star, Gerard Bertrand, who took over his family’s winemaking business. The hotel has 22 rooms with rates starting at 72 euros (no meals), though some of the suites can cost upwards of 300 euros. Rooms come with satellite flatscreen televisions, a little sitting area, desk, and full bathrooms. Everything is colorful, but understated and uncluttered. The bathrooms are large for Europe, and the showers have the best water pressure in France. The only drawback is that some of the first-floor rooms do not have windows.
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Have a Post-Easter Picnic Feast at The Isle of Wight's Hambrough
Apart from gorging on too much chocolate, a proper English Easter involves ditching the city and getting a taste of fresh air in the Great British Countryside. Picnics are an essential part of this. So for anyone who already did this and is feeling exceptionally hearty this week, or for those who didn't because they were put off by the prospect of soggy marmite sandwiches and tepid tea, here's one for you.
The Hambrough hotel on the Isle of Wight is a bit of a foodie destination already, seeing as it's under the helm of the youthful (26 years old) Robert Thompson who earned his first Michelin star at the tender age of 23. But you don't have to enjoy his cuisine indoors. Oh no. Because it's spring, he'll give it to you al fresco: sign up for a picnic package and he'll whip up a Michelin-starred basket for you to take out into the, er, wilderness, including Bellini cocktails, pea and truffle soup, a crab cocktail, homemade bread and, our favorite, rhubarb and vanilla tarts. That's just the spring menu and it runs till the end of May; come June, there's a summer basket with such delights as gazpacho and lobster and mango.
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Has Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons Gone Down the WAG Route?
We were a little perturbed this weekend when we opened up the usually excellent Mail on Sunday travel section and found this review of Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. Not only is Le Manoir meant to be one of England’s top country hotels and gastro retreats (as well it should, given that its cheapest room costs £430, or $632), but when we paid a visit last year, we were pretty enchanted.
For a start, it’s 15 minutes away from Oxford, one of the best towns within an hour’s distance to escape the madness that is London, given that the whole place and half its inhabitants look like they stepped off a film set. But yet, it’s total country manor – 15th-century manor to be precise, with the perfectly manicured grounds to match. And the rooms that we saw and stayed in were lovely and rustically simple, unlike the over-the-top frills that you get in lots of other country hotels.
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Out-Of-Melbourne Boutique Hotel Scene
Boutique hotels are not just on the rise in the cities Down Under: apparently in the countryside around Melbourne, Victorian boutique hotels are really taking off, according to a recent top seven list from The Age.
The hottest tip is Lake House on Lake Daylesford; it was picked as Australia's best boutique hotel by Luxury Travel mag and it's also got an award-winning restaurant and spa. If food is high on your priority list, you could also try the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, three hours from Melbourne, since Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine named its restaurant the best regional restaurant in the country this year.
A 40-room place in the Milawa region, Lindenwarrah is a boutique hotel full of the owner's art collection, and close to Brown Brothers wines, one of the most popular vineyards in the country. And for a new and small boutique hotel--just six suites--the Empyre in Castlemaine is the spot to try.
Since we're waiting to see if the Australian government will pay us to fly to Oz, it's worth keeping an eye on some special places to stay. Rates vary but on average start at around A$300 ($200) a night for package deals.
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The Residence in Bath Is Almost Like Home
Simply called The Residence, there's a hotel in Bath, England, that seems to hark back to Jane Austen days of exclusive clubs and high society--except that if we've got the cash, we can stay there too. There are just six rooms for guests but they are part of a larger complex inside an old Georgian house, with a restaurant, bar and gardens also accessible to members of the private club.
Recent guests at TripAdvisor can't speak highly enough of The Residence, with everyone loving the luxurious rooms and a few mentioning the "adults only" drawer, too! But a UK Telegraph review over the weekend was not quite as over-the-top impressed, citing short showers, erratic bar service and inadequate reading lights in bed--but it sounds like they might be a bit on the fussy side.
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