From views to wake up to, to grounds to explore, landscapes across the UK add an extra touch of magic to holidays and mini breaks. Straight from their 2024 Editor’s Choice collection, here the Good Hotel Guide shares 10 of the top hotels with gardens.
Hotel Endsleigh, Milton Abbot
Hotel Endsleigh is a country house hotel, originally built as a fishing lodge for the 6th Duke of Bedford and Duchess Georgiana. Today it’s owned by celebrated interior designer Olga Polizzi, offering sumptuous style overlooking the River Tamar.
The gardens are a dream part of the hotel, including formal parterres, woodlands, follies and grottoes and a pergola walkway. There are miles of riverbank to explore, with fairy-tale wooden bridges and dells, perfect for a picnic in the spring.
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Askham Hall, Penrith
A Grade I listed building constructed around a mediaeval pele tower and brimming with personality, Askham Hall has a true sense of enchantment to it. Each of the country house-style bedrooms is different – one with a four-poster bed and an antique bath, while others are more modern. The hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant hinges on the cycle of life in the gardens and fields close by, serving seasonal ingredients such as garlic, which grows all along the River Lowther.
These Grade II-listed gardens were created by the late Countess of Lonsdale, whose family own this estate. They include a 230ft-long herbaceous border, a colourful Jubilee garden planted in 1977, and a pavilion with an antique gypsy caravan.
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Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead
Once home to the pioneer of the English natural garden William Robinson, Gravetye Manor is an exceptional Elizabethan manor house and a four-star Sussex retreat. The gardens are a pivotal part of the experience, growing much of the food for the Michelin Star restaurant, as well as being magnificent to behold.
The influential Irish gardener William Robinson designed these historically important gardens in 1885, and in addition to his magical flower garden, there are meadows brimming with snow drops and crocuses in winter as well as native wild flowers in the summer.
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Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton
A Georgian manor house in the middle of nowhere, Goldstone Hall is understated and homely, inviting you to stay in cosy rooms and suites, spend days enjoying the gardens and then tuck into home-grown produce come the evening.
The five-acre grounds are magical all year round with a dreamy walled garden featuring a double-tiered herbaceous border, a rose terrace (where you can dine) and a wildflower area. A laburnum arch interwoven with ornamental vines, honeysuckle and clematis leads to the kitchen garden.
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Greywalls, Gullane
A Scottish Edwardian country house hotel, Greywalls is an impressive destination wrapped in a formal walled garden of about six acres, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901. The former home of the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, it’s well known for its elegance as well as it’s dining experience ‘Chez Roux’, not to mention a popular Whisky room.
It is thought that the gardens were designed by Gertrude Jekyll to complement the Lutyens’ Arts and Crafts house. They’re uniquely styled as if they were a series of rooms and vistas, with meandering pathways and secluded seating areas for shade and afternoon tea.
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Congham Hall, Norfolk
Congham Hall is a country house hotel in 30 acres of Norfolk parkland, with an emphasis on wellness. Here, guests delight in elegantly appointed rooms, and time spent in an eco-friendly outdoor hot tub overlooking the grounds. Spa therapies from Elemental Herbology are a joyful experience, and reflect the hotel’s unerring connection with its surrounding gardens.
In particular, Congham Hall is famous for its herb garden, featuring around 400 varieties that feature heavily in their seasonal cuisine. Some are even incorporated into the spa’s signature treatments.
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The Newt, Somerset
The Newt is a famously elegant country estate, surrounded by splendid gardens, woodland, farmland and cider orchards. The exquisite Georgian property welcomes everyone into the honey-coloured haven, delivering heritage style with modern hospitality, and plenty to do whether you want to sip tea in the library or play croquet on the lawn.
The grounds are an attraction at the 800-acre estate in their own right with notable features including the Parabola, a walled garden with an apple tree maze, as well as a deer park, grotto, orchards and a museum devoted to the story of gardening.
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Cliveden House, Taplow
This magnificent property has a reputation that precedes it. Architecturally awe-inspiring, and the former home of a Prince of Wales, two Dukes, an Earl, and the Viscounts Astor (not to mention Nancy Astor, wife of the second Viscount), it has also played host to a litany of famous guests, trysts and liaisons. It is little wonder that this is somewhere that attracts the good and the great – it is the pinnacle of luxury and excellence with five-star service, luxury spa facilities and award-winning restaurants, not to mention National Trust grounds to explore.
Surrounding the Italianate house, the gardens centre around a magnificent parterre with formal planting. Stroll through the collection of roses, and the long garden designed in 1896 by William Waldorf Astor to show off his classical sculptures.
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Bodysgallen Hall and Spa, Llandudno
An ancient mansion surrounded by meticulously kept gardens, Bodysgallen Hall and Spa in Wales is super friendly, super professional and welcoming, with original fireplaces, fresh flowers and leather-bound books in abundance. In amongst the ancient splendour is the spa, a relaxing environment with leisure facilities for the whole family and an array of spa treatments using the Aromatherapy Associates and Environ Skin Care skincare collections.
The gardens are a beautiful experience in their own right. Set in 200 acres of parkland there is a rare 17th-century parterre of box hedges and herbs, a walled rose garden, lily pond, potager and follies. A woodland walk leads to a gothic tower; another to a mountain-top obelisk.
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Longueville Manor, St Saviour
Practically perfect in every way, Longueville Manor is an elegant, five-star hotel brimming with historic details like beams thought to have come from the Spanish Armada and an 18th-century French four-poster bed. Thoughtful details are peppered throughout – REN toiletries and scented candles in the bathroom, for example. Dinner is also an experience in its own right within the panelled Oak Room.
The gardens were originally the vision of a Victorian clergyman and are designed not merely to be looked at but throughly enjoyed. There are formal gardens to stroll in, a lake, specimen trees and romantic woodland walks where you can spot red squirrels and woodpeckers. The kitchen garden is also an important feature, readily contributing to meal times.
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