Michael Edwards, Author at A Luxury Travel Blog - Page 3 of 7 : A Luxury Travel Blog

Short stay: Ettington Park Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jun 10, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Ettington Park Hotel is a grand palatial house, dripping with history, built on an epic scale in 40 stately acres of rural Warwickshire on the banks of the River Stour. A long tree-lined drive gives guests arriving by car the opportunity to take in glimpses of the towers and turrets of a country house that is

Short stay: Rothay Manor, Ambleside, Lake District, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jun 06, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Rothay Manor is a wonderfully elegant Regency mansion which has become a boutique hotel at the heart of the Lake District. Privately owned by Jamie and Jenna Shails, the hotel is renowned for fine-dining going from strength to strength with Dan McGeorge creatively leading an impressive culinary team. Although the house remains true to its

Short stay: The Black Bull, Sedbergh, Cumbria, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jun 04, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

It is a journey that has brought a Japanese Thinking Bath, kokedama mossball rooted plants and potent wasabi vodka to small-town Cumbria. Nina Matsunaga, born of Japanese parents in Düsseldorf, and James Ratcliffe, born just down the dry-stone-wall-bordered road, have put Sedbergh on the foodies’ global map. Guests travel from afar for East / West

Short stay: The Roseate Reading, Berkshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on May 23, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

It has been some journey. Shire Hall for the County of Berkshire, completed in 1911, has become Reading’s only five star hotel, recently described as “the UK’s sexiest townhouse”. Boldly built in Queen Anne symmetrical style, facing onto Forbury Gardens and its bandstand, with a central three bay portico framed by Doric order columns, today

5 English hotels to visit soon

By Michael Edwards on Apr 12, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Soon England’s hotels will be opening their doors again to welcome guests desperate for a weekend break or a holiday to explore city, coast or country. Here are five stars of England’s great hotel collection: from east to west and from north to south to help you start thinking where you will head once the

5 historic English hotels

By Michael Edwards on Feb 13, 2021 in Accommodation, Europe, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Across England’s green and pleasant land dozens of historic hotels reveal chapters of the nation’s rich and often turbulent history. Over the last century many grand country houses have been saved from ruin and reborn as luxurious hotels. Once these houses were the zealously guarded bastions of the aristocracy, not that every one of these

Short stay: Congham Hall Hotel and Spa, Near Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK

By Michael Edwards on Nov 01, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Leisure Travel, Regions, Restaurants, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Carved kingfishers and waders, an oil painting of deer flitting through the forest, a Norfolk estuary at sunset. Congham Hall Hotel and Spa, where you hear the birdsong, is a haven, a rural celebration of one of Britain’s most restful counties. Congham Hall Hotel, built in the 1780s, is a whitewashed Georgian mansion complete with

Short stay: Hampton Manor, Hampton-in-Arden, West Midlands, UK

By Michael Edwards on Oct 27, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Food and Drink, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Travel Miscellany, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The country house party is stylishly back at the foodie estate of Hampton Manor. In the parlour, lavish books and board games sit invitingly on coffee tables. Wellies are ready for country rambles. The croquet lawn awaits. Guests gather for pre-dinner cocktails, gins or wine. After dinner Frazer guides guests through a tour of whiskies.

Short stay: The Cavendish London, Mayfair, London, UK

By Michael Edwards on Oct 13, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

In the true spirit of The Cavendish London you could order The Duchess from The Petrichor Bar: a cocktail of Galliano, Cointreau, orange juice and double cream. Then toast Rosa Lewis, known as the Duchess of Jermyn Street, who worked her way up from humble origins to purchase The Cavendish London in 1902. Back then

Short stay: Roseate House, Hyde Park, London, UK

By Michael Edwards on Sep 30, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Roseate House London is a white stucco confection of a 48-room boutique hotel within a five-minute walk of Hyde Park. An invitation to revisit an era when London aspired to become the next Athens or Rome. Dating back to 1842, three Grade 2 listed townhouses with classical columns and balustraded balconies, make up this dignified retreat

Short stay: The Duncombe Arms, Ellastone, Staffordshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 30, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The Duncombe Arms shows just how far The Great British Pub has travelled. Gourmet pub classics have brought a Michelin Bib Gourmand, two AA rosettes and foodies from afar. This is no longer just a place where only locals drop by for a pint and a bite. Ten rooms in Walnut House, every one, with

Short stay: New Hall Hotel and Spa, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 28, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

New Hall is the romantic castle, complete with water lilies floating on the moat, where you have always wanted to stay. There are more coats of arms, griffins, stone fireplaces, Norman French mottoes, crenelated towers, timber beams, cupola topped by a weather vane and mullioned-windows than you can shake a jousting lance at. Rumour has

Short stay: Middlethorpe Hotel and Spa, York, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 14, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The red-brick and white-sash-windows house, built in 1699, has echoes of both the grandeur of Hampton Court and Sir Christopher Wren’s elegant rebuilding of London after The Great Fire of London. Although owner Thomas Barlow’s views on architecture were influenced by his Grand Tour of Europe, Middlethorpe Hall Hotel and Spa, with its lawns and

Blackheath and Greenwich: 10 reasons to visit

By Michael Edwards on Aug 06, 2020 in Attractions, Europe, Going Out, Regions, United Kingdom, Western Europe

The 211 acres of Blackheath’s common tell the story of England over the last millennium. The Royal Hundred Hides, traditionally, a hide is enough land to house and feed a family, lead south to Greenwich Park and it’s history. Over the centuries, Blackheath has been a gathering point for both celebrations and revolts: Henry V

Short stay: Rookery Hall Hotel and Spa, Nantwich, Cheshire, UK

By Michael Edwards on Aug 02, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Going Out, Hotels, Regions, Restaurants, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Two centuries on from its naming as Rookery Hall, the rooks still fly over 38 acres of grounds, waddle across the terrace and perch on the handsome Georgian mansion built back in 1816. Yet, there is an air of the Loire valley to this grand sandstone and grey slate property. When Baron Von Schroeder purchased

Short stay: Homewood Hotel and Spa, Bath, UK

By Michael Edwards on Jul 25, 2020 in Accommodation, Europe, Featured, Hotels, Regions, Spas & Pampering, Speciality Travel, United Kingdom, Western Europe

Homewood, in ten bucolic acres of lawns and soaring trees, brings relaxed but stylish Mediterranean living to the rural village of Freshford: palms, olive trees in deep terracotta planters, Goddess sculptures and modernist art. It’s a sensuous taste of the Côte d’Azur slotted between the rivers Avon and Frome. The Mediterranean theme is apt, given

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