While the gardens were in no doubt the centerpiece of our recent trip to England, where we stayed and dined also factored into the trip.
We definitely land on the side of liking a large room. Other parameters include liking a front desk, a nice view or something that makes the room unique, and lastly a great location. We also tend to choose hotels that belong to well-known upscale brands like Hyatt, Mr & Mrs Smith, Four Seasons, Relais & Chateaux and so on.
So for our trip through the countryside it was challenging to select a hotel as the above parameters weren’t generally available. But I think we did well!
Our first stay was in Bath at the No. 15 Guesthouse centrally located on Great Pulteney St in the middle of Bath.
What a beautiful little property this was! We stayed in one of their larger rooms, called the Hideout Suite, and found it very comfortable.
The bath was utterly outrageous, maybe the largest tub we’ve seen in a room.
The last thing that made this room special was that it opened out to the back garden. So peaceful!
Our next stop was at Hotel Endsleigh in the far southwest part of England. Getting here was challenging because the last few miles are via single track country roads. But oh my when you got there it was magical.
Endsleigh is a 300 year old country house that had fallen into disrepair and was revived and turned into an inn. Our room was situated over the old stables.
When out this far into the country, you don’t really have dining choices and so Endsleigh has a beautiful dining room with lovely menu that meets the moment.
Cocktails were civilized and taken in the drawing room. As we enjoyed our refreshments the staff came by and asked after our dinner choices. At the appointed time we moved into the dining room and were served dinner. So nice.
The next morning, breakfast was taken on the veranda overlooking the grounds.
How could you not order a benedict of some sort?
Endsleigh was special and you could tell from the lobby. The property is owned by Olga Polizzi who os the sister of Rocco Forte. He also is a hotelier well known in Europe for his fantastic hotels.
Sadly we only had one night at Endsleigh before we made our way to the New Forest and a place called The Pig.
The New Forest is this wonderful place along the south coast that was set aside by William the Conqueror in 1079. It is the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pastureland in England. As we drove into The Pig we saw horses that were grazing on the lawns of people’s homes. Just freely wandering.
Our room at The Pig was called Bert’s Box, named after one of the founders of the property.
Bert’s Box was a short way down the path from the main house.
It had a bathroom and a separate shower room.
The Pig is known for a couple of outstanding things. The first is their Kitchen Garden, where they grow a lot of their vegetables for the restaurants.
The second is their famous “25 Mile Menu”, which calls out that all of the items on the menu were sourced from places within 25 miles of The Pig.
We had a nice meal in the restaurant and really enjoyed the casual feel of The Pig.
As we kept moving to the east, our next stop was in Brighton at the sister property of where we stayed in Bath. This place was called No. 124 Guesthouse and faced the English Channel.
Our room was small but looked out over the Brighton Strand and the famous old pier.
Brighton is a summer weekends town filled with people from the area towns all the way up to London. We didn’t have a very good meal here, so nothing to recommend. And while the hotel was lovely it just didn’t have the charm of No. 15 in Bath.
Our last country hotel was Gravetye Manor. Gravetye is in the wilds of the East Sussex countryside, and was the only place where we got lost getting to it even with our GPS. Again we found ourselves driving down single track country roads to get here but this place was incredible.
Another English country house converted to an inn, this property is part of the Relais & Chateux collection.
We had stunning room on the second floor overlooking the garden.
This was the view out our window.
The dining room at Gravetye earned a Michelin star in 2020 and was a delight.
A beautiful three course menu for £128 per person.
The dining room seemed like you were looking through a television at a landscape from somewhere else. Just didn’t seem real!
We would go back here in a heartbeat and met a couple from Boston that always spend at least one night here whenever they are in London. Gravetye is just 13 miles from the Gatwick Airport rail station (how did we get lost?), which is just 30 minutes from central London by train.
Speaking of London, we finished our trip in London at The Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair.
This was such a gorgeous hotel and located minutes from the Bond Street tube station.
Our room had a huge space outdoors, which was really pleasant given our perfect weather.
In London we had dinner at three restaurants. The first was Bistro Freddie in Shoreditch.
Bistro Freddie was just okay. The menu looked better online that the night we were there and for some reason the kitchen was soooper slow that night. Probably wouldn’t go back despite this being a very popular table in London.
Second was Noble Rot in Lamb’s Conduit. There are two locations of this restaurant, the Lamb’s Conduit location being the original.
Much better here and you can tell why they have been around for quite some time and are still popular.
The dining room was busy and unlike the night before the kitchen and the staff kept up.
Lastly we ate at The Barbary in Notting Hill. It was a cute place and we had a great server, but the menu was just odd.
What seemed to be interesting turned out to be fairly pedestrian. But let’s just say we didn’t starve.
For cocktails, we stuck to the standards outside London but when we got to London the clear standout place was Bar Kinky.
We tried a couple of the menu items and loved them. But then were ready to go with some old standbys – in this case a whiskey sour. When the bartender said “Yes” to the question do you have egg whites, it was kismet!
If you go sit at the bar downstairs and ask for Alia. There are only 8 seats so go a little early. Tell her we sent you, it’s worth the trip! And order a whiskey sour! Don’t let the bad website put you off!
The runner up would be the Sesame Sour at Amaro Bar in Kensington.
A really nice place on a busy street with a great drinks menu.
We were here early so were the only customers, and while we bring the party wherever we go this place was still pretty quiet. We did stay around for two, though, because of this little beauty.
It’s a sesame sour and it’s delicious. Yes that’s a little sesame candy plank balanced on the top of the glass. So good.
Overall a really great hotel and restaurant trip, we hope you were able to find some useful tips in this post.
