England
Three stays in the south of England, with one thread through them: country houses, old gardens, good kitchens and history you can walk into. What we have is the English country tradition, tested in person, and close enough to reach by the car on the Shuttle.
Bath
Queensberry Hotel and The Olive Tree restaurant
A Michelin Key hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant downstairs, The Olive Tree, tested over a single stay. The city around it is built on Roman baths and Georgian stone. Whether the rooms, the food and Bath itself add up to a weekend is what the review settles.
The English country
The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds and Sudeley Castle
A structured route through the Cotswolds, anchored on Sudeley Castle and its Tudor history. Honey-coloured stone villages, and a planned way through that matters in a region where the popular stops are usually jammed.
Kent and Sussex
Gravetye Manor
A country-house hotel in West Sussex whose gardens were laid out from 1885 by William Robinson, the man who more or less invented the English natural garden and lived here until 1935. The house itself dates to 1598. The gardens alone justify the detour. Whether the hotel earns the rest is what the review weighs.