The sorts of places made for moonlight and music, some hotels really are made for romance. So from four poster beds to beautiful views, decadent dinners to country walks, rich histories of love through the ages and picturesque buildings with spiral staircases, these are the hotels to head to with loved ones. Amongst the collection there’s even an island hotel for the ultimate getaway. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s top 10 romantic hotels.
Editor's Choice 2019 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Hartwell House - 'Stay One Night and Receive the Second night for £30' Special Offer
AYLESBURY
In a Georgian Arcadia, this Jacobean mansion, refashioned in the 1700s, was the palatial refuge of the exiled Louis XVIII and his court.
From £200 per night
Pen-y-Dyffryn - Up to 30% Discount & Complimentary Afternoon Tea Special Offer
OSWESTRY
‘We always look forward to staying.’ Miles and Audrey Hunter’s ‘tranquil’ small hotel on the Welsh border received a flurry of praise from new and regular visitors this year.
Drakes
BRIGHTON
‘Exquisite’ was the verdict of a regular reader on a belated return visit to this ultra-chic hotel on the resort’s Regency seafront.
The Painswick
PAINSWICK
‘In a pretty south Cotswolds village', this is a ‘fun, relaxing place’. A Palladian mansion with Arts and Crafts refinements and an Italianate logia, it was recently made over for the Calcot Collection.
Prestonfield
EDINBURGH
A tapestry room, a state drawing room, a whisky room, a sitting room lined with gilded Cordoba leather… James Thomson’s 17th-century mansion beside Royal Holyrood Park pleases by a fine excess.
Strattons
SWAFFHAM
Les and Vanessa Scott’s playful, Palladian-style house is all comfort and bonhomie.
Castle Leslie
GLASLOUGH
Scottish Baronial meets Italian Renaissance in Samantha Leslie’s Victorian pile on one of the last great Irish castle estates still owned by the founding family.
Lime Wood
LYNDHURST
‘At night, surrounded by floodlit cedars and oaks, it felt like a movie set,’ writes one reader this year, after visiting the luxury New Forest retreat.
Portobello Hotel
LONDON
It may have put its years of rock’n’roll excess behind it, but this hotel on ‘an elegant street in Notting Hill’ has lost none of its eclectic charm.
Glenapp Castle
BALLANTRAE
Mellow sandstone battlements, turrets and towers are revealed only at the final turn of the ‘lengthy’ drive through the ‘vibrant, meticulously tended’ grounds of Paul and Poppy Szkiler’s 19th-century baronial pile.
Editors Choice 2018 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Gliffaes - Up to 30% Discount Spring Special Offer
CRICKHOWELL
‘Wonderfully located’ above the River Usk, this Victorian former vicar’s house has a ‘timeless quality’.
The Airds Hotel - Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
PORT APPIN
‘Highly, highly recommended. We shall return.’ Much praise from a reader for this ‘wonderful little boutique hotel’ with ‘delightful’ views across Loch Linnhe and the Morvern mountains.
Knockinaam Lodge - Valentine's/Gourmet Weekend Special Offer
PORTPATRICK
In the lea of the cliffs, overlooking a private beach on the rugged Galloway coast, Sian and David Ibbotson’s Victorian hunting lodge offers a great sense of escape.
Pen-y-Dyffryn - Up to 30% Discount & Complimentary Afternoon Tea Special Offer
OSWESTRY
‘We always look forward to staying.’ Miles and Audrey Hunter’s ‘tranquil’ small hotel on the Welsh border received a flurry of praise from new and regular visitors this year.
The Painswick
PAINSWICK
‘In a pretty south Cotswolds village', this is a ‘fun, relaxing place’. A Palladian mansion with Arts and Crafts refinements and an Italianate logia, it was recently made over for the Calcot Collection.
driftwood hotel
PORTSCATHO
‘Wow! This was good.’ A regular Guide reader offered high praise after visiting Paul and Fiona Robinson’s ‘delightful’ hotel that gazes across Gerrans Bay on the Roseland peninsula.
Gregans Castle Hotel
BALLYVAUGHAN
On the Wild Atlantic Way, with views across the ‘dramatic’ Burren Hills to Galway Bay, ‘delightful’ Gregans Castle is ‘the epitome of understated country-house hotel luxury,’ writes a Guide regular this year.
Burgh Island Hotel
BIGBURY-ON-SEA
A consortium headed by Office Space in Town has just acquired hotel space in Devon. This gleaming white Art Deco hotel on a tidal island, sold by its former owners after 17 years, is undergoing a multi-million-pound make-over,
Old Whyly
EAST HOATHLY
‘As wonderful as ever,’ writes a regular visitor to Sarah Burgoyne’s ‘charmingly run’ Grade II listed, red brick Georgian manor house adjoining a private estate, close to Lewes.
Ardanaiseig
KILCHRENAN
Ardanaiseig closed as a hotel at the end of November 2017. It will be relaunched in 2018 a venue catering for groups, weddings, and corporate functions.
Editors Choice 2017 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Gliffaes - Up to 30% Discount Spring Special Offer
CRICKHOWELL
‘Wonderfully located’ above the River Usk, this Victorian former vicar’s house has a ‘timeless quality’.
Cliveden House - Three for Two Short Break
TAPLOW
Having hosted everyone from Chaplin to Churchill, this ‘superbly refurbished’ Italianate mansion seduces visitors with the prospect of ‘luxurious country house living’.
Langar Hall
LANGAR
Readers ‘had a really lovely, relaxing stay’ at Lila Arora’s apricot-washed Georgian mansion, approached by an avenue of lime trees amid sheep-grazed pastures.
Burgh Island Hotel
BIGBURY-ON-SEA
A consortium headed by Office Space in Town has just acquired hotel space in Devon. This gleaming white Art Deco hotel on a tidal island, sold by its former owners after 17 years, is undergoing a multi-million-pound make-over,
Ballyvolane House
FERMOY
A mildly bohemian air filters through the Green family’s wisteria-hung Georgian country house hotel, bordered by bluebell woods.
The Old Railway Station
PETWORTH
Now a ‘gracious’ B&B, this restored Victorian train station and princely Pullman carriages on disused tracks ooze the romance of travel’s golden age.
Newforge House
MAGHERALIN
A Georgian house in extensive grounds near the Lagan river, John and Louise Mathers’s ‘first-rate’ guest house is an ‘outstanding’ place to stay.
The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa
BATH
‘Behind the dramatic facade lies a beautiful garden,’ writes a reader in praise of this hotel and spa with its green oasis at the centre of a divine Georgian crescent.
Portobello Hotel
LONDON
It may have put its years of rock’n’roll excess behind it, but this hotel on ‘an elegant street in Notting Hill’ has lost none of its eclectic charm.
Ardanaiseig
KILCHRENAN
Ardanaiseig closed as a hotel at the end of November 2017. It will be relaunched in 2018 a venue catering for groups, weddings, and corporate functions.
Editors Choice 2016 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
La Sablonnerie
LITTLE SARK
A horse-drawn carriage brings guests to this rose-covered, 16th-century farmhouse on a car-free island.
Gilpin Hotel and Lake House
WINDERMERE
‘They just keep making it better every year,’ writes a trusted correspondent, of this luxurious country house hotel in Lakeland countryside.
driftwood hotel
PORTSCATHO
‘Wow! This was good.’ A regular Guide reader offered high praise after visiting Paul and Fiona Robinson’s ‘delightful’ hotel that gazes across Gerrans Bay on the Roseland peninsula.
Tor Cottage
LIFTON
A trug of sparkling wine, organic home-made fudge, fresh fruit and flowers awaits guests at the ‘lovely’ Maureen Rowlatt’s rather special B&B by a stream, in a private valley on the edge of Dartmoor.
The Old Rectory
BOSCASTLE
‘What a super place to stay for tackling some of the Coastal Path; it ticks all possible boxes,’ writes a Guide inspector in 2018 of Sally and Chris Searle’s historic B&B.