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 2022 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Cary Arms & Spa - Three for Two Early Bird Special Offer
Babbacombe
New England chic meets seaside inn at the Cary Arms, where you can stay in a stylish beach hut with sea views from the glass doors and the porthole on the mezzanine. Feast on seafood in the restaurant, then sip sloe gin in the rooms.
The Dial House - Third Night Free Special Offer
Norwich
Choose between rooms resembling a Venetian palazzo, the mysterious east or a Parisian garret with slipper bath at the foot of the bed (oh là là). They all have record players, and a revolving bookcase reveals a secret dining room.
Hazlitt’s
London
It’s lavishly luxurious in this Soho retreat, with four-posters and silk curtains, baroque mirrors and antiques. There’s even a suite where the bed is adorned with gilded cherubs and another with a private garden beneath a sliding roof.
Star Castle
St Mary's
With an idyllic location on the Isles of Scilly, this Elizabethan castle within star-shaped fortress walls is pretty special. Castle rooms have beams and half-testers, and you can take tea on the ramparts or sip gin in the Dungeon bar.
Thornbury Castle
Thornbury
Even if you don’t bag the top suite with its ten-foot blue and gold bed at the top of the turret you can’t help feeling the romance of this Tudor castle, complete with arrow slits, crenellated walls, and four-posters.
Fischer’s at Baslow Hall
Baslow
There are just 11 bedrooms at this Edwardian manor with period furnishings, fine food and beautiful grounds. It’s a short stroll to Chatsworth House, aka Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, should you wish to channel your inner Jane Austen.
The Coach House at Middleton Lodge
Richmond
Some of the rooms in cottages, former stables and outbuildings here come with outdoor hot tubs but all are rustic chic boltholes, perfect for snuggling up in after exploring the 200-acre estate with its appealing double-height restaurant.
Monachyle Mhor
Lochearnhead
If your idea of romance is less four-posters and velvet, more modern design in a remote setting, this is the place for you. Stylish rooms include a pod in the trees, a cool cabin and a wagon, and there are wild walks from the door.
From £97.50 per night
Penally Abbey
Tenby
Floor-to-ceiling cusped windows frame views over Carmarthen Bay at this ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic’ house with rooms in soft pastels and an incredibly stylish restaurant. Expect toile de Jouy wallpaper, parquet floors and a ruined chapel in the gardens.
The Old Railway Station
Petworth
What could be more romantic than returning to the golden age of steam travel and staying in a Pullman carriage with mahogany fittings and colonial-style furniture? Sip champagne under a parasol on the platform for a first-class break.
Editor's Choice 2021 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Portobello Hotel
London
Follow in the footsteps of celebrity couples who have stayed at this citadel of Notting Hill bohemia. It’s as decadent as ever, with flamboyant canopied beds, exotic fabrics and an honesty bar whenever a toast to everlasting love calls.
Jeake’s House
Rye
Ideal for lovers on a budget, this creaky 17th-century house in a cobbled street has cosy, individually styled rooms with beams, four-posters, toile de Jouy
wallpapers, a rather theatrical bar and an open fire in the parlour.
Gregans Castle Hotel
Ballyvaughan
This manor house in the wild karst landscapes of the Burren, on Ireland’s west coast, has quiet rooms (no TV) overlooking the bay or mountains; some have private gardens. Candles are lit as dusk falls, and the restaurant serves gourmet food.
Langar Hall
Langar
Head off to a place loved by the queen of romance herself, Barbara Cartland. Many rooms feature fully draped four-posters, delicate flower prints and antique furniture. Or you can book the chalet overlooking the croquet lawn.
Prestonfield
Edinburgh
The opulent Owner’s Suite is entered via a turret stairway, and has a four-poster draped in crimson damask and a book- lined bathroom with a chariot bath big enough for two. The candlit restaurant will put you in the mood for a proposal.
Strattons
Swaffham
You won’t have to remortgage to enjoy a romantic weekend at this 19th-century villa filled with art, antiques and eccentricities. The Red Room suite has a Jacobean four- poster, scarlet velvet everywhere, an open fire and courtyard garden.
The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By
Isle of Skye
This crofter’s cottage on a ruggedly beautiful spot by Loch Dunvegan is a highly regarded restaurant-with-rooms, now in the capable hands of luxury hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray. Next door are sea-view rooms with rain showers and gardens.
Lime Wood
Lyndhurst
Snuggle up in perfect privacy for the weekend in a pretty Pavilion room at this chic New Forest getaway. With a vast bed, open fire, lounge, terrace, fully stocked pantry, and roll-top bath in a bay window, there’ll be no reason to leave.
Barnsley House
Cirencester
A dreamy country garden designed by Rosemary Verey, chic contemporary rooms, including a Secret Garden Suite with hot tub, four-poster and complimentary champagne, all add up to a blissful Cotswolds retreat.
Lympstone Manor
Exmouth
Sumptuously decorated five-star rooms, panoramic views of the Exe estuary, sleek marble bathrooms with roll-top baths, and Michael Caines’s Michelin-starred food can’t fail to inspire an amorous mood at this Relais & Châteaux hotel.
Editor's Choice 2020 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
La Sablonnerie - Suite Upgrade Special Offer
Little Sark
Arrive by horse-drawn carriage at this 16th-century stone farmhouse on a car-free island ablaze with gorse in summer. Sleep in a rustic cottage bedroom. Take a dip in the pools of Venus and Adonis. Dine in a rose-filled garden.
Augill Castle - 10% Discount Special Offer
Kirkby Stephen
This Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley, with views of fells and dales, enchants all who stay. Most bedrooms have a four-poster, some a real fire. The
Gatehouse suite occupies one of two towers, with private garden.
Lewtrenchard Manor
Okehampton
‘The herbaceous borders full of flowers, a granite fountain always playing. imagine it on a sunlit evening.’ Victorian genius Sabine Baring-Gould extols his own creation, this glorious Jacobean-style manor replete with ornate plasterwork and antiques.
Hazlitt’s
London
You can repose on a bed adorned with gilded cherubs and steep in a vintage roll-top bath at this sumptuous boutique hotel in raffish Soho, adorned with silks and velvets, portraits and porcelains, the last home of 18th-century essayist William Hazlitt.
Langar Hall
Langar
With poetry on the walls and a canopy four-poster, Bohemia room is the honeymooners’ choice at this Georgian mansion in the Vale of Belvoir. Others prefer Cartland room, beloved of the doyenne of romantic fiction, the late Dame Barbara.
Castle Leslie Estate
Glaslough
Rooms come with tales of wartime espionage, whirlwind romance and royal visits, at Samantha Leslie’s ancestral lakeside pile. Book flamboyant Aggie’s room with four-poster, a roll-top bath in a curtained alcove. Have a lie-in: breakfast ends at 11 am.
Coes Faen
Barmouth
Rooms come with luxury extras at this astonishing B&B overlooking the
Mawddach estuary. Perhaps a Welsh slate steam room; an outdoor cedar hot tub; a rock terrace with views of Snowdonia. And Tuscan style dinners? La dolce vita!
No.15 by GuestHouse
Bath
The Hideout Suite at this glamorous boutique hotel has everything for a sybaritic weekend, with statement art and lighting, a sitting room with a real-flame gas fire, a Sonos music system, hot tub and steam-room shower.
The Pig at Bridge Place
Canterbury
The latest in the Pig family occupies a fabulous Jacobean manor and former music venue that hosted the likes of Led Zeppelin. Climb a stairway to the heaven of a four-poster room, or sleep in a hop pickers’ hut, on stilts, by the river.
Glenapp Castle
Ballantrae
A fountain sparkles on the forecourt of this turreted, Scottish baronial-style castle, reached by a wooded drive. Bedrooms have sea or garden views, The Penthouse offers a sauna and roof terrace. Dine as the sun sets over Ailsa Craig and the Mull of Kintyre.
Editor's Choice 2019 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Hartwell House - Complimentary Fourth Night Special Offer
Aylesbury
Louis XVIII paid £500 a year to house his court in exile at this sublime mansion in an Arcadian landscape. For a little less you can spend two nights in a Royal Four- Poster room filled with paintings and antiques.
From £200 per night
Pen-y-Dyffryn - 20% Discount Special Offer
Oswestry
Long walks in tranquil countryside, tea by a blazing log fire, a bedroom with a double spa bath or private stone-walled patio… This small hotel close to the Welsh border offers a perfect getaway à deux.
Portobello Hotel
London
In raffish Notting Hill of rom-com fame, this wacky boutique hotel offers everything for couples, from ‘cosy doubles’ with exotic murals to ‘signature rooms’, one with circular bed, another with a
four-poster from Hampton Court Palace.
Prestonfield
Edinburgh
Lady Anne Dick, former chatelaine of this 16th-century mansion, scandalised polite Edinburgh society with her ‘coarse’ verses and cross-dressing, and there is still something deliciously louche about all
the swags and velvets and sumptuousness here.
Strattons
Swaffham
Theatrical bedrooms set the scene for seduction at this Palladian-villa. There’s the opulent Red Room, with Jacobean four-poster bed; Opium with free-standing bath; exotic Fantouche and Venetian murals in Seagull and Boudoir.
Castle Leslie Estate
Glaslough
A 1,000-acre estate with lakes and woodland surrounds this Victorian pile. It is filled with paintings, antiques – a grand piano, a della Robbia fireplace. Every bedroom has its own story. Eagle’s Nest has a balcony with lake views.
Drakes
Brighton
For Jane Austen Brighton was a ‘scene of dissipation and vice’. So much the better for an amorous weekend! Sybarites choose a room with a freestanding bath in the floor-to-ceiling window, at this Regency hotel with sea-facing cocktail bar.
Lime Wood
Lyndhurst
A mansion in the New Forest, a stellar clientele, sublime Italian food – could you get more romantic? Apparently, yes. Lime Wood now has ‘the UK’s sexiest bedroom’, a cabin cantilevered over a small lake with a private island and alfresco bath and wood-burning stove.
The Painswick
Painswick
For that dream date, here is a Palladian mansion with Italianate loggia and glamorous cocktail bar in a picturesque Cotswolds village. George’s suite has a four-poster, a sitting room with log burner, a stone balcony with blissful views.
Glenapp Castle
Ballantrae
Sea-facing rooms at this Victorian fantasy castle in landscaped grounds, gaze across the Firth of Clyde to Ailsa Craig. Some have a half-tester bed. Order a cocktail in teapot in the restored tea rooms in the walled garden.
Editors Choice 2018 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Gliffaes - Four Day 'Explore Wales' Special Offer
Crickhowell
There are sublime views from this eccentric Victorian country house with Italianate campaniles and 20th-century porte cochère, in wooded grounds overlooking the River Usk.
Pen-y-Dyffryn - 20% Discount Special Offer
Oswestry
We never want for glowing reports of this dog-friendly former Georgian rectory, ‘set in a secluded and beautiful valley’, with views to the Welsh hills.
Driftwood Hotel
Porthscatho
Sink into a recliner on the terrace at this cliff-top hotel, and you can gaze out at ‘panoramic sea views’ over Gerrans Bay – or lie back and think of New England, prompted by the seaside-chic decor.
The Airds Hotel
Port Appin
'Spectacular views' across Loch Linnhe to the Morvern mountains are available from some of the rooms, from the fine-dining restaurant (Relais & Châteaux), and from the waterside gardens just across the road from this former ferry inn.
Knockinaam Lodge
Portpatrick
A ‘wonderful country house hotel in a peaceful location by the sea’ this former Victorian hunting lodge comes with panelled walls, log fires, period furniture, the obligatory stag’s head, a dazzling array of malt whiskies, and views across the water to Northern Ireland.
Gregans Castle Hotel
Ballyvaughan
There isn’t a castle, but there is a 15th-century tower house, built for the ‘Prince of the Burren’, the unearthly glaciokarst landscape said to have inspired J R R Tolkien.
Burgh Island Hotel
Bigbury-on-Sea
A sea tractor ferries guests across the sands to this white concrete Art Deco edifice on a tidal island, built as a party venue in the 1930s, and what a swell party it is!
Old Whyly
East Hoathly
Set in 'wonderful grounds which are impeccably kept', with an orchard, hard tennis court and swimming pool, Sarah Burgoyne's 'beautiful house' continues to impress.
The Painswick
Painswick
In a perfect Cotswold village, this 'charming' Palladian mansion with 'wonderful valley views' of Cider with Rosie country ‘could not have been a more welcome find’ for readers on a dismal day.
Ardanaiseig
Kilchrenan
Swing round a winding road to this turreted, Jacobean-style baronial mansion in a beautiful setting on the shores of Loch Awe. It is filled it with a dazzling collection of artwork and statuary. From the marble-pillared drawing room there are views over gardens, loch and woodland across to the distant peak of Ben Lui. Well-supplied bedrooms might have a four-poster bed, fireplace or roll-top bath. A three-course menu is served in the informal dining room.
Editors Choice 2017 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
Gliffaes - Four Day 'Explore Wales' Special Offer
Crickhowell
There are sublime views from this eccentric Victorian country house with Italianate campaniles and 20th-century porte cochère, in wooded grounds overlooking the River Usk.
Cliveden House - Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
Taplow
Standing grandly above the Thames, in National Trust gardens and pleasure grounds, an Italianate mansion built by Charles Barry for the Duke of Sutherland 'seems to have hosted everyone who is anyone', from Winston Churchill to Lawrence of Arabia.
The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa
Bath
The sweep of honey-stone buildings that form Bath’s Georgian crescent is home to two majestic mansions which combine as one hotel, beyond which lie a leafy garden and atmospheric spa.
Portobello Hotel
London
All is bello indeed behind a Doric portico at this one-time haunt of rock-and-rollers – it remains a veritable carnival of stylish eccentricity, occupying twin stucco mansions in raffish Notting Hill.
Langar Hall
Langar
The apricot-coloured Georgian house, at the end of a lime-tree avenue, adds just a touch of eccentricity to a traditional country house stay.
Burgh Island Hotel
Bigbury-on-Sea
A sea tractor ferries guests across the sands to this white concrete Art Deco edifice on a tidal island, built as a party venue in the 1930s, and what a swell party it is!
Ballyvolane House
Fermoy
Amid gardens and parkland, with bluebell woods and trout lakes, this Georgian country house, remodelled in the 19th century, is not a hotel but a family home, say third-generation owners Justin and Jenny Green.
Newforge House
Magheralin
Set on the edge of a small village, in mature gardens and pastureland, this creeper-clad Georgian mansion offers a taste of country house living only 40 minutes from Belfast.
The Old Railway Station
Petworth
‘The best of a bygone railway age' is preserved at this 'totally authentic' Victorian station which, together with its railway carriages, is now run as a quirky and charming B&B by owners Jennie Hudson and Blair Humphry.
Ardanaiseig
Kilchrenan
Swing round a winding road to this turreted, Jacobean-style baronial mansion in a beautiful setting on the shores of Loch Awe. It is filled it with a dazzling collection of artwork and statuary. From the marble-pillared drawing room there are views over gardens, loch and woodland across to the distant peak of Ben Lui. Well-supplied bedrooms might have a four-poster bed, fireplace or roll-top bath. A three-course menu is served in the informal dining room.
Editors Choice 2016 Romantic Hotels
Editor’s Choice Romantic Hotels
La Sablonnerie - Suite Upgrade Special Offer
Little Sark
Arriving at this pretty 17th-century farmhouse with roses round the door 'is part of its enormous charm': guests are met at the ferry from Guernsey in horse-drawn carriage and clip-clop over La Coupée, a dramatic, narrow isthmus 80 metres above the sea.
Driftwood Hotel
Porthscatho
Sink into a recliner on the terrace at this cliff-top hotel, and you can gaze out at ‘panoramic sea views’ over Gerrans Bay – or lie back and think of New England, prompted by the seaside-chic decor.
Gilpin Hotel and Lake House
Windermere
By many standards, Gilpin is the Lake District’s most luxurious hotel with no-expense-spared rooms, Michelin-starred dining, numerous staff, and acres of space.
Tor Cottage
Lifton
In its own secluded wooded valley, this B&B is ideal for guests who want to come and go as they please.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
Fruit and cut flowers from the organic garden, eggs from the hens, honey from the hives, and romantic associations with Thomas Hardy are among the many charms of Sally and Chris Searle's Victorian rectory B&B.