Cliveden House

History, opulence and a tantalising whiff of scandal enrich a stay at this palatial Italianate mansion in National Trust gardens and parkland. Designed by Charles Barry for the Duke of Sutherland, and forever associated with the ‘Profumo affair’, it is ‘a pile with a past’. From club rooms with a queen-size bed, to hot-tub rooms and lavish suites, all are furnished with antiques. Readers’ deluxe double ‘looked on to the bin area’ but ‘our marble bathroom was luxurious’. The dining room, ‘with magnificent views over the parterre to the Thames, is a stunning location’. Christopher Hannon’s fine-dining menus include dishes such as estate venison with chestnut, tamarind and carob; sole with sorrel, baby turnip and white berries; confit artichoke with vanilla and preserved lemon. In the old stables, the Astor Grill is more informal and affordable, with a menu that includes beer-battered fish and chips, burgers, gnocchi and rib-eye steak. ‘The pools, indoor and out, and the 
spa area are an oasis of calm; we enjoyed them.’ Like its country cousin, Chewton Glen, New Milton (see entry), this is a Relais & Châteaux hotel. (Tessa Stuart)