Lime Wood

‘Stunning’, super-hip yet utterly serene, this country house hotel and spa in the heart of the New Forest is a sophisticated, rustic playground for the stylish set. The Regency manor house and its collection of lodges and cottages stand in extensive grounds adjoining forest and parkland. Strike a vriksasana pose in the rooftop herb garden, jog around the gardens with a personal trainer, lie back for Ayurvedic and holistic therapies in the spa, learn tricks of the culinary trade in the new cooking school. All is ‘relaxed’ yet ‘professional’; ‘extremely friendly’ staff ensure ‘a lack of airs and graces’. The bedrooms, in calm-inducing colours, have been designed for countryside cocooning. Pick a main-house room overlooking woodland, or go deep: forest cottages for families and larger groups blend into their surroundings. With chefs Angela Hartnett and Luke Holder, the Italian-inflected food is ‘superb’: tortellini, nduja, buttered cock crab at dinner; omelettes with garden herbs in the morning. Children are made very welcome: bikes and trikes are available to borrow, family foraging courses are like a forest treasure hunt. (John Walton, and others)