The Lygon Arms

This sprawling honey-stone building with its tall chimneys and leaded windows offers history, grand rooms and antiques, along with a thoroughly modern spa and 21st-century luxuries. The Cotswold town former coaching inn, and favoured spot of royalty and Hollywood stars, is a maze of snugs and lounges that blend original panelling, inglenooks and beams with rich colours and contemporary and antique furniture. There’s a chic bottle-green cocktail bar – try their rhubarb negroni – while the barrel-vaulted dining room with minstrels’ gallery has been turned into a buzzy space with marble-top tables and modern grill menu: perhaps Cotswold lamb, beef Wellington or poached halibut. There is a good selection of plant-based dishes, too. Bedrooms range from quirkily shaped rooms in the main house and adjoining cottages, to contemporary annexe rooms and open-plan courtyard suites overlooking a landscaped terraced garden. All are furnished with bright coloured plaids, a mix of contemporary and antique Gordon Russell furniture, and original artwork. Modern bathrooms mostly have bath and shower. ‘When we’re there we feel very much at home.’